'Angel' advice for Tauranga's entrepreneurs

Bill Payne

Leading American angel investor Bill Payne will be part of a panel at next week's Angel@mytable event in Tauranga for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Organised by the Venture Centre as part of its buildup to next month's Tauranga Start Up Weekend, the event aims to expose people embarking on start-ups to how angel investors think, said Venture Centre co-founder Jo Allum.

"We want to give entrepreneurs a good idea of all the different elements involved in the journey of building their start-up company," she said. "Getting capital into the business is an important part of it and one of the ways of doing that is through angels."

Ms Allum described the event as a "reverse" Dragon's Den.

"Instead of entrepreneurs pitching ideas, they will be able to question the angel investors on how they can contribute to their business and what they require."

Mr Payne sold his first company to Du Pont and for the last three decades has invested in more than 55 start-up companies. From 1995 to 2007 in his role as Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Kauffman Foundation (Kansas City), he worked on educational programs for entrepreneurs and their investors.

In 2010 he concluded a five month stay in New Zealand at the BNZ University of Auckland Business School advising investors and entrepreneurs.

A frequent visitor to Tauranga, Mr Payne told NZME during an interview in 2013 he thought Kiwi deals and pitches had improved significantly. "There are all kinds of opportunities here," he said. In addition to Mr Payne, this year's panel will include investment adviser James Beale, lawyer John Gordon and power engineer Deion Campbell, who are all members of Tauranga's Enterprise Angels, the country's biggest start-up funding angel group. Since launching in 2008, Enterprise Angels has facilitated the investment of more than $14 million in more than 40 early stage and established businesses.

-Angel@mytable is from 5.30 till 8.30pm on Wednesday, October 28, Tauranga Art Gallery.