A partnership announced this month between a national consulting group and New Mexico Angels will increase the Albuquerque-based investment organization's capacity for helping local startups grow.
New Mexico Angels announced on Oct. 4 that it reached a contractual deal with Marion Street Capital. The management consulting firm is headquartered in Philadelphia and has an office in Santa Fe.
Marion Street will handle the sorts of financial and data analyses required for New Mexico Angels to identify more startups that it can help scale, said Drew Tulchin, the group's president.
"Having access to people who specialize in startup company finance and analysis allows us to build capacity for the New Mexico Angels," Tulchin said.
Besides providing professional financial analysis, Marion Street can also help New Mexico companies build relationships with long-term capital sources outside the state, said Sean Heberling, Marion Street Capital's CEO.
There are a lot of local companies that could benefit from connections with larger sources of capital, Tulchin said. He said that NM Angels worked with 11 companies last year and another 12 this year so far.
"But 12 is only a fraction of the opportunities that are in the state," Tulchin said. "The limiting factor is that we're small and need to do structured analysis to make sure these companies are good investment prospects."
The average deal for firms in the Angel Capital Association, a national organization that New Mexico Angels is a part of, ranges from $200,000 to $250,000, Tulchin said. But, he said, a startup typically requires $1 million to $2 million to "really grow."
TruFit, an adaptive fitness startup in Albuquerque that's currently part of New Mexico Angels' entrepreneur portfolio, has its own, separate contract with Marion Street, Tulchin said. He said that landing the partnership with Marion Street will allow other companies in New Mexico Angels' portfolio to contract with the consultancy for their own needs.
Heberling, Marion Street's CEO, said that he first met Tulchin through a pitch competition for the American Sustainable Business Network's Sustainable Venture Circle. Heberling served as the chief financial officer for a B-corporation called Indigenous Paths, which Heberling said worked on health equity for Native Americans, at the time.
Tulchin advised Indigenous Paths as part of the pitch competition.
Since then Tulchin, with New Mexico Angels, has worked with Heberling and Marion Street on other projects with what Tulchin called "high-growth companies." But this is the first contractual deal the two organizations have struck to provide New Mexico startups with technical expertise and national capital connections.
"This is a chance for us to bring them into New Mexico to do local work," Tulchin said.
And it's a two-way partnership, Heberling said. NM Angels can assist existing Marion Street clients with its investment and mentorship services, and he said there's potential to even bring new businesses from outside the state to New Mexico down the line.
