Photos by Ralph Freso
The process of evaluating startups at the Canyon Angels pitch event Wednesday at Grand Canyon University went well beyond examining companies with the best traction and most promising financial outlook.
For the due diligence team that was involved in the selection of Terecircuits, which provides an advanced solution for shipping complex semiconductor chips, there was the task of breaking down the science and technology of the product and presenting it to investors in a simple form.
“I've been in groups before where they kind of make decisions and just write it down, but our team leader (Trevor Nelson) wanted us to know the information inside and out, which really helped making our presentation,” said Rylan Codorniz, who was part of a team that included fellow due diligence analysts Samuel Snyder, Daniel Frohling, Emily Coyle and Nelson.
Their efforts earned them a $1,000 award from Hool Coury Law by vote of the audience who attended the event at Canyon Ventures.
“I'm excited that we could have a company of that caliber actually here at a raise that's in our wheelhouse,” Canyon Angels Founder and Chairman of the Board Tim Kelley said Wednesday after the pitch event concluded.
Canyon Angels is a nonprofit with more than 65 accredited investors evaluating startups across the nation, usually raising from $500,000 to $1.5 million a year, with valuations frequently running from $5-15 million. Canyon Angels has funded about 70 companies in the last 10 ½ years, Kelley confirmed.
The selection of Terecircuits comes at a time when the semiconductor business is exploding with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company growing in the West Valley at a rapid rate.
But it wasn’t axiomatic that it would be selected. Three other diverse companies were considered: VoicePatrol, an AI voice moderation company for multiplayer games that applies real-time analysis to flag unwanted conduct; Enyrgy, which has developed LED-based technology as a non-evasive alternative to supplements and pharmaceuticals to stimulate vitamin D, nitric oxide and serotonin synthesis; and Monsoon Venture Fund, which specializes in early stage investment with an AI connection.
Each due diligence team spent at least a month examining all facets of the company it was assigned. Codorniz credited Nelson for assigning all team members to research all areas of Terecircuits instead of one special component.
Representatives from each of the four companies were allotted about five minutes to deliver their pitch, followed by a five-minute question-and-answer session and concluding with each due diligence student team disclosing their takeaways and risks of each business.
Terecircuits CEO Wayne T. Richard expressed the importance of his product in a changing industry, where semiconductor chips now resemble a miniature city, and advanced packaging has swelled from nearly 20 percent of total manufacturing costs to 30 to 40 percent for leading-edge chips.
“More and more, this is becoming a cost differentiator and a bottleneck,” Richard said.
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
