Angel Capital Group leaders tackle 'rev-up' challenge
By Milt Capps Last Updated 6:34 p.m.
Angel Capital Group Founder Rachael Qualls says she recently realized her fledgling company was not likely to fly, unless she got help.Consequently, Qualls has recently admitted two new co-owners into the early-stage investment company she chartered more than two years ago. The latest is ACG Nashville Managing Partner Robert "Yogi" Dougher (doo'-er), who until July was co-owner of Global Motorsports Inc., Nashville's long-established purveyor of upscale used vehicles. Dougher's appointment follows Qualls' earlier announcement of a similar collaboration with Roger Kiger, a personal-wealth planner in East Tennessee who covers the Knoxville market. Now, Qualls, Kiger and Dougher are apparently ACG's only owners. Thede (at right) relocated to Nashville about two years ago with his songwriter wife, following five years in Lehman Brothers' New York City operations as a vice president. Thede, 30, told VNC he earned three undergraduate degrees at the University of Colorado at Boulder (mathematics, finance and economics). He said he also spent several semesters in special academic programs at Harvard University and in London. Since relocating here, Thede has spent much of his time traveling, archiving family artifacts, working around the house and blogging. On Aug. 26, Qualls wrote in her ACG blog that she had realized that spending "60 percent" of her time – without compensation – to meet with entrepreneurs and review investment proposals was keeping her from recruiting new angel investors who pay annual dues. Qualls' LinkedIn profile indicates she remains owner of a couple of other small businesses in property management and eBay reselling. Her ACG blogpost seems to indicate, also, that too much unpaid time with entrepreneurs was keeping her from other duties, such as raising capital for worthy ventures. Simultaneously, Qualls told her blog readers, she resolved to double angel-investors' membership dues to $5,000, annually, from the previous $2,500. Qualls also stressed that, as of the date of her posting, entrepreneurs who survive the ACG due-diligence review "had an 80% chance of receiving funding."
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