Dialog about Angel Financing in Iowa

Looking through search stats on this blog a few moments ago, I noticed that this search "angel financing in Iowa" produced a first page result for your humble author.  I've written about how Central Iowa needs to organize and bring together:

1. The amazing talent and tech (not just software mind you) sub-culture that thrives here.......with
2. The entrepreneurial minded angel investor who is willing to attend regular pitch meetings and put up RISK capital for prototypes and bootstrap launches.

Not so tough right?  Wrong.  The feeling among many here in town is that we have no truly open Angel funding network.  Central Iowa start up funding seems concentrated into small groups of Angels that are intertwined with business and government.  To the outsider with great ideas and little funding opportunity who gets pushed into the same funding funnels, this can be frustrating.

A couple of days ago, a lapse in my Twitter attention span excluded me from a heated exchange that resulted in this upcoming meeting at Impromptu Studio in Des Moines.  I will be attending for sure and can't wait to hear how our perception of reality is received.

I believe we could coalesce central Iowa under the www.centraliowaangels.com moniker so we don't have to see the results below when someone searches for capital to fund the next massively successful idea that could have been.

(Taken from Gaebler Ventures website, the result just below my post in the search results)

Comments

[Joe Plumber]

its because they don't understand Angel financing. That being said, the dynamics in today's economy are shifting, radically, away from "traditional funding models."

Culturally, Iowa is a risk-averse state, economy, people.

Unlike California where the number of wealthy people is ridiculous - and even the "not-so-rich" are willing to take lots of risk in their personal lives.

I believe the disconnect you write about is cultural.

California is the land of opportunity - Iowa should be to - but California still carries the mantra of the "wild west" and the "gold rush" and the "moving west" concepts - its manifest destiny.

[Tom Swartwood]

WTH: I might as well join the fray. I think Joe P is on to something, but, at the end of the day, it is all about kissing a lot of frogs. OF COURSE, the big hitters are in it for themselves; that’s how they became big hitters. Raising/investing money is not about the love. Don’t even get me started on gov’t, investing and Iowa. This isn’t an ag economy that has to be supported and maintained thru thick and thin, i.e., commodity cycles, locusts, drought, etc. It takes A LOT OF HARD WORK to raise money. Just because somebody thinks believes they have the next best thing since canned beer, unless somebody else agrees, it doesn't really matter. How to get them to agree: more hard work; show them how it will make their life better or make them richer. And use whatever media necessary. As an old Jersy friend of mine likes to exclaim: jeezus haitch keerist, quit yer whinin’. Better mousetraps do not sell themselves and most of the deals I see are not fundable. PERIOD.
You are onto something when you note that you don’t know the “big hitters” yet. Introduce yourself; offer them something of value they can’t get from somebody else. Oh, and you may need to venture beyond the Iowa border and present that cool dude persona in person.
BTW, loud voice not directed at you, but feel free to pass it on.
BTW2: I don’t follow Twitter much, and I bet most of the local "big hitters" do not either. A smart, rich Texan I know like sto say "If the client wants you in a blue suit, you turn on the blue light; think omni-media, and deliver the message however it takes to get it done. Old fashioned networking is not dead...yet.
Good discussion.