Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
Canyon Angels on Tuesday night celebrated its 10th anniversary pitch event, proof of the nonprofit's impressive sustainability.
“I love the mission to build a legacy, to build a portfolio,” Founder and Chairman of the Board Tim Kelley said after the Canyon Angels investment group elected to back Researchify. The company partners with clinical trial sites and patient care centers to automate the outreach and recruitment process for clinical trials.
“It’s from the standpoint of the investor members that is the reason we’re all here because they actually invest money. If they stop investing, then we’re out of jobs, so to speak.”
At the same time, it’s a great experience for the students to display their skills in an authentic setting.
“It’s totally on them,” Kelley said. “They’ll tell you we’re not sitting there, telling them what to do. They have to figure it out.”
At the annual event, held in the Lope House Restaurant at GCU Golf Course, Researchify, an operation that automates the outreach and recruitment steps for clinical trials, was chosen from a group of three diverse companies. Also presenting were Finlete, a platform that allows people to invest in athletes (such as Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase) by buying shares of their future earnings, and Planatome, which produces sharp surgical blades. They were the finalists from among an initial pool of eight companies.
The due diligence teams decide what company they believe has the best “traction” and the best financial outlook. The due diligence teams pick team leads, and each group spends about a month researching each company.
Each group’s analysts concentrate on a specific area of the business, such as marketing, validation or finance.
They also talk to the companies’ customers and CEOs several times before reporting their findings and deciding whether to invest or pass.
“We’re happy the way it turned out,” Canyon Angels Director Evan Hoehne said.
Canyon Angels is a nonprofit with more than 65 accredited investors looking at startups across the country. They typically raise from $500,000 to $1.5 million a year, with their valuations often running from $5-15 million. Canyon Angels has funded 76 companies in the last 10 years, Kelley said.
At Tuesday’s event, each of the three companies were allotted 10 minutes to deliver their pitch, followed by five minutes of answering questions. Each of the three due diligence student teams assigned to each company delivered a 10-minute pitch (including takeaways and risks of each business), followed by a five-minute question-and-answer session on their findings.
“A lot of these firms will have these companies pitch in a speed-dating fashion, and they’ll do the due diligence themselves,” Hoehne said. “These are adults who have full-time jobs. There are a lot of hassles for them, and it deters people from getting into this space because it’s hard to get into, it’s very complicated.
“Having students do the upfront that you don’t (have to do) is super helpful for these investors to understand the companies and be confident in their investments.”
Founder and CEO Rob Bohacs delivered Researchify’s pitch, which uses an AI assistant named Jane to educate, recruit and onboard patients to a clinical trial that fits their condition.
Finlete provides athletes capital early in their careers when their wages are typically low. In return, fans have the opportunity to invest financially and emotionally in an athlete’s success.
Planatome produces surgical blades touted to decrease scarring and improve healing in the surgery areas.
“The fun thing that the students find out – and I always do, and it’s why I love this space – is these companies are doing unique things,” Kelley said. “And you get to learn about an entire new industry, and the students realize, ‘Oh my God, it’s real,’ and now all of a sudden he or she learned about surgical medical blades, whatever medical approval procedures are, or the athlete investments are.
“That makes it all real, and sometimes they find an interest ... and they dive into the businesses and fall in love with that industry and they go build some business like that.”
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at Mark.Gonzales@gcu.edu
***
Related content:
GCU News: Here's the pitch: Canyon Angels students learn from expert
GCU News: Students, Canyon Angels investors make a big splash
