Angel Investors of Greater Washington (AIoGW) is an angel group investing in and around Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Our angel members are sophisticated entrepreneurial investors with diverse industry expertise, who work with area entrepreneurs, researchers, faculty, post-docs and students to help create and fund startups. Our members take a leading role to catalyze the entire process and put the appropriate pieces and players in place for high-growth technology driven companies, including providing the startup capital.

Yet, even though this activity is quite lucrative, it isn't solely about money, since our members are, by definition, already very wealthy. It is also about doing good in the world by accelerating innovation to market that has the potential to provide major benefits to society. Our group, therefore, is about making good things happen that will make the world a little (or a lot) better. There is an important element of philanthropy and giving back to the community that makes our group very unique.

How We Do It

We invest in area entrepreneurs, but especially in those who are willing and able to help commercialize federally funded R&D produced at the university and federal labs in the region.

We are looking for serial entrepreneurs (though we and some of our Liaisons are willing to train those who have the ability and drive to become serial entrepreneurs within a reasonable period of time). Our definition of a serial entrepreneur is an entrepreneur whose real business is specializing in building companies to sell in the M&A and IPO markets on a regular basis (meaning at least a few times).

We expect all our companies to be pre-institutional venture capital, and that our successful companies will be passed onto institutional venture capital for further funding and development, before ultimately exiting through an IPO or M&A.

We want the entrepreneurs we work with to be honest, hard-working, and smart, meaning that they are mentorable, willing to learn, and able to adapt to changing circumstances.

We invest $100,000-$1million per round (alone or with others), with an upper limit for all rounds of $2million.

Once we invest, one (or more) members of Angel Investors of Greater Washington will become a company director to provide mentoring, strategic advice and connections to university/fed labs, customers, employees and venture capital.

Please note that we are not interested in "lifestyle companies" (i.e., companies that will not be sold to the M&A or IPO markets, since otherwise it becomes almost impossible to get our money back). Also, please note that unless you are, or can become, an exceptional world-class CEO capable of running a public company, you should expect that a new CEO will be hired at the appropriate time. However, this is not a negative, since if you did a good job (i.e., played nice with everyone), you will have significantly increased your personal wealth and we will help you start your next company and repeat the process as a serial entrepreneur.

LIAISONS

AIoGW makes extensive use of area Liaisons.

If you are an entrepreneur or researcher, Liaisons are the primary way to get an introduction for funding to our Angel Group. You should start with them. They have varying interests and geographic jurisdictions, and you should easily be able to find an appropriate few that will talk with you about your ideas and company.

Starting with Liaisons is useful for you also because, in many cases, they have programs to help entrepreneurs and researchers create startups and more importantly make them venture-ready. In addition, Federal Lab and University Liaisons, for example, have extensive federally funded R&D (literally billions of dollars worth) just waiting for entrepreneurs to help them commercialize it. They may also have students, faculty and/or researchers, who would like to be part of area startups as employees or scientific advisors. Putting enough of this together before you come for funding will obviously increase your likelihood of success.

Service Provider Liaisons are area lawyers, accountants and consultants that we have worked with and know to be experienced in startup creation and funding. Generally, they will work with new startups on a heavily discounted or free basis until the startup gets funding.

University Liaisons

University of Maryland: Martha Connolly, Brian Darmody
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute: Dean Drake
Johns Hopkins University: Steve Kubisen
George Mason University: Jennifer Murphy, Ian Mooers
George Washington University: Dean Timothy Tong, Tony Stanco, Jeremy Adelman

Federal Lab Liaisons

National Institutes of Health (NIH): Steve Ferguson
National Science Foundation (NSF): Ali Andalibi
Department of Commerce, Technology Administration: Connie Chang, Mark Boroush
NASA/FLC Mid-Atlantic: John Emond
NIST: George Arnold, Dan Pitkin, Ted Maher
Argonne National Laboratory: Terry Levinson
Federal Lab Consortium (FLC): Gary Jones

Economic Development Liaisons

Maryland's TEDCO: Robbie Melton
Virginia's Center for Innovative Technologies (CIT): Tom Weithman, Jennifer O'Daniel
Fairfax County Economic Development: Rodney Lusk, Anne Rosenblum
Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development (DBED): Ray Dizon
Rockville Economic Development: Cliff Lanham
Montgomery County Department of Economic Development: Janis Peters
Prince George's County: Charlotte Ducksworth, Wanda Plumer
The Washington DC Technology Council: Karen Ryan
Northern Virginia Technology Council Liaison: Steve Boyd

Service Provider Liaisons

Andrews Kurth, Andrew Tucker
J Street Consulting, Jim Wolfe
MIT Enterprise Forum, Jean-Luc Park

Executive Director
Tony Stanco
Tel: 202-580-8382
tony (at) AIoGW.org

Disclaimer

AIoGW is a peer-to-peer network of angel investors facilitating the introduction of entrepreneurs and investors through education and networking events and the circulation of materials and presentations. It does not function as a securities broker-dealer, investment company, investment advisor, securities exchange or clearinghouse, and is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or any state securities commissions.