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PALM DESERT - Key business leaders and entrepreneurs have formed the Coachella Valley Angel Network to provide investment capital to foster the growth of small business here.
The financing, in amounts between $100,000 and $500,000, will be focused on companies in key industry clusters.
The premise is this: Business people who understand what it takes to build a business from the ground up want to spur new start-ups in the Coachella Valley with early-stage funding.
Financing will be focused on companies in emerging industries such as medical devices, software technology and film production - keeping in mind the Angel Network will consider developing business plans in other fields, as long as the business is based in the Coachella Valley.
Business leaders who played an integral role in forming the Coachella Valley Angel Network are Richard J. Heckmann, Steve Weiss, Brant Cotterman, Bill Impey and Craig Vickers.
While all have created, sold and operated successful ventures, Weiss once directed a venture capital fund in San Francisco and was co-founder of a similar investing group, North Bay Angels.
"These business leaders are individually and collectively incredibly impressive in what they bring to the table just in experience,'' said Kay Hazen, a spokeswoman for Coachella Valley Economic Partnership.
"What's exciting for us in the Coachella Valley is this is another tool in the tool belt for business attraction and our growth strategies to stimulate increased jobs and a diversified economy,'' Hazen added.
But the Coachella Valley Angel Network represents more than an investment.
"The real reason behind this is that we have an emerging diversified economy here in the Coachella Valley,'' said Weiss. "Now, with the University of California, Riverside Palm Desert we are training local MBA students to create and operate high-tech and other new businesses (and) Dick Heckmann suggested it was time we developed financial backing to support that local talent and their business ideas."
Hazen added, "It will offer mentorship and help entrepreneurs finish off a business plan, as well as make their way through the variety of obstacles that present themselves to entrepreneurs who are wanting to expand an idea or business.''
CVAN will be working closely the faculty and staff at the UCR Palm Desert, and faculty at The Richard J. Heckmann International Center for Entrepreneurial Management. The graduate center at UCR Palm Desert will provide some support and assistance, as well as mentoring to help these companies succeed.
"We have MBA students here who will soon graduate, many of whom have been developing concepts for new businesses,'' Heckmann said. "I don't want to see our students graduate and migrate elsewhere to start their new enterprises.
"It just makes sense that we provide the capital necessary to support these news businesses," Heckmann added.
Heckmann, founder of the Palm Desert-based USFilter Corporation, is currently chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Carlsbad-based K2 Inc. A Rancho Mirage resident, Heckmann is also part owner of the Phoenix Suns professional basketball team.
"It's a perfect match when you think about what the Heckmann Center is doing and what CVEP is doing,'' Hazen said. "It comes at an opportune time for both organizations to stimulate the economy and provide opportunities for the desert."
"It's exciting. We have typically talked about recruiting businesses and helping them expand. This ends up germinating new businesses. It creates opportunity for Coachella Valley investors to invest in new technologies," said Rick Daniels, president and chief executive officer of Coachella Valley Economic Partnership.
"I think a lot of the proposals we'll get is: 'I have a new idea for a project, a new widget' - and that's a great opportunity," he said.
"In doing this call, what we found already was some of the investor types had been going to Orange County to look at products," Daniels said.
Local business entrepreneurs can contact the Angel Network, and submit business plans through its Web site at www.cvangelnetwork.com.
Currently, there are about 200 of these angel networks functioning around the United States. The Ewing M. Kauffman Foundation, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership in Kansas City, Mo., has studied and promoted the model for angel investment groups.
Cotterman, a Palm Desert resident who is a former senior vice president of Marion Laboratories and a founder of General Brands Corp., said the time is right for a network to be formed here.
"The Coachella Valley is one of the fastest-growing areas in California, and every day entrepreneurs arrive with plans to start new businesses,'' said Cotterman, who has served on the board of the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. The Kauffman Foundation believes that over the next few years, the age group between 55 and 64 will be the most active in this regard, Cotterman added.
If the prospective business plan fits the group's criteria, an invitation will be extended to the entrepreneur to make a presentation to the group.
At that point, Coachella Valley Angel Network members - on an individual basis - will decide if they are interested in the project and will make an investment.
Copyright © 2006 The Desert Sun
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