The Heartland Angels Process — Our Approach

Heartland Angels' unique process has four components:

1. A Program to perform a stepped due diligence analysis to review investment opportunities.
2. A Strategy to use the multifaceted experience of professionals, academics and scientists in investigating and assessing early staged investment opportunities.
3. A Method to syndicate an opt-in funding approach so as to coordinate the interests of multiple private equity ("angel") investors.
4. A Protocol to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of negotiations. This maximizes communications and minimizes unnecessary risk and cost to the investor and to portfolio companies.

Heartland Angels operates to facilitate the investor-company matching process. Each party in the agreement has something potentially something to gain and/or to lose.

1. Deal Flow

Heartland Angels' deal flow comes from multi-tiered approach and its special relationships involving Midwest universities, research laboratories and parks, incubators, law firms, community and entrepreneurial groups, manufacturing facilities, accounting firms, financial institutions, professional, scientific and technical associations, and with other investor groups involved in seed, start-up, early stage, mezzanine and late stage investments.

2. Evaluating Opportunities

Heartland Angels' program evaluates prospective investments rigorously using a unique approach which enables it to evaluate prospective companies whose innovations range from technology based to manufacturing. Standard financial valuation criteria, e.g., Discounted Cash Flow or Real Options, supplement this approach when indicated

3. Negotiating Terms Of the Investment

Heartland Angels, Inc. provides a negotiating staff to assist in the setting and structuring the terms, valuation and equity issues involved in the investment. Input from investors is part of this process. The choice of the type of investment is determined on a deal by deal basis.

4. Portfolio Companies

After an investment, Heartland Angels, Inc. continues to make its Network and Alliance available to its portfolio companies. Advice and guidance concerning operational, management, legal, and financial issues affecting the subsequent progress of the company can be sought from the investors' network during their regular meetings or on its website as needed.

In addition, Heartland Angels, Inc. provides its portfolio companies assistance in securing future financing when appropriate.

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