Louisville goes from zero angel investor networks to two in just a few months - Business First of Louisville:

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Two angel investor networks that have debuted in Louisvillwe thisyear — the private Louisville Angel Investord Network and Enterprise Angels Group LLC, part of , the metrk chamber of commerce. There are severa informal angel networks, and smallerd cities such as Lexington have had such networkxfor years, linking investors and aspiring said Tom McMahon, manager of the Louisville Angel Investot Network. But in investing, timing is More people are on the investment scens now with money and the desirwe to invest in early stagre businesses thanever before.
The reason is, as world capitakl markets tighten and equitymarkets plunge, more wealthy peopl e are looking for investment alternatives to Wall At the same time, new companies are having a more difficulf time than usual securing conventional capital, said McMahon and Mark Crane, senior vice president of enterprise developmenty for GLI. More investors fleeing crashing equityg markets are deciding to manage theidrinvestments themselves, and that includes investing directly into startups so they can have more control over theird investments, McMahon said.
Inveterat Louisville investor Kent Oyler, CEO of , Before the equity markets plunged, earlty stage investing was viewed as But with the chaos from Wall Street toMain “is it really that much more than traditional said Oyler, who is involved with both networks as an investodr and as an entrepreneur. In a relativelyu brief time, organizers of the two network s collectively have identified about 60 investors with atleasyt $1 million in net worth, and they expecy to attract as many as 80. “That’s a tiny fractionh of the people who could afford todo it,” McMaho said.
It’s not clear how many people could qualifyh for theangel network’es investor parameters, though McMahon believes the numbere is in the hundreds: “We’re just scratchinv the surface.” Both new angel networks starterd roughly at the same time. The Louisville Angel Investoe Network had its first meeting in McMahon said. Enterprise Angels had its firstf meetingin April, Crane said. Wes Cobb organized the Enterpriss Angels effort earlierthis year, when he workedr for The Enterprise Corp., the GLI division dedicated to developing fast-growth companies. Cobb now is an analysr with LLC.
Louisville — fortunately for its overallo economic well-being — has a plethoraz of people interested in investing in new companies and a lot of new companiesz looking for startup said Crane, who oversees The Enterprised Corp. for GLI. By his estimate, therr are at any given time 100 companiesx in various states of funding in the Louisville But he was concerned that there was growingv anarchy in the process of investors and entrepreneurzscoming together. The entrepreneurs at those companie s typically call 10 potential investors for every two meetingxs that actuallytake place, Crane said. He might work 20 contactss to find two or threeinterested investors.