I’ve recently become  more active in Melbourne Angels, the local group of angel investors that is part of the AAAI (Australian Association of Angel Investors).  The angel investing community in Australia, while active, has been fairly informal in the past.  The AAAI has been busy over the past couple of years trying to put together a structure to help us get more organised and raise awareness among entrepreneurs and government about what we are doing.

What’s great about the angel group for me is that provides the investors with the ability to pool their resources, both experience and $$, to make more effective investments.   For entrepreneurs, a group of angel investors provides a way to get exposure to and feedback from a variety of difference experiences and people who have a lot of knowledge from multiple industries of what it takes to successfully start, build and exit a business.

Anthill Magazine recently posted some of our group’s panel feedback from a Pitch Club event.  It’s not my best performance but it was a great night and an opportunity to see a lot of business ideas in a short time!

If you are looking to raise early stage capital, you are welcome to make a submission to Melbourne Angels.

I’ve been speaking with Andrew Vincent lately, the talented man who produced the television series Your Business Success.  It’s a series of interviews between experienced and less experienced entrepreneurs and is full of both inspirational stories as well as fantastic tips on improving your own businesses, from strategy and finance to marketing and customer service.   The show featured some of Australia’s best known entrpreneurs from a variety of industries.

And speaking of successful entrepreneurs,  I was reading Naomi Simson’s blog today – check it out!  She’s a fellow EO member and the founder and “Chief Experience Officer” at Red Balloon, a successful online gift retailer.  It’s full of good advice, was an inspiration to read and got me fired up to start blogging on a regular basis about all the fascinating people I have been meeting and the exciting things I have been learning.

I am trying to get this button to work for the Entrepreneur’s Organisation of which I am a member, but I haven’t figured it out yet!   I will eventually get the hang of this stuff, but it’s a steep learning curve when the last real techo stuff I’ve done was writing SQL reports!  Anyway, EO has been a great group to belong to, to collaborate and learn from other entrepreneurs, the challenges they face and how they solve them.  And they are fantastic group of people as well.   Check us out if you are building a business and want to have a support group that understands what you face as an entrepreneur!  There are amazing opportunities to learn and contribute.