(November17, 2011 – Naples, FL)  Peninsula Fund Administrators, the third party administrator for the Tamiami Angel Fund I (“TAFI”), announces the addition of Daphne Barley.

A former permitting engineer with the Department of Environmental Protection and graduate from the University of Florida, she will function as fund administrator to the Tamiami Angel Fund located in Naples, FL.

“Daphne will be a great asset to the Southwest Florida entrepreneurial community in her new role,” said Timothy Cartwright, managing director of Peninsula.  “Having previously worked at a family business, she understands the entrepreneurial effort required to succeed in a competitive marketplace.  With her engineering and science background, she also has a great appreciation for the research and development efforts that are fundamental to the success of an early-stage growth company.”

The Tamiami Angel Fund is the first angel fund in Southwest Florida.  As a member-managed angel capital fund, TAFI utilizes its capital, resources, and expertise of its members to select suitable investments.  Peninsula supports the engagement and interaction of the members of the fund through deal flow management, due diligence coordination, financial reporting and execution of the fund investment activity.

About the Tamiami Angel Fund I

The Tamiami Angel Fund is a for profit member-owned and member-managed limited liability company, organized to provide Members an opportunity for active involvement in a diversified investment process through a portfolio of Florida based emerging growth companies.  The Fund’s strategy is to leverage an investment committee approach and a mentorship philosophy, through which Angels, as successful executives and entrepreneurs, can be involved in business investing, value creation, and benefit from shared ideas and resources.  Learn more at www.tamiamiangels.com.  The Tamiami Angel Fund I is a member of the Angel Capital Association.

Tamiami Angel Fund I invests in PlusOne Solutions, Inc.

REGION’S FIRST ANGEL FUND ANNOUNCES FIRST INVESTMENT

(May 2, 2011 – Naples, FL)  The Tamiami Angel Fund I (TAFI) announces its first investment in PlusOne Solutions, Inc., an Orlando, FL based company that provides training, background checks, certification and insurance verification for independent contractors, who work for such well-known national retailers as Sears and Samsung.

The Fund is investing $200,000 in PlusOne and its members have committed an additional $285,000 of “sidecar” funding for a total investment of $485,000 in PlusOne’s Series B Preferred Stock Offering.  Sidecar funding is the optional add-on investment made by the individual members of TAFI.

PlusOne is an industry leader that provides solutions to improve the quality and coverage of service networks.  In 2008, the company had seven clients.  Now it has 25 including Whirlpool, which uses thousands of independent contractors to fulfill its installation and repair services.

The Tamiami Angel Fund is the first angel fund in Southwest Florida and PlusOne is its first investment.  TAFI has reviewed over 194 business plans and invited 9 companies to present to its members since its August 2010 inception.  “We are incredibly pleased with the level and number of ideas we see and PlusOne is one of the best.  TAFI found PlusOne’s investment prospectus compelling because of its existing customer base, targeted suite of product offerings, expanding marketplace and solid management team”, said Timothy Cartwright, Chairman of the Tamiami Angel Fund and Partner at Fifth Avenue Advisors.

TAFI’s members include a number of the region’s leading investors, entrepreneurs, and former C-level executive from Fortune 500 companies who are dedicated to accelerating early through expansion-stage ventures.  “Angel investing represents a significantly large and growing portion of investment capital available to growth oriented companies,” Cartwright said.  “Angel Funds” have recently gained traction across the US as a preferred method for angel investors.  The fund model provides a structured process that facilitates a relatively quick and efficient investment decision”.

In February 2011, PlusOne was among 50 companies to have earned a place in Florida’s inaugural class of “Companies to Watch”, an accolade presented by the Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University of Central Florida, ACG Florida, the Edward Lowe Foundation and The Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development.

As a member-managed angel capital fund, TAFI utilizes its capital, resources, and expertise of its members to assist portfolio companies.  With TAFI’s investment, the Fund will gain a seat on PlusOne’s Board of Directors.

TAFI will typically invest between $200,000 and $500,000 in a company and is seeking quality investment opportunities.  The Fund focuses on growth-oriented companies with revenue, where the principals and founders are highly committed.  Entrepreneurs are encouraged to submit their business plans at the Fund’s website, www.tamiamiangels.com.

