Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Angel Investing News App Now Available



We are delighted to announce that this blog is now available as a web app, also named  Angel Investing News,” which runs on iPhones, Androids, iPads, most tablets, and Apple and Windows PCs.  We would appreciate your giving it a try. 

To view the app, click here on the device you wish to run it or copy this url into a browser.:  http://MobileOnlineApps.com/demo_28094  
Should you not have the url handy at the time,  a Google search for "Angel Investing News App" should locate this post.

You will be given the option of running the app directly or using the pop-up message to download an icon to your home screen. We suggest the latter.

Contents:
In “George’s Blog” you can read the latest posts from the Angel Investing News blog, comprising original news and opinions written by angels, for angels.

AngelTweet”  consists of  our Editor’s daily selection of current tweets by angels, journalists, and opinion leaders in our nationwide innovation ecosystem.  Look for top national journalists including Scott Kirsner, Kyle Alspach, and Chris O’Brien. Also angels you might know: Joe Caruso, Christopher Mirabile, David Cohen, Jean Hammond, Chris Sheehan, John Landry, Ham Lord, and many others.

Background and Purpose:
A couple of years ago we started a blog, Smart Phones: Technology and Business Apps, building a pretty good readership among local angels.  The limit to growth soon became obvious: many of our non-technology oriented angels had difficulty regularly accessing the blogs. We believe the same problem also exists today with Twitter. 


Our web app is designed to make it astonishingly simple to access both this blog and a daily dose of the nation’s best angel-related Tweets. Just download the icon and you are set forever.  Any problems navigating the material simply restart the app using the icon.

Introducing the Angel Investing Gazette:
This brand new app is both a publication and an information hub, a “hublication” ™. The target user is an angel investor who is not necessarily comfortable searching and reading blogs, tweets, and YouTube.  It incorporates the Angel Investing News and adds a superset of significant other material.  You can download this hublication at http://MobileOnlineApps.com/demo_30292

Here is an overview of the tabs.
  • “About us” is a brief introduction.
  • In “George’s Blog” you can read the latest posts from the Angel Investing News blog, comprising original news and opinions written by angels, for angels.
  • “ AngelTweet” consists of our Editor’s selection of current tweets by angels, journalists, and opinion leaders in our nationwide innovation ecosystem.
  • “More News Feeds” contains the latest articles by Kyle Alppach of the Boston Business Journal, George Lipper, and Christopher Mirabile.
  • “Angel Resources” includes links to other angel groups in New England and nationwide, the ACA, the Angel Resource Institute, and video interviews with experienced angels including Joe Caruso, Jean Hammond, and Christopher Mirabile.
  • “Locations” provides you with maps and directions to many of the sites where angels often meet, from the NERD Center in Cambridge to River Valley Investors in Holyoke.
This is a beta version of this App. As the old congressman said to the voters, If you don’t like it, I’ll change it. Your feedback is greatly encouraged.



















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Monday, December 10, 2012

Commmon Angels Invests at Record-Tying Pace



Still 15 days  ‘till Christmas and, with 21 investments,  the Common Angels have already tied their record for total investments in a year.  Eight of these are new companies, tying the Common Angels recent high for new investments set in 2010, and almost reaching their high water mark of  9 new investments set in 2000 during the very early years of  the group. 

“We are very proud of the entrepreneurs we get to work with and what they are accomplishing,” says Common Angels Managing Director James Geshwiler.

Along with these totals, the Common Angels also announced their participation in five recent financings involving variegated venture capital firms and angels.

TrueLens  provides the first customer record for CRM and digital marketers.   The $1.2 million funding round was led by Google Ventures, with funding from Charles River Ventures, Common Angels, 500 Startups, and Boston Seed, and from angel investors, including HubSpot CTO Dharmesh Shah, Tremor SVP Waikit Lau, InfoChimps co-founder Nick Ducoff, and John Simon, former board member at BzzAgent and m-Qube.

Boston-area open-source sync and share startup ownCloud Inc. has closed a $2.5 million financing, its second seed round of venture capital. Common Angels and 13 unnamed investors were led by General Catalyst Partners of Cambridge.

Doctrackr , a TechStars company, helps individuals and businesses keep their documents under control, know wherever they're stored,  and whomever they're shared with. DocTrackr is backed by Polaris Venture Partners and Atlas Venture, Common Angels and Alive Ideas. Now it's an international company - docTrackr has offices in Boston, Paris and Bucharest.

TechStars Boston 2011 grad Promoboxx, a startup offering a brand-to-retailer marketing platform, has raised an additional investment of $1.375 million to close its Series Seed round of financing. The company’s investors include Launch Capital, Boston Seed, SK Ventures, Common Angels, Stage 1 Ventures, and over 30 angels. In December of last year, Promoboxx raised $565,000 from SK Ventures, Brand Ventures, Launch Capital, and various angels. Angel investors in Promoboxx include Jean Hammond, Walt Winshall, Michael Mark, Mike Dornbrook, Rich Greenfield, Adam Berrey, Dave Balter, David Kaufmann, and many others

HapYak , the social video commentary platform, announced that $850,000 in seed funding has been secured to expand and build upon its platform. This round of funding was led by Kepha Partners with participation and coordination from CommonAngels of Boston and angel investor, Tom Burgess, former CEO of Third Screen Media

For reference, the Common Angels have one exit this year, Vela Systems.


Our congratulations, Common Angels!

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 Receive this blog and related angel information as an App on your smart phone or tablet. 
Instructions here: http://tinyurl.com/c6xcqar