Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Agreement Reached on Fostering Research in Angel Field: AIA at Masaryk University

Today, AIA's Michal Kohoutek was invited to hold a guest lecture at Masaryk University's Faculty of Economics and Administration at the invitation of the Department of Finance chairman, Dr FrantiĊĦek Kalouda (the two are portrayed on the left, after the lecture).

The lecture was held in a jovial atmosphere thanks to Dr Kalouda's rapport with his students and their trust in his expertise and his supportiveness. Michal started his lecture by asking the attending students how many were running a business and how many would like to. From about a 10% positive response to the first question, the share jumped to more than 60% after the second.

To the question if they had heard of the concept of "business angel" or "angel investor" before, only a handful answered affirmatively, which led to a presentation of who such investors are and to examples of successful angel investments. Many passionate questions were asked by the students about the mechanics of how entrepreneurs initiate angel fund raising and how investors approach their decision making, which showed both the interest in this form of financing and the need to educate the future Czech business leaders about it.

After the lecture, Michal Kohoutek and Dr Kalouda agreed about the need for a reliable assessment of the weight of angel investments in the Czech economy and for creating a local research point analogous to the American Centre for Venture Research led by Professor Sohl. They agreed on specific steps about how to improve the situation, to be disclosed soon.

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