By Frank Szivos, Angel Investor News Editor

Call Attorney Richard Honen a matchmaker. He focuses on bringing entrepreneurs with solid business ideas and angel investors together.

Honen, a corporate lawyer, has become one of the driving forces for the Tech Valley Angels, based in the Albany, NY area. He roots through business plans to find the best prospects for the Tech Valley Angels to consider for investment opportunities. Thea Snyder, a former entrepreneur, was the organizational wiz who formed TVA from scratch a couple of years ago.   

Honen says the upstate New York area has a strong base of private investors with diffuse interests. TVA includes members in marketing, technology, accounting and lawyers. He believes the diverse backgrounds of the TVA helps in doing due diligence on prospective business plans.

The private investing group meets once a month for a dinner, which typically draws up to two dozen investors, to listen to presentations from one to two pre-screened companies. To date, TVA has invited 18 presenters and completed four deals and six additional ones in cooperation with other non-TVA investors.

The Tech Valley Angels are not an angel fund, but do individual deals as well as occasionally teaming together to facilitate a deal.

“The Angel investing population is very active in upstate New York,” Honen said. “This is a good time to invest. Angel money is the primary source for the true start ups. They need to find angels.”

The TVA considers investment opportunities from a broad array of fields – biotech, software applications, silicone composites and plastics. However, TVA has invited diverse presenters seeking equity funding for fish farming and martial arts machines. While most presenting companies come from the Hudson Valley, NY area, TVA has had start ups present from as far away as California.  

“We don’t have a particular slant,” Honen said. “We’re always interested in biotech and silicone composites and software applications. But we’re certainly not limited. We want to look at companies with solid business plans.”

Honen has seen a higher quality of business plans come across his desk in the last couple of years. He prefers plans that make sense to the investment world that wants to see companies generating revenues. Honen also likes business plans that show the company reaching a profitable level in a couple of quarters.

While a management team is important, Honen says it’s not critical to many angels who are looking for a clear investment return in the near future. “Don’t fudge it,” he explains. “Investors are willing to overlook the lack of a CFO, for example, if the company is offering a good product.”

The bottom line is it’s a buyer’s market for angel investors who are looking for “hits” – making money within a brief investment time.

Honen welcomes business plans for review. For more information, contact Honen at Rhonen@honenwood.com. Honen also recommends that entrepreneurs consider attending the Smart Start Venture Forum in the Albany, NY area Oct. 2-3 (contact www.SmartStartVF.com). At last year’s venture fair, 27 start ups presented and 10 received funding, totaling over $10 million.