Thank you to everyone who attended Live Free and Start’s 1st Angel Investing in the Granite State conference. We had over 120 investors and ecosystem partners come together to learn, connect and explore opportunities around angel investing in NH. It was encouraging to see a strong mix of familiar and new faces in the audience, who are interested in the prospects of angel investing.
We had a great lineup of speakers that left us with expert advice and key take-aways! Governor Hassan helped kick off our day by reiterating her strong support for Live Free and Start’s work. The Governor knows that for NH to grow a thriving tech sector, we need our companies to have access to capital at every stage of their growth and that Angel investors provide a critical source of that capital to early stage companies. The Governor looks forward to being kept in the loop on LFS’s next steps.
Our keynote speaker, Sandra Stone, Chair Emeritus of Maine Angels, gave us the nuts and bolts on how she helped build Maine Angels into one of the most active angel groups in the country with 70+ investors and over $15.1 million in investments. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with Sandra.
Throughout the day folks were able to learn about the process and rationale of Angel investing, national investment trends, new models for investing, and local opportunities. We were lucky to be joined by some of NH’s industry experts and want to send a big thank you to Jamie Coughlin of Dartmouth College, Phil Ferneau of Borealis Ventures, John Hamilton of the NH Community Loan Fund, TK Kuegler of Wasabi Ventures, Bill Nyhan of Nyhan Associates, Matt Pierson of 10X, Jeff Sohl of the Center for Venture Research, and Kyle York of Dyn for passing on so many pearls of wisdom.
We also had a productive private meeting with NH’s angel group leads to discuss the future of access to capital for NH’s startups and future collaboration between groups. LFS is excited to bring these seasoned and dedicated investors together to move their work forward. They have played a critical role in growing NH’s tech sector and deserve a special thanks for all of their efforts.
And if all the great speakers weren’t enough, attendees were able to hear two live company pitches from FreshAir Sensor and IndustryMD and get a behind the scenes look at what angel investors would ask during a pitch session.
Live Free and Start’s team was encouraged by the positive response to the conference. We will bring you more in the weeks and months to come! Keep an eye out for details on the new angel investor reception on December 8th in Manchester. At the start of 2016we will be working on a women investor series and partnering with the NH Charitable Foundation and NH Community Loan Fund to co-host “Investing in NH Seminars” around the state.
In case you missed the conference, you can watch some footage of the conference taken by Lorna at New Hampshire Economy or see below of some great social media conversations that took place:
Gov. Hassan speaking at the @livefreestart Angel Investing in the Granite State Conference in Manchester #investNH pic.twitter.com/Y5NYaOFr2T
— Gov. Maggie Hassan (@GovernorHassan) November 17, 2015
Sandra Stone of Maine #Angels "we look for companies with a $100Mil market opportunity" @livefreestart #InvestNH
— Todd Boucher (@toddmboucher) November 17, 2015
National Trends & Beyond begins! Panelist: John Hamilton @TKKuegler and Jeff Sohl moderated by @MailhotP! pic.twitter.com/3cEtniUA1A
— Live Free & Start (@livefreestart) November 17, 2015
A great visual for understanding basics of capital: #InvestNH @NHCommLoanFund @livefreestart pic.twitter.com/TEChGBrUuX
— Allison Grappone (@AllisonGrappone) November 17, 2015
