By: David Verrill, Hub Angel Investment Group, LLC & Chairman – Angel Capital Association

ACA is eager for more accredited individual investors to join our organization to benefit from the professional development events, deal flow tools, and resources for portfolio success that we offer, along with the ability to influence public policy that has a huge impact on angel investors.

Now until late-March we're offering savings of a blended membership and fees to the 2014 ACA Summit in Washington, DC, the world’s largest gathering of sophisticated angel investors, and the preeminent forum for interaction and knowledge‐sharing among accredited investors. This is a savings of $300! Individual investors who belong to accredited platforms that belong to ACA receive even larger savings ($500) for the membership/ Summit package.

We encourage all accredited individual investors who are angels or want to become angels to join. For more information, see our news release here.

I will be at the ACA Summit and look forward to seeing you there!

2013 was a great year for angel investors, including many ACA member angel groups. Several had successful exits, others made more investments than they ever have in a year, and new groups made investments for the first time.

It is important to celebrate these successes, which happened to members in all parts of North America. Here are some great examples:

IPOs:

• Marrone Bio Innovations Announces Closing of IPO (investors include Band of Angels - Menlo Park, CA, Sacramento Angels - Sacramento, CA, and Sierra Angels - Incline Village, NV)
• Aratana Therapeutics announces IPO (Investors include Mid-America Angels and Women's Capital Connection - Kansas City, MO/KS)

ACA today provided guidance on the significance of angel group membership in connection with new standards for accredited investor verification. Under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 506(c), which becomes effective September 23, 2013, startups and emerging companies that generally solicit for investors will have heightened duties to verify that all purchasers are accredited.*

Rule 506(c) represents a significant change in securities law, and uncertainty about the verification process is of concern to members of the Angel Capital Association and the active angel community at large. ACA has been vocal in our objections to the rule’s safe harbors that would require sharing wealth or income data, but it is important to recognize that they are not the full rule. The SEC provided a significant and flexible approach for complying with this rule using a principles-based methodology. ACA is providing its guidance on how membership in an Established Angel Group may meet the requirements for a startup that uses general solicitation to verify that all investors are accredited under the principles-based methodology specified in Rule 506(c).

Earlier this month, Laura Baverman wrote an article in USA Today entitled "Time is Right to Consider Angel Investing".  I was tickled with the article because not only did it get the message to many potential angels that angel investing could be a great activity for them, but that it quoted a number of ACA members and friends - such as Dan Mindus of NextGen Angels, John May of New Dominion Angels, the managing team of Golden Seeds (great photo, by the way!), and Rob Wiltbank of Willamette University and the Angel Resource Institute, among others.

If you are new to angel investing or just starting to think about making these investments in innovative startups, I recommend that you talk with people you know who are angel investors, attend an angel group meeting near you to get an idea of how they work, and read up on how angel investing works with articles, posts, and books from experienced angels.  ACA and our members are here to help you as you learn about the fun, adventurous and fulfilling world of investing in and mentoring some really great entrepreneurs.