Response to 3 Things to Avoid When Fundraising in LA

1. DON'T DITCH YOUR "REP" FOR RE-TWEETS

It's enticing in the "blogosphere" to be controversial for "controversy sake" to up your page views and re-tweets, but remember internet data is cached... forever. Value your reputation over transient internet analytics.

In this case, the TCA has invested in consumer facing internet companies over the years: "myShape" is doing well, we've had recent investments in "Vokle", "MasherMedia", "Loop'd Network" and "ElephantDrive" which have consumer facing components. There are probably many more investments that I can't think of off the top of my head that also fall in the internet space. In addition, we've invested in software, hardware, bio tech and even more exotic investments in MEMs and nano technology. Not bad for "dinosaurs".

Some of these investments will succeed, some will fail, such is the nature of early stage investing.

2. DON'T BURN BRIDGES UNNECESSARILY

If you have a problem with a person or organization, confront them with the criticism directly to hopefully be a change agent. Don't unnecessarily burn bridges.

In this case, the TCA might be slower than you like when considering your idea or company. Bring any issues up to chapter leaders (chapter president's email addresses are in the "contact" portion of the web site). Ask about the process when applying and be aware of the time frames involved.

A TCA member may attempt to fund a deal outside the network for a variety of reasons: maybe the amount being raised, the time line required for funding or the notion, perceived or real, that the network will or will not fund the idea or company.

As an aside: we are much more critical internally of our processes and are constantly trying to enhance the deal process and deal flow.

3. DON'T KNOCK DINOSAURS!

Humans have been around for tens of thousands of years, dinosaurs existed for roughly 160M years and were one of the more successful species in terms of longevity on the planet Earth.

Like this original post, humans are prone to self-destruction. Let's get to maybe 100 million years of existence before we get any feeling of superiority.

Tom Tierney is an investor with the Tech Coast Angels in San Diego, and left this in response to yesterday's post by Ryan Born, signed "Brontosaurus with Velociraptor tendencies".

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