Tech Coast Angels Face to Face Fun (with Photos)

The Tech Coast Angels latest Face to Face with Investors event was a crowded, educational success once again.

Last Wednesday almost 200 local entrepreneurs, startup investors, and friends gathered at UCI Applied Innovation for TCA’s semi-annual startup investing event.

The evening began with keynote speech by valuation expert and “Super Angel” David Berkus. He covered the basics of valuing early-stage startups month including some of the details of his world famous “Berkus Method” for valuing companies.

Organizing host Ray Chan then welcomed everyone to the event and outlined the agenda designed to maximize educational opportunities for local startup founders.

Grant Van Cleve, the Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels shared an overview of the organization's recent growth and success.  This included announcement of the organization hitting two impressive milestones recently:  400 members and over 400 companies supported with investments. 

Valuation expert Mark Goshgarian of KPMG gave a talk about 409A valuations, and the many pitfalls they can present to unprepared startup companies and their investors. 

Hicham Semaan, the President of Tech Coast Angels Orange County moderated a panel about valuation.  Seasoned investor experts Dave Berkus, David Friedman, Hans Imhof, Howard Mirowitz, and Tony Wang shared their opinions, war stories, and advice about startup investing valuations to help the many entrepreneurs in the audience.

That was followed by a lively angel investor version of “The Startup Price is Right”.  Hosted by OC Startup Council CEO Scott Fox, four Orange County startup founders were given the opportunity to pitch their businesses to the panel. After offering metrics of their success to date and future revenue projections, the panel weighed in with its opinions about appropriate valuation for the company.

The winner of the contest of the friendly contest was Mike Huck of SubSync, an early stage company based in Irvine that offers specialized staff scheduling software for the Health & Wellness Industry.  SubSync won because their valuation estimate was the closest to that offered by the panel of valuation veterans.

After the Price Is Right concluded the attendees split off into five different breakout sessions.  These small discussion groups were focused around different industry verticals and investing topics. They gave the entrepreneurs in the audience a chance to ask questions directly of the dozens of Tech Coast Angels members and investors in attendance.  

The breakout sessions included a well-attended one for women entrepreneurs hosted by female Tech Coast Angels members.

Thanks to the Tech Coast Angels, UCI Applied Innovation, and especially to volunteer host Ray Chan and his team from The Portal.io, including Ziling Jia, Kenneth Sann, and Justine Young, for a great event.

Entrepreneurs across Orange County are already looking forward to the next one!

For more information on joining Tech Coast Angels as an accredited investor go here.

For information about applying to Tech Coast Angels for funding go here.

To learn about joining the OC Startup Council go here.