Silverman leaves CTEK post to start seed-stage funding group

BOULDER – Marc Silverman is resigning as director of CTEK’s Boulder Venture Center to start a new seed-stage funding group called Mountain Angel Capital, or MAC.

Silverman, a founder and former chief executive of Performance Health Technologies, took over the CTEK position in late May, replacing Jim Pollock, who left to head up a startup in Golden.

Mountain Angel Capital, Silverman said, primarily wants to invest in nanotechnology, software, clean tech and medical devices. It will announce relationships with a local venture capital company, an investment bank and a group of individual investors – all former CEOs who have run their own companies.

The new group plans to incorporate in January and will make further announcements then.

Gary Held, president of CTEK, said he’s unsure right now if a new director will be hired for the Boulder center since the organization is “looking a number of alternatives” for the first quarter of 2008. CTEK affiliate venture centers in Longmont and Stapleton have spun out to become independent organizations, keeping ties to CTEK’s network of business advisers. The center in Longmont, run by Executive Director Alex Sammoury, is called Longmont Entrepreneurial Network.

Mountain Angel Capital, Silverman said, will try to bring more structure to the often frustrating process of raising money for a startup from angel investors.

Silverman, who has made several angel investments himself, said deals sometimes can involve up to 10 different investors, making investments of $25,000 to $50,000 each. But investors at that level often are not that involved in helping a startup continue to make decisions necessary to succeed.

“Some deals get done,” he said, but proper due diligence may not be completed. “A lot of deals just don’t get done.”

Mountain Angel Capital, which will make its own investments, will look to pull in other angel investors, possibly some smaller venture capital investments. Then it will provide companies with a “core” of executive guidance. “This is more than just money,” Silverman said.

Mountain Angel Capital will be looking for companies in business for about a year or more with “revenue customers” and a product at least in a working prototype stage.

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