Piedmont Angel Network, Wake Forest plan angel conference

A lot of people with investment money burning holes in their pockets will visit a region long thirsty for startup capital in March, as Wake Forest University and the Piedmont Angel Network host the area's first major angel investor conference.

About two dozen angel funds based from Charlottesville, Va., to Miami are expected to attend the Angel Capital Association Southeast conference March 27 and 28 at Wake Forest's Graylyn Conference Center, said Troy Knauss, the fund executive for the Piedmont Angel Network's PAN Two fund.

"We're planning to make this a great event, something that really shows off the Triad," Knauss said. "At the same time, investors from our area will get a chance to see a lot of companies that are investment ready."

The conference will take place alongside the renowned Babcock Elevator Competition, a business plan competition that attracts competitors from the top business school in the country to Wake Forest each year. The student entrepreneurs try to successfully pitch a business plan to investors during a two-minute elevator ride.

Stan Mandel, director of the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest that hosts the competition, will also help organize the angel investor conference. This will be the first such meeting in the Triad with such a wide reach of investors, he noted, and that could help introduce the area to an important group.

"It will be a very social event, with great networking and lots of opportunities," Mandel said. "I think it will really brand the Triad as a place to go for educational opportunities and to participate in new ventures they wouldn't find elsewhere."

Each angel network that attends will invite one of their portfolio companies along to meet with the other investors at the conference, Knauss said. That will provide the opportunity to put together some syndicated investment deals, in which multiple local funds put their money together behind particularly attractive young companies.

Since venture capitalists often don't bother with investments of less than $3 million, and individual angels may not want to put in more than $250,000 or so, Knauss said syndicated deals help to fill a gap.

"PAN might put in the first $500,000, but to come up with all the money a fast- growing company needs we might go to some other groups and invite them in," Knauss said. "That gives us the money and leeway to help a company move forward."

Knauss said PAN and the Inception Micro Angel Fund or IMAF, the Triad's other angel capital fund, will both have portfolio companies presenting at the conference, though the firms had not been selected yet.

Piedmont Angel Network

Fund executive: Troy Knauss Web site: www.piedmontangelnetwork.com