“We are delighted to be Tamiami Angel Fund’s first investment.  Since the founding of PlusOne six years ago, it has consistently seen a 60 percent growth in its revenues each year.  By working with this dedicated and experienced group of business minded investors, we are much better positioned to handle our growth and success” says Craig Reilly, CEO of PlusOne Solutions, Inc.

 “A lack of access to growth capital and a relatively undersized venture capital market have prevented Florida from maximizing its full potential,” says Cartwright.  “While ROI is the primary goal for the Tamiami Angel Fund I, our goal is double bottom line investing where we seek the highest ROI but also desire to have a positive impact on the state of Florida’s economy.”

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About the Tamiami Angel Fund I

The Tamiami Angel Fund is a for profit member-owned and member-managed limited liability company, organized to provide Members an opportunity for active involvement in a diversified investment process through a portfolio of Florida based emerging growth companies.  The Fund’s strategy is to leverage an investment committee approach and a mentorship philosophy, through which Angels, as successful executives and entrepreneurs, can be involved in business investing, value creation, and benefit from shared ideas and resources.  Learn more at www.tamiamiangels.com.  The Tamiami Angel Fund I is a member of the Angel Capital Association

With nearly 100 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 420 led by a nearly 2 to 1 margin.

Chicago Cubs proposed Mesa spring training facility

The measure authorizes Mesa to spend up to $84 million for a stadium and practice facilities, most likely on the site now occupied by Riverview Golf Course. The city has said it would spend up to an additional $15 million for infrastructure.

The stadium is to open in time for spring training in 2013.

A large crowd at the Hilton Phoenix East Mesa Hotel cheered and waved “Yes on 420″ signs as the first returns of the night appeared to signal an insurmountable lead for the proposition.

“Mesa has done its part,” Mayor Scott Smith said. “Now we’re going to expect the Cubs to do their part with a World Series.”

The election was the climax of a nearly two-year effort to keep the Cactus League’s most popular team in Mesa, where it has trained on and off since the early 1950s.

Although the Cubs’ current stadium is only 13 years old and is already the largest in all of spring training, the team has grown dissatisfied with training facilities at nearby Fitch Park.

As Mesa and the Cubs discussed what to do about that, the team began expressing a desire to build a “Wrigleyville” entertainment complex next to its facilities, something that can’t be done at landlocked Hohokam Stadium.

Last year, business interests in Florida offered to build a stadium and other facilities for the Cubs, at the same time providing enough land for Wrigleyville. But Mesa convinced the team to stay, contingent on financing.

 A Cactus League funding bill died in the Legislature this spring, forcing Mesa to pay the bill itself. The city will sell some of its Pinal County land holdings to pay for stadium construction bonds.

 There is a possibility a scaled-back Waveyard water theme park will be built next to the Cubs complex. Waveyard’s plans for a voter-approved $250 million resort at Riverview fizzled because of the global recession.

The Tamiami Angel Fund I, LLC is ready to fly after securing $1.5 million from private investors to help companies grow in Florida.

“Over the last 14 to 16 months, we’ve been out raising money for that fund,” said Timothy Cartwright, chairman of the Tamiami Angel Fund in Naples.

The fund is a first for Southwest Florida. There are similar ones located elsewhere in Florida, including Jacksonville.

“Our preference would be to look at Southwest Florida companies, but we have opened it up to the state of Florida,” Cartwright said.

“We feel it’s important to look at a broad-based deal flow in order to pick the best opportunities to invest in,” he said. “It is still an investment fund. So the goal is to make a return on investment.”

There are 30 investors in the fund, who each put in $50,000. Companies will make presentations to an executive committee overseeing the fund, which will then send the most promising opportunities on to investors.

By a super majority vote, investors will chose the companies they want to put their money into. Investors include retired entrepreneurs, former executives of Fortune 500 companies and even a retired professor, who all live in Southwest Florida, from Naples to Sarasota.

“We would expect to invest probably between $100,000 to $200,000 from the fund in any one company, which could mean we would have a portfolio of between eight to 12 companies that we invest in,” Cartwright said.

The goal is to help start-up companies grow and more established companies expand.

The fund changes the “entrepreneurial landscape” in Southwest Florida, giving entrepreneurs a new source of money to tap into during the earliest stages of starting a business, when other financing is hard to find, Cartwright said.

While there are other venture capital groups in Florida, most do not invest in early stage companies

“The EDC has declared our next phase of economic development in Collier County as the era of the entrepreneur and the Tamiami Angel Fund is a great addition to the resources available to our growing list of innovative entrepreneurs in Collier County,” said Tammie Nemecek, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Collier County.

