How do angels fit into clean tech? Solar? Is it too capital intensive for angels? I ask Wellington Partners' Ram Srinivasan his opinions. We met during EBAN's tour of the Valley last month.

He was an engineer then moved into marketing, eventually becoming an entrepreneur with a taste for risk, but once he was pretty comfortable at HP.

Show #233 (39:56) Listen

It was a standing-room-only crowd yesterday at the OC Business Growth Forum hosted by the Digital Media Center in Santa Ana.

My keynote may have surprised the local politicians in the audience: "Relocation Recommendations: Where to Find the Money", but not those of you who listened to Liddy Karter talk about her efforts to influence public policy for angel investors.

I shared the highlights from Liddy's remarks, so we'll see if these entrepreneurs in attendance pack off for Honolulu or Milwaukee to find more welcoming tax policies and therefore more investment dollars.

Could you use a tax break?
Do you feel that your early-stage investments are good for the economy and should be encouraged?
So does Liddy Karter.

Sandwiched between Boston and New York you'll find the Angel Investor Forum in Connecticut. Liddy sees a lot of activity in both cities and it's led to a year where "we've invested more in 2009 than ever before!". You haven't heard that on the show lately, so who better to be leading the Angel Capital Association's Committee for Public Policy?

Another $30 billion for General Motors as they enter bankruptcy, unbelievable! What would $1B do if it were spread around to angel groups? Liddy can imagine, but is anybody listening? Not in Connecticut according to Liddy. Instead head to North Dakota, Hawaii or Maine for the best tax incentives for angels. And what has Wisconsin done to earn her vote for the strongest example of public policy effectiveness?

Save the date: check out Liddy's New Angel Summit (angels from New Jersey, New York, and New England in New Haven, get it?) September 17th.

Show #232 (25:38) Listen

Penny Herscher editorializes in the Huffington Post on "The Death of Venture Capital as We Know It". Will only 1 in 10 survive? Read the article...

There's new leadership in Washington at the SBA and new sensitivities on potential conflicts of interest. I've served on the TriTech Small Business Development Center Advisory Board for at least 3 years, first in Orange County then followed them when they moved to Riverside. Early in my career I was a consultant and I remembered the thrill of making that kind of contribution. I started working on getting invited onto their Advisory Board.

The show crosses another milestone in audience numbers for May: biggest daily audience >1,500, biggest week >10,000 and month >42,000 at 11 minutes each. "Thanks so much for listening!"

I'll be at 2 big events coming up next week:

I'll be a judge at the Orange County Fast Pitch hosted by the Tech Coast Angels at UC Irvine at 5:30pm on Tuesday June 9th. Twelve entrepreneur finalists get 90 seconds to pitch to a jury of angels and VCs with hundreds of onlookers in the audience; it's always lots of laughs and educational, too. The winners get to pitch the angels for real.

Then at noon on June 11th I'll be the keynote speaker at the Orange County Business Growth Forum at the Digital Media Center in Santa Ana. Join me.

Alana Semuels reports in the LA Times: Startup funding scarce. Who was to blame?

He was someone I met outside my usual trusted sources, but here I was Vice Chairman of a new nonprofit whose goal it was to promote Orange County to the world. This was an honorable undertaking, like motherhood, so my guard was down. Who would expect to find a scam artist here, let alone our illustrious Chairman? The rest of the board was a group you could trust; it included the incoming chairman of the Orange County Business Council, Tom Phelps, Toshiba Senior Vice President Chris Harrington, and many other local luminaries, a virtual who's-who in Orange County.

Ever wanted to hear how angels think of the terms they offer and the returns they expect? And what will happen if the outcome is less than a complete success? That's what Angel Capital Association Chairman John Huston shares.

Today, it's a working session. Download John's 10 Exits, Generic Term Sheet and Term Sheet Checklist then follow along with his candid commentary on setting expectations. Besides being Chairman of Angel Capital Association, he's developed these documents for the deals he does at Ohio TechAngels.

Show #231 (45:58) Listen

Events: the Tech Coast Angels host Fast Pitch at UC Irvine, June 9th.

"Recession Leads to Decrease in Angel Group Investments", reads the 2009 ACA's Angel Group Confidence Report.

socalTECH's Ben Kuo reports on the reaction to this drop in Los Angeles.

The EBAN tour visits Silicon Valley Bank on Sand Hill Road.

Our busy tour of the Valley winds up with a visit to Silicon Valley Bank where we meet up with ASTIA's Sharon Vosmek, Golden Seeds' Jo Anne Miller, Life Science Angels' founder Allan May, Sand Hill Angels' Jim Connor and SVB's Laurie Lumenti Garty. After lunch we get a technology briefing at Microsoft then end the tour with Ian Sobieski and the Band of Angels at the Los Altos Country Club.

Couldn't make it to Stanford this week for the EBAN tour? Join us for this session when the European Business Angel Network's tour of Silicon Valley meets up with Garage Technology Ventures' Bill Reichert. EBAN Managing Director Claire Munck has teamed up with Stanford's Burton Lee to create a whirlwind tour of the university and the local angel and venture capital highlights. This morning it was Bill's turn to present.

Listen for his comments about breaking even, "which almost never happens, versus controlling your own destiny". With a little prompting from the audience he shares his ideas on "patterns of failure" as it relates to investing in early stage startups.

Show #230 (1:12:08) Listen