Investment Criteria

NMA invests in companies with tremendous potential for success.

We prefer New Mexico based companies, New Mexican entrepreneurs, and companies with products and services that have NM economic impact.

The NM Angels are a vital part of our entrepreneurial ecosystem. I highly recommend entrepreneurs who are seeking capital look to the NM Angels. For those who are not quite ready to raise funding the events and workshops help you become better prepared to raise capital. For those that are ready, the NM Angels is made up a highly talented and experienced investors who will provide honest feedback and counsel. Once funded, the group and the individual angels are supportive and helpful.
– Lawrence Chavez, Founder of EveryDay Contacts

Tremendous potential?

Tremendous potential means that your company can increase its value 3-5 times in less than 5 years with the investment the Angels make. This level of return offsets the significant risk involved in building a company from an idea to a place where it has demonstrated traction and is rapidly growing its Customer and revenue base.

What do you and your team need to do to make the tremendous potential case to Angel investors?

A breakthrough thesis, a plan, capability, and experience.
The thesis is the origin story of your company. What is it that you do? Why are you doing it? Who cares enough about what you offer to spend time and money on it? How many of these folks are there and what would they pay? What alternatives are available?
The breakthrough is how this thesis is so different that your target buyers will flock to you and abandon alternatives (if these exist).

A plan is how your team intends to transform the origin story into a business. How will you bring it to market and engage with your target buyers? What are the unit economics and financial model of the business? How much capital do you need to grow value 3-5x? What will it take to develop the offer? What staff will you hire? This sounds like a significant amount of work – and it is.

Finally, the capability and experience of the team, your advisors, and your partners. If you have a breakthrough thesis, proven that buyers exist in sufficient numbers, and you have a plan – can you execute? What relevant knowledge, expertise, and experience do you have and what are you missing?

CRITERIA FAVORED

• Solid, ethical leadership with desire for advice and coaching
• Market opportunity sufficiently large to create a profitable, sustainable business that repays investment
• Compelling and achievable strategy to capture significant market share
• ‘Build a moat’ – barriers to entry such as patents, trade secrets, copyrights or other proprietary advantages are valuable
• Early stage
• Company valuation, pre-money, that is conservative and modest
• Unmet capital need up to $500K ideal; clear use of funds
• Multiple exit strategies are helpful to improve options for return on angel investment