The EDC’s mission is to diversify the local economy and create high-wage jobs.

The angel fund is an outgrowth of the Gulf Coast Venture Forum, which was created in 2001 to help foster business growth in Southwest Florida. Through the forum, individual members can decide whether to invest in companies after hearing formal presentations made at its regular meetings. These investors do not invest as a group.

The venture forum – along with economic development offices in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Sarasota, Hendry and Glades counties, local universities and the Regional Business Alliance of Southwest Florida – investigated the feasibility of starting a local angel fund in 2008. After the study, a consensus was reached to do it.

Fund participants get one term sheet, simplifying what otherwise might be a contentious wrangling over the terms of their investment. They will get seats on the boards of the companies they invest in, allowing them to lend their own business expertise to those enterprises.

“Angel investors typically aren’t interested in getting involved in the day-to-day operations,” Cartwright said. “They do want a say in it. But more on a board level.”

The fund will begin reviewing investment opportunities immediately and will hold its first member meeting in October. It expects to get some of his leads from the Gulf Coast Venture Forum, which gets business plans from all over the country, but primarily from Florida.

“Right now we are getting about 30 business plans a month,” said Cartwright, who is the forum’s president.

Most of the investors in the new angel fund are different than those involved in the forum.

“This brought in a whole new class of investors,” Cartwright said.

The individuals who shape our communities in Southwest Florida come in a variety of styles, from high-profile to low-key. What they have in common, though, is that they wield the power to get things done. These movers and shakers use personal resources as well as talents and brains to make a difference. And when they speak, others listen—and often follow.

To arrive at this year’s list, we called upon several sources to identify candidates and whittle them down to our final 47, listed here alphabetically. Southwest Florida boasts movers and shakers who hold sway on national and international levels as well as local, and many deserve recognition. For our list of Gulfshore power players, we tended to focus on those individuals who influence our own communities and who gained attention during the year for their accomplishments.

Guest commentary: Economic gardening: growing jobs at existing businesses

By Timothy Cartwright / Board member, Economic Development Council of Collier County

Saturday, September 19, 2009

January 8, 2009

Naples investment advisor Tim Cartwright will deliver the keynote address at the 10th annual Entrepreneurs Law School on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Florida Gulf Coast University. Entrepreneurs Law School is a chance for small business owners to interact with local attorneys who specialize in issues that affect small businesses.

Mr. Cartwright, the founder and managing director of Compass Advisory Group and president of the Gulf Coast Venture Forum, will speak on the topic of “The Stress and Frustration of “Maybe” – Why is Raising Capital so Difficult?” He has more than 16 years of experience in strategic consulting, business transactions and financial services. Compass Advisory Group provides services primarily in mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Cartwright also established By-Products Interactive, an electronic trading, market research and publishing company; and Benchmark Solutions, a supply chain consulting firm. He earned his MBA from J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Entrepreneurs Law School is coordinated by the Small Business Development Center of FGCU; this year’s sponsors are the law firm of Roetzel & Andress, Key- Bank and Briers CPA. Hour-long sessions throughout the day will be conducted by attorneys who are experts in the legal matters of small business.

CHARLOTTE–Open Finance Network has acquired American Securities Group, an independent broker/dealer and Epluribus, Inc, a software developer, located in Boca Raton, FL.

American Securities Group, Inc., (Member FINRA/SIPC) is a fully disclosed introducing Broker/Dealer offering back-office services and access to a variety of Separate Account Managers to independent Investment Advisors.  American Securities Group also offer discount online brokerage services.   Epluribus, Inc. is the developer of the Wealthware Trading Platform.

Open Finance Network President Vic Esclamado said, “The acquisition of American Securities Group was an important step in our overall strategic plan to provide full-service, enterprise-wide services to the independent financial advisor market.”

Open Finance Network is a leading provider of open architecture front- and back-office technology and service solutions for family offices and fee-only advisors.   OFN’s solutions empower advisors by eliminating the administrative and financial friction involved in delivering best-of-class approaches across their business, wealth and portfolio management processes.   OFN is based in Charlotte, N.C., one of the nation’s leading financial technology and services centers.   The company has a full-time staff of approximately 100 people and has over $14 billion in assets under administration.

Compass Advisory Group advised the shareholders of Invest Holdings, Inc. on this transaction.