Angel investment in Edinburgh, from California

As a result of the EIE'10 event, we are now making a small investment in an early stage Edinburgh company. So we are sorting through the details, finding a local law firm, dealing with the Scottish government grant support process, and so on. Objective being to balance getting the company started, spending as little of the initial investment as possible on the overhead of legal and operational process, while making a structure which will be attractive to additional funding.

There's no local equivalent to the Ycombinator Series AA equity financing documents - the law firms all promote the idea that each company has its own set of unique circumstances. The British Venture Capital Association documents are aimed at a much later stage investment than the one we are making, and are much more investor biased than the Y Combinator docs.

Coincidentally, Don Dodge (now at Google) and Brad Feld (Foundry Group) both posted advice for angel investors this week.
Updated to add - Will Herman posted a good list on 2 June 2010.

Fred Wilson and Chris Dixon made useful comments on termsheets for "quick closing" in 2009.

Updated (13 October 2010) to add a reference to the SeriesSeed documents. Brad Feld said yesterday that it is now cheaper to raise equity than debt, if you can find a lawyer who will use one of the sets of templates for terms.

References

Y Combinator example docs
BVCA example docs
Don Dodge - how to be an angel investor and make money
Brad Feld - suggestions for angels
Will Herman - on Angel Investing
Fred Wilson - first round term sheet
Chris Dixon - first round funding terms
Series Seed (Fenwick & West) documents

Cunning Systems evaluates product and service ideas in computing and communications. If you would like to discuss an idea, contact us at info@cunningsystems.com