Reuters Money

With few female angel investors, signs of change

In the traditionally male world of angel investing, Ed Reitler is used to having his voice heard. A partner in Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLC of New York City, he’s also the founder of the ARC Angel Fund, a New York-based investing launched in 2010. So when he says that it’s “incredibly important” to develop female angel investors because “they are crucial to ensuring the funding of a more diverse group of companies,” you’d hope his male counterparts would take notice.

After all, Reitler’s got a point. A 2006 report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on women and angel investing concluded that “women entrepreneurs gravitate to women angels,” and that those benefactors “look at more women’s start-up businesses than some of the more traditional [male] groups do.”

That also explains why Reiter serves as a male mentor to the Pipeline Fellowship, a group that trains women to become angel investors through education, mentoring and practice. Its young founder and CEO, Natalia Oberti Noguera, is a lady on a mission: to change the lopsided ratio of male-to-female angel investors, and get female angels involved in finding and supporting female entrepreneurs.

In a new report from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, author Jeffrey Sohl outlines how women represent just 12 percent of all angel investors, and women-owned ventures account for 12 percent of entrepreneurs seeking angel capital. Of these ventures, about one in four received angel investment during the first two quarters on 2011.

Low as those numbers look, they were actually higher in 2010, when 13 percent of angels were female, and women-owned ventures accounted for 21 percent of entrepreneurs seeking angel capital.

Less than two weeks after the Center for Venture Research released its findings, Oberti Noguera hosted an event in New York City on Oct. 20 to announce that Pipeline’s 2011 fellows would invest $50,000 in PhilanTech. Based in Washington, D.C., the company produces an online grants management system for foundations, nonprofits and corporations.

Combined with another $55,000 from the Pipeline Angels alumni network, that means $105,000 in fresh capital for a company that had struggled to gain investment traction — even though PhilanTech’s founder, Dahna Goldstein, was lauded by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of 2009’s most promising social entrepreneurs.

Secrets of wealthy whiz kids: How to make a million by 21

Earlier this month, Reuters Money featured a story with advice on how to get on the road to Millionaire Row. But what if you’re in a hurry, like so many multi-tasking teens of the 21st Century? What if your goal is to make that million by the time you turn 21? Can it be done?

The answer is yes, if you take the fast lane as an entrepreneur on steroids — something common to the four millionaires we polled for this follow-up. Three made it to the seven-digit milestone by 21; the fourth reached it when he turned 24. Here, those wealthy whiz kids past and present share the secrets that contributed to the fortunes they made.

Jon Koon, 27

Position: Owner and designer of the Private Stock denim line, marketing guru and manufacturer of auto accessories.

How he made it: A licensing and fashion marvel, Koon made his first million at 16 as a pioneer in car tuning, where vehicles are modified with special parts to enhance appearance and performance.

Top tips for millionaire hopefuls: Get a business plan. Koon saved $5,000 to start his first company, but the business plan helped him get substantial backing. “Investment is always tied to a clear opportunity for profit and that exact stream of profitability needs to be identified from the beginning,” he says.

I’ve fallen and I can’t Tweet: New tech solutions to elder care

It’s rare to find a person over 20 in the U.S. who’s not familiar with the expression “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

The phrase is used in an ongoing, decades-old advertisement from Life Alert Emergency Response, a company founded in 1987 that hasn’t really altered its phone-based, 24-hour emergency help for older folks. The service is still accessible via a button on a lanyard worn around the neck or on a wristband.

Not an iPhone app? Not a GPS tracker?

For years, companies have tried to improve upon the concept, but have not dented Life Alert’s market share. The company says it has more than 17,000 “grateful testimonials” and “[saves] a life from a catastrophe every 17 minutes.”

But with today’s aging population, families find themselves in need of more than just alerts of falling. Depending on where families reside, nursing homes can be expensive. A recent study from Genworth Financial showed that a private room in a New York nursing home this year could cost as much as $119,355 annually. In Massachusetts, it’s $125,925. And in Alaska of all places, it’s $227,760. So people are looking toward technology to manage elder care longer — and keep their older relatives safer — without breaking the bank or resorting to full-time nursing facilities.

And it’s not always just seniors who are looking for emergency contact services. Take Scott Tatum of Memphis, Tennessee, for example. One evening in May during storms and intense flooding, computer programmer Tatum, 44, was stuck in his car, facing down a tornado.

He went unharmed, but he was unable to check in with his family. Phone lines were down. His text messages wouldn’t go through. And he guessed that his parents would worry: All they knew was that heavy storms had begun after he left a family gathering.