PS. Let’s leave discussions of assumed discrimination or otherwise out of this (and other) conversations on this blog, or I will close comments on this post (and delete the offending ones).

you seem to assume that many, or most, or perhaps all, angel investors are scions of wealth. you are very misinformed, if that’s your view. in the country as a whole, 80% of millionaires are first generation rich. I can tell you for sure that HAN is a valid sample of American millionaires.

i find your abrupt swerve to some kind of racist element particularly puzzling and bizarre. you feel you were discriminated against on the basis of being Irish? did you perhaps apply to HAN during the late 1800s

http://www.thedailycougar.com/uh-there-s-an-app-for-that-1.2140700

When you listen to the comments of the entrepreneurs who approached HAN and did not get selected to present, do you hear an undertone of bitterness at the rejection?

Anyone can understand that sentiment. It does not feel good to put yourself, of your business, out there, and have someone say “no thank you.” But the misunderstanding seems to be that HAN is some arbiter of excellence–that if they invite you to present and choose to invest in your company, that is a signal it’s going to be a “success,” or the converse, that if they’re not interested then your company WON’T be successful.

HAN–or any Angel Network, or any individual Angel for that matter–does not exist to give out gold stars. When Mr. Deaver says he was able to self-fund and get funding from friends and family for multiple years in a down economy, my question is why in the world would he WANT HAN? When you make a deal with an angel, you give up some percentage of ownership in your company. If you have the money yourself to keep yourself going, why would you want to be in the position to have to share your future earnings with some angel bloke (or woman)? And it’s almost guaranteed that “Friendly” (i.e., family, colleagues, your dentist) investors are not going to be as savvy and as hardlined about how many shares they ask for in exchange for their money. Or, as Mr. Steakley suggests, open a line of credit at a bank.

I used to work with an organization like HAN, and it always seemed so unfortunate that entrepreneurs viewed an angel investment as a gold star. You have to understand that the individuals involved in that network all have their own priorities. Angel investing is risky; many companies don’t make it for one reason or another and their money is lost. Or even if the company does succeed, the early investors are often greatly diluted in later rounds of funding. So, naturally, when they evaluate an investment opportunity, they are looking for certain kinds of companies that can really be a “home run”…and compensate for all those times they’re going to strike out.

But, if you don’t really need the capital to succeed in your business, why would you bother with them? It’s not some gold star, and it’s not free…you’re giving ownership in your company.

It looks like we’re going to be interviewed on CW39 on Tuesday to talk about the app, so I’ll be sure to give more exposure to this growing perception of Houston being the next Mobile development hub.

I can’t wait for the iPhoneDevCampHouston meet-up.. the attendee list looks huge already.

Andre
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