Early Stage Investing

David J. Greer is a passive early stage investor in Vancouver, BC. When active, David looked at over one hundred business plans a year, carefully choosing which companies to get involved with. Here he documents the early stage funds and companies that he has invested in and stayed active with.

Early stage investors (often called Angel investors) collectively invest more money into companies than all Venture Capitalists combined. While billions of dollars are being invested into early stage companies, best practices and guidelines for early stage investing are still being developed.

Wind In Your Sails

In his book Wind In Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Growth David covers ways you can finance your business without outside investors, how to position and sell your idea to angel investors, and how to think about exiting your company. You can order Kindle, Audiobook, or Print editions directly from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

Resources

Vancouver Angel Technology Network. One of the most active and visible Vancouver angel networks. Information on the site for potential angel investors gives entrepreneurs a good idea of the market they are trying to sell into when they raise funds from angel investors.

Angel Forum Vancouver. A long standing Vancouver based angel forum founded in 1997 which continues to run two events every year. The criteria section of their web site provides guidance to entrepreneurs on what angel investors are looking for.

Kauffman Foundation. Many resources for entrepreneurs. One of the leading institutions doing research on entrepreneurship, including angel investing.

Angel Capital Association. The Angel Capital Association is North America's professional alliance of angel groups. See their Knowledge Center for a number of resources on early stage investing.

National Angel Capital Association. The Canadian equivalent of the ACA. Many resources for both angel investors and entrepreneurs with specifics that apply in Canada.

The Western Universities Technology Innovation Fund was created by Mike Volker. Mr. Volker is one of Vancouver's best known early stage investors having spent decades investing, developing, and mentoring young technology companies. Mr. Volker co invests WUTIF funds along with other early stage investors from his network.

Visit WUTIF.

In 2005, David was one of the original investors in MailChannels, a leader in the next generation of technologies in email security to prevent wasteful and harmful email such as spam and viruses. He was also an independent Director of MailChannels for three years. In 2007, MailChannels was the winner of the MIT Spam Conference best paper award which garnered coverage in The Washington Post. MailChannels has continued to grow and expand both its customers and product lines, while staying focused on the email security market.

Visit MailChannels.