2008, Volume 11, Issue 1

Venture Capital

Luis Villalobos—Audio Interview with the founder of the Tech Coast Angels

with David Sumethasorn

Luis Villalobos, MBA, ScB

Luis Villalobos received the 2007 Hans Severiens Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Angel Investing. He founded the Tech Coast Angels (TCA) in 1997 and led TCA as President from inception through its first two years, and remains a member of its Board of Governors. With nearly 300 members, TCA is the largest and most active group of angel investors in the United States. Since its founding in 1997, TCA members have invested $84 million of their personal capital in 132 Southern California ventures, coupled with $894 million from co-investors.

Mr. Villalobos has developed and led over 100 workshops for angel group leaders, angels, bar associations (for MCLE credit), and entrepreneurs-on valuations, due diligence, term sheets, deal structures, diversification, venture capital, angel investing, early-stage funding, business plans, patents and intellectual property, and entrepreneurship. He was a founding board member of the Angel Capital Association; is the co-founder of the Harvard Business School AOC Entrepreneurs Conference, now in its 23th year; and he founded the Tech Coast Angels Fast Pitch Competition, which is now in its seventh year and held annually in Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Mr. Villalobos earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an ScB in mathematics from MIT, where he was a National Merit Scholar. For more information regarding Mr. Villalobos, visit http://www.angelventurepartners.com/team.htm.

 Audio Files  

• Full Interview  listen   download
• Top 5 Mistakes Entrepeneurs Make  listen   download
• Top 5 Fundraising Mistakes  listen   download

(If the file does not download automatically, right click on the download icon and click "Save Target As...")

Questions Mr. Villalobos answers include:

1. What is an angel investor?
2. What led to the formation of the Tech Coast Angels?
3. What would you say is the average profile of the Tech Coast Angel investor?
4. What is the difference between an angel investor and Uncle Charlie who has money to invest?
5. What should an aspiring entrepreneur know about Tech Coast Angels?
6. How does the legal arrangement between the investor and the entrepreneur work?
7. How much control does the investor have over the venture?
8. What is risk capital for high growth ventures?
9. How do institutional venture capitalists differ from angels?
10. Why do angels accept lower returns than other venture capitalists?
11. Along with institutional capital, some VCs are raising a fund to collaborate with angel groups as a new model; do you see this becoming a wave of the future?
12. What should an entrepreneur be doing to gain angel support?
13. What is the most successful venture you have seen?
14. When venture ideas fail, what seems to be the common weaknesses?
15. What is the outlook for angel investing?
16. Where can the budding entrepreneur looking for feedback on his/her business plan go?
17. What do you wish you knew when you were first looking at ventures?
18. What are the "Top 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make?"
19. What are the "Top 5 Fundraising Mistakes?"
20. What are the hot markets?

David Sumethasorn is an MBA student at Pepperdine University and  president of the Entrepreneurship Club. He served as an officer in the Marine Corps and hopes to work in Operations Management and eventually start his own business.

The "GBR Jingle" was composed by Kyle Rotolo, who was born and raised in northern New Jersey. There he played in a number of rock bands and aspired to become a songwriter before moving to Malibu. At Pepperdine he is a music composition major studying with N. Lincoln Hanks.