Thursday, December 2, 2010 – 8:54 AM

Beacon’s first investment, five years ago, was made in Smartcells, Inc., which invented a form of insulin whose release into the bloodstream is sensitive to the amount of blood sugar in it. Per the company’s original plan, it is being acquired by a major pharma, Merck & Co. All payments but the initial one are subject to milestones: The drug has to actually work; it must be approved by the FDA; and Merck must begin selling the drug, mostly to diabetics. Should these milestones be realized, Beacon’s members will realize IRR’s anywhere from 29x for the first round to 16x for the most recent one.

See http://ow.ly/3iKSV for the press release on the aqcuisition.

Cue balloons and confetti.

Monday, November 8, 2010 – 2:46 PM

The November meeting included a presentation from NetBlazr, which delivers basic broadband service to small and medium sized businesses free for basic service, and premium service at low cost. Please see http://my.brainshark.com/AngelSoft-Pitch-763487094 for NetBlazr’s presentation.

Some members will be discussing the terms and conditions of an impending exit, by acquisition, of one of our portfolio companies, which will be Beacon’s second ever. Should this exit come to fruition, it will produce a positive return for the investing members.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 – 4:59 PM

Tomorrow, Beacon Angels will entertain funding proposals from Pixability, which offers a system to enable small businesses to post promotional videos on the Web, and iQuest Analytics, provider of enterprise search, research and discovery software.

Thursday, October 7, 2010 – 5:11 PM

Beacon Angels is in due diligence with Brew1, owner and vendor of a patent protected single serve coffeemaker system, and Castlewood Surgical, which sells a jig to assist heart surgeons to perform bypasses more safely.

We are also in the process of completing a new round of financing for SepSensor, one of our oldest and most promising portfoliio companies.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010 – 4:51 PM

To close the loop on my post of last May, thanks in part to Sen. Brown, and Rep. Frank, FinReg as passed, left “accredited investor” at $1 million in assets, and only changed the definition to exclude the value of one’s primary residence. I believe the “bad actor” provision was deleted.

While skipping our August meeting for the second year in a row personally left a hole in my schedule, it about doubled the number of attractive companies to consider this month: Castlewood Surgical is a promising medical device firm headed by none other than Wolfgang Daum, who successfully handed Boston Heart Lab off to Bain Capital and its new CEO just about a month ago, and Brew1, which offers a multi-patented, eco-friendly, single serve coffee brewing solution to offices and commercial establishments.

More info is available to members at: http://angelsoft.net/deal/beacon/castlewood.surgical.inc, andhttp://angelsoft.net/deal/beacon/bevcepts.will.change.to.brew1

Thursday, May 6, 2010 – 3:51 PM

I’m attending the Angel Capital Association Annual Meeting in San Francicso through May 7th. (Next year, it’ll be close to home, in Boston.) There may be some progress on the Financial “Reform” bill. Proposals are being considered by Dodd’s committee to retain the $1m assets minimum for accredited investor status, but to exclude the value of the investor’s home. Also, a “bad actor” tracking provision would be substituted for bringing all angel investments under the state regulators.

Finally, we should oppose any threat to the current taxation of carried interests as long term capital gain. Changing this would impair investments by angels because: 1) it would discourage VCs’ long term investments such as in medical technology, and 2) it would drive VCs out of an industry that is already shrinking; many would become angel investors. Harming the venture capital industry would clog the pipelines to exit for angels. Furthermore, many angel groups themselves take various forms of carried interessts, either directly or through so-called “sidecar” funds, and harming these would limit the incentives that help maintain a healthy angel investment movement in the United States.

Please keep up the pressure on your senators and congressman to oppose these proposed changes. Thank you.

-Bill Swiggart

Saturday, April 10, 2010 – 3:32 PM

Senator Dodd’s Financial “Reform” Bill would impair angel investing. See http://reason.com/blog/2010/04/01/dodds-financial-reform-bill-ma for details. Call your senator and ask him to vote against this menace to startups and our innovation economy.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 – 4:02 PM

Attend the Angel Capital Association Meeting in San Francisco May 5-7, 2010: http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/regional-meetings/

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 – 3:34 PM

Deepen your knowledge of angel investing via the Angel Capital Assocication Northeast’s Angel Education Series at Foley Hoag’s Emerging Enterprise Center, 1000 Winter St., Waltham, MA on Monday afternoon, March 29, 2010.

Register at http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=200618.

Thursday, March 4, 2010 – 10:56 AM

Beacon Angels Portfolio Co. SepSensor Nearly Closes on $1.9M – CBL http://tinyurl.com/ybc2j79.

Monday, February 8, 2010 – 12:02 PM

Investor presentation and info updated for Hy-Syence on Angelsoft to provide Members with:

1) simple overview of technology and solution

2) scaling and commercialization plan.