Our Cornerstone Angels group is focused on closing the funding gap between the ‘friends and family’ stage and the Venture Capital stage. This has always been a difficult stage to raise capital, and with this difficulty becoming even more acute in the last few years given the economic downturn.
Our goal is to provide our financial and mentor capital to help build a dynamic entrepreneurial and investor community in the Midwest, though we do consider opportunities across the country. To work towards this goal, we target opportunities which can grow quickly into large sustainable businesses, and which will fuel innovation and job creation within our region.
Investment Criteria
We target companies raising $500K to $3MM, with pre-money valuation up to $5MM. Our sweet spot for initial investment is in the range of $100K to $500K. With these considerations, we are either involved as a single party in a small round or as part of a larger round. Based on the specific financing needs, our investments have ranged from as little as $10k up to ~$1MM, and through our network and alliances with multiple investment parties, we can be helpful in bringing together syndicates of several million dollars.
Deals that interest us typically satisfy the following minimum criteria:
- Provide a core market penetration opportunity
- A product or service which would satisfy needs/wants of the target market
- Valuation- entrepreneur valuation should be based on reasonable assumptions and market appropriate
- Management- key positions filled and with clear delineation of who the next hires would be combined with strong domain knowledge. The management should be able to clearly identify the sales/marketing channels they will target as well as typical customer acquisition costs
- Some level of customer traction and market validation in the form of existing sales
To understand our Investment Process please see Our Process section.
