As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, StartupSac and the Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Sac State are presenting a virtual "Introduction to Angel Investing in Startups" seminar on Thursday.
The introduction will be led by John Selep, an active angel investor and board member for the Sacramento Angels investment group.
“Sacramento lags behind cities of our size in seed and pre-seed investments, and most of that comes from angel investors,” said Laura Good, co-founder of StartupSac. “We have to activate the high-net-worth investors to consider angel investing.”
The introduction will be live and virtual from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, and a recording of the informational seminar will be available afterward.
Angel investing is often the first money outside of friends and family that helps entrepreneurs move their startup idea toward commercialization.
Investors can invest in debt or equity from the company, and sometimes, to mitigate risk, groups of angels can invest together. Angel investing is only open to accredited investors, which are defined under securities law as people with a net worth of $1 million or more, not including the value of their home, or an annual income of at least $200,000. Accredited investors must also be able to withstand the total loss of their investment if the startup fails.
Angel investing is a powerful force in economic development because it launches companies, Good said. And while risky, it can also be lucrative if the investment is made in a company that succeeds. Many of the region's companies that have gone on to raise millions of dollars in venture capital and corporate investments were seeded initially by angel investors.
This introduction is not associated with any angel group, Good said. Angel investors don’t have to be part of an angel group, but there are several groups in the region.
The angel investing introduction is one of 30 events planned this week for Global Entrepreneurship Week. A full list of events is here.
“We’re hoping to top the charts again this year in terms of number of events serving students, entrepreneurs, ecosystem-builders and beyond,” said Cameron Law, the Carlsen Center’s executive director and the community organizer for Sacramento’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, in a news release.
“Although GEW is just one week, the connections, learnings and inspiration that is fostered throughout will undoubtedly create positive ripple effects in our community,” Law said.
