River Valley Investors

Angel Group | Springfield, MA, United States

www.rivervalleyinvestors.com

Angel Capital Association

Paul G Silva
General Manager

Paul is the Founder and Managing Partner at Angel Catalyst (www.angelcatalyst.com), a firm providing turnkey management solutions for angel investor groups. Through this company Paul serves as the Manager of the River Valley Investors (www.rivervalleyinvestors.com), a Western Massachusetts based angel investor network. There he helped the group find the right organizational model, built their dealflow network, and helped them recruit and retain a critical mass of investors. Also through Angel Catalyst, Paul helped the Boynton Angels of Worcester find the right organizational model. In 2000 Paul co-founded All inPlay (www.allinplay.com), a company that creates software that allows the blind and fully sighted a way to play and interact together as equals. For the company Paul raised $250,000 from angel investors, served as Lead Designer of the company's games, led the development team creating the games, founded and maintained the All inPlay online community, and assisted in business development activities. Outside of his work Paul serves as the Chairman of the UMass Amherst Entrepreneurship Initiative (www.umassei.org) and as an advisor to the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation's Entrepreneurship Initiative, organizations that equip students with the training and connections to become entrepreneurs. Paul also sits on the board of the Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center (lemelson.hampshire.edu), an organization that provides students with an experiential education in applied design, invention, and entrepreneurship through engagement in assistive technology and universal design problem-solving. While attending university Paul co-founded and helped lead the UMass Amherst Entrepreneurship Initiative, co-founded and lead the local Chapter of the Society of Physics Students, and was awarded the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Excellence in Service and Alumni Leadership awards. Paul holds a BS in computational physics from the University (2000).

Corey Silva
General Manager

Corey has assisted Paul manage and grow the River Valley Investors, and Angel Catalyst, since April 2006. Corey also manages the New Bedford office of Axiom Insurance. Previously he worked as a freelance writer who's news reports, essays, investigative pieces, and editorials have been published in... More

River Valley Investors - Ideal Startup Investment

RVI seeks high quality private equity investment opportunities in both early stage companies with significant growth potential as well as later stage companies. Our screening committee uses the below criteria to determine which companies will be selected to present to the group. Before submitting your executive summary, please be sure your company meets these criteria.

Champion/Deal Lead - There must be at least one Member who possesses the needed domain knowledge, has spent significant time investigating the deal, and believes strongly in it. This criteria is by far the most important and can trump all others. Therefore your odds are significantly greater if you are referred to RVI by one of our Members. If you are not currently networked into our group then one of our Members must take a strong personal interest in your company during the screening phase of our process.

Team - Research indisputably shows that successful investments are lead by strong, experienced management teams. RVI seeks investments in companies with a strong (though not necessarily a complete) management team possessing unquestionable integrity, extensive industry/domain knowledge, and a track record of success.

Compatible Space - RVI looks at companies from a very wide array of industries. We take particular interest in the following industries (as defined by PWC's MoneyTree report): Business Products and Services, Electronics/Instrumentation, Financial Services, Industrial/Energy, and Medical Devices and Equipment. We are not interested in companies in the following industries: Biotechnology, Consumer Products and Services, Semiconductors, and Enterprise Software (we will look at other software). If you are unsure if you fit our profile, then please apply.

Location - No more than a 2-hour drive from Springfield. Preference is given for companies within 1 hour's drive. Short distances facilitate members making exploratory visits and, should we invest, a close and involved relationship with your company.

Stage (as defined by PWC's MoneyTree report) – RVI is most interested in companies in the "Early" (near/at revenue) and "Expansion" stages, but we also consider "Later Stage" opportunities. RVI generally is not interested in "Seed/Start-Up" companies.

Return On Investment (ROI) - For young, fast-growth companies we target a 10x ROI within 5 years (IRR of 58%). For mature, slower-growth companies we are open to IRRs of at least 15%.

Financing – Company should ideally be seeking no more than $2 million in the current round and no more than $20 million of follow-on funding to reach exit. RVI's ideal investment size $250-500,000, though our median investment size to-date has been about $1 million. There are some exceptions to these criteria made for companies in syndication with other angel groups/venture capitalists or that are referred by an RVI Member who is passionate about the deal. We typically (but not always) require preferred stock with a liquidity event to take place in 5-7 years.

River Valley Investors Invests In These Industries

• Business Products and Services	• Lifestyle
• Clean Technology	• Marketing / Advertising
• Electronics / Instrumentation	• Other
• Healthcare Services	• Software
• Industrial/Energy

River Valley Investors Invests In Companies That Have Reached The Following Milestones

Full Product Ready - $10M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue

Concept OnlyProduct In DevelopmentPrototype ReadyFull Product Ready$500K in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue$1M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue$3M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue$5M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue$10M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue$20M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue$50M in Trailing 12 Mo. RevenueMore than $50M in Trailing 12 Mo. RevenueMore than $50M in Trailing 12 Mo. Revenue ►◄ Concept Only