Structured angel groups in the USA: The Dinner Club experience

The angel marketplace has evolved over the past 20-30 years from an informal, word-of-mouth network dominated by 'lone wolf' chequebook angels making deals occurring on an ad hoc basis after cursory due diligence to a much more professional and sophisticated approach. The emergence since the mid-1990s of organized groups of angels has been responsible for this change. Structured angel groups and clubs are providing a more efficient market place for entrepreneurs and enable angels to find deals more effectively and invest in deals that they would never otherwise have been able to do. The activities and operation of the Dinner Club, one of the leading angel groups in the USA, based in the Washington DC area, is described.