What comes first. Deal Flow? or Members? It's a conundrum of angel groups. When a new angel group in Chicago or the surrounding area starts up, people ask my opinion. I am thrilled.
We need more angel groups in Chicago. I don't know why the Standard Club, University Club or Union League Club wouldn't set up their own. Even if they were small, ten or twenty members-if they committed to investing 250k over five years that's 2.5-5M bucks. It's enough to participate. Over three clubs, it could be as much as 15M. That's enough to play.
At my daily blog, I wrote more in depth about this.
We have the beginnings of a good ecosystem in Chicago. But we need more. If you think that you want to start an angel group, start it up. The worst you can do is fail and there is no crime in failing. There easily could be ten more angel groups that are all successful in the Chicago Metro Area.
You need a few things. Committed members that will work for free and recruit more members. You need a place to meet. You need to create a group on gust.com to easily share info. Then, you need to will to see it through and do all the work necessary to make it ongoing.
