Forums bring ‘angels’ to Colorado W. Slope startups – Financing gives firms wings

Grady Busse was having a devil of a time last year trying to find the money to build his new company that manufactures school day planners and other bound paper products.

By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Western Slope Bureau

Busse had tried to put up his house and possessions as collateral for a much-needed expansion loan but couldn’t come up with enough to satisfy a bank.

Then he met an "angel" in a conference room at Grand Junction’s Two Rivers Convention Center.

The angel – the business term for an investor willing to put relatively small amounts into startup businesses – was retired Grand Junction businessman Bruce Dixson.

Dixson said he liked what he heard about Busse’s business plan at a forum designed to bring investors and entrepreneurs together, and over the next several months, the two hammered out a financial deal that would give Dixson a partial interest in Busse’s Action Bindery Inc.

Now, Busse’s expanded company sells paper goods in 50 states and several foreign countries. It employs 15 people full time and 55 at peak production times.

Dixson was one of the angels who turned out again this year for another Western Colorado Venture Forum, sponsored Wednesday by the Business Incubator Center of Western Colorado. The forum is an attempt to overcome the disadvantage that smaller companies and entrepreneurs outside the Denver Metro area have when it comes to attracting angels, much less venture capitalists.

Venture capitalists – a big-dollar step up from angels – are looking for businesses that might need seven-figure cash infusions rather than the $25,000 or even $5,000 in angel bucks that might get a small enterprise off the ground.

Venture capitalists also aren’t generally actively scouting for prospects outside large cities.

"You just happen to be geographically challenged over here," said James Arkebauer of Denver-based Venture Associates. "But you have a lot going on. There’s a great entrepreneurial spirit here."

Arkebauer was another one of the angels who came to the forum to give entrepreneurs some nuts-and-bolts instructions on getting the attention of those with the money.

"You have to learn to speak the language of investors," Arkebauer told a roomful of about 150 entrepreneurs and investors.

In his keynote address to the forum, Timothy Keating, president of Keating Investments LLC, stressed that language should be simple.

"Make your position statement crystal clear," was at the top of Keating’s "10 Tips to Get an Investor to Write a Check."

"Explain how the company makes money in plain English I can understand," Keating said.

Another of Keating’s tips was, "if you have a widget, don’t tell me about it. Bring me the widget, or if it is a service you’re selling, show me a contract. … Bring the product to life for me."

Grand Junction businessman Bob Ballantyne was one forum attendee who did just that.

On a hallway table at Two Rivers, Ballantyne had two portable mercury analyzers that his Genesis Physical Science Products company has developed.

Ballantyne said he came to the forum seeking $2 million to keep his company afloat after bad timing hurt his fledgling business. He said he spent $1.2 million for research and development and released his first analyzers just 10 days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks triggered an economic downturn.

Nurses Harriet Brekalo and Sharon Roper didn’t come with a widget, but they said they gathered good ideas for developing a business plan to expand their new Complementary Health Consulting business.

"Our educational videos should be our first area of expansion," said an excited Brekalo after listening to the advice of angels.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~1701066,00.html