Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Kindra Tatarsky, Director of Operations, Golden Seeds (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Could you elaborate on your deal flow?

Kindra: Deal flow comes from a combination of reputation, member networks, and partnerships with local ecosystems, meaning other groups that are focused on entrepreneurship, especially women-oriented groups.

Our companies themselves are a terrific source of deal flow. We focus on as many areas as we can at building out our brand and our name. So, we encourage as many companies as possible to apply to us. I think we have among the highest deal flows in the country through Angelsoft.

Irina: What do you like about Angelsoft?

Kindra: It enables all of our members to have access to the data. So, it’s a great depository and tool for members to access both information about the companies as well as information internally among just our members.

We also like it as a tool for syndication because it enables us to share deals with other syndication partners who are part of the Angel Soft network.

Irina: Is there anything you can point out that could be improved?

Kindra: Yeah. I think ease of use, functionality, and search capabilities seem to always be limited. We work very closely with Angelsoft to provide feedback and ask them questions, so it’s a good working relationship.

Irina: What kind of searches do you do on Angelsoft?

Kindra: It’s very specific, so if you search for something and you don’t include exactly what the words are, the lettering is or if you don’t use a capitalization in some cases . . . . sometimes it’s very finicky about what it will search for and what it will return. It’s very inconsistent.

Irina: When entrepreneurs want to reach you, what is the best way?

Kindra: All of our companies must submit an application online. Of course, if they have access to one of our members, they’re welcome to speak with that member directly. It’s always helpful to have somebody who knows about the company who helps to refer the company in.

But to be consistent and fair, we have all companies go through the same process, which is to submit an application via Angelsoft, and then we have an internal process where we review them and determine which companies would come in for an in-person screening.

Irina: How many pitches do you receive per month?

Kindra: We receive anywhere from 20 to 30 applications a month.

Irina: And out of those, how many deserve a closer look?

Kindra: We try to screen as many as possible. So, maybe the better way to answer that is that we can screen up to 25 companies a month among our different forums. As long as the companies meet our criteria, we try to fill those slots.

And then if we have openings, once we’ve first prioritized the companies that meet the criteria, if there are others that seem interesting that maybe missed the mark on criteria, such as they’re a bit early or – usually it’s a bit early – or they have a very high valuation but they’re willing to talk to us about it. If we have openings, we will try to fill them even if companies don’t meet our criteria. The one thing that we stick to is there must be a woman in a leadership role.

Irina: What is the next step after you selected the companies?

Kindra: A group of forum leaders, a few other staff members, and I review the companies’ applications, pitches, and submissions for various things that we deem to be critical before wasting our time or their time. Once we’ve determined that they would be a fit and they might be of interest, we go ahead and issue an invitation to present in person. Once they’ve presented in person, we determine which companies there’s enough interest for us to bring forward to our investment forums, which we hold monthly.

Irina: Are there any fees for entrepreneurs to make these in-person presentations?

Kindra: The only fee is an application fee that they pay when they submit their applications to Angelsoft, and that’s to cover administrative costs for the pre-screening.

Irina: What is the fee?

Kindra: It’s $100. The application fee serves two purposes: one, to help cover administrative costs because we do have a staff and we have a very, very lean budget, and two, people take it quite seriously if they’re paying $100 fee, so it helps to make sure it’s an entrepreneur who really wants to be here.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Kindra Tatarsky, Director of Operations, Golden Seeds
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