Bill Payne's celebration of life honored the man who had the largest impact on angel investing

A Celebration of life was held a few days ago for the man known as the Father of Angel Investing. But given the decades over which William (Bill) Payne nurtured both entrepreneurs and angel investors across the West, including this state, and even in foreign countries, it would be more appropriate to refer to him as “the Grandfather of Angel Investing.”

Payne, 82, died of dementia at his winter home in Henderson, NV, on Dec. 19.

Payne was described as one of the original thinkers in the angel investor start-up space, working first as a solo investor, then going on to help found four angel groups, devising valuable concepts and educational materials for the current angel investing model.

One of those who attended the sharing of memories event in Nevada was Liz Marchi, a mutual friend whom I have described in several columns as the “queen of angel investing in Montana,” where Payne spent his summer months.

Marchi, who founded the Frontier Fund in the Flathead area of Montana in 2006 and went on to guide angel-investor groups in first Missoula then Bozeman as well as her own, told me Payne was a founding member of both her original fund and a subsequent one launched in 2014.

She described Payne as “wicked smart, generous, fair and an eloquent teacher,” adding, “No one shaped the world of angel investing more than Bill.”

No one shaped the world of angel investing more than Bill Payne Bill Payne


Richard Sudek, chairman emeritus of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA), then the largest angel group in the country with chapters in LA, San Diego, and Orange counties as well as Santa Babara and Inland Empire, said, “Bill was an ambassador for the entire angel community.”

Payne, a TCA member who, in fact, created the San Diego chapter, was “dedicated to angel education and helping both entrepreneurs and angels,” said Sudek, also a mutual friend whom I’ve known for some 15 years, during which Payne’s name often came up.

Payne served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City from 1995 to 2007. While at Kauffman, he assisted in the formation of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the official industry alliance of the 100-plus largest angel investor groups, which in 2009 presented him their award as the Most Influential US angel investor.

His speaking engagements and educational workshops took him to eight countries, where he led about 150 workshops. But he and his wife, Ann Colvin Payne, developed a special fondness for New Zealand, which led him to spend a year teaching angel investing.

They spent about three years in that country since 2010, assisting with the development of a startup ecosystem, and it was in 2010 that he received the New Zealand ArchAngel Award for his impact on angel investing.

I turned to Marchi for the final word, and she told me a story she might not have shared at the Nevada farewell gathering.

“I first met Bill in 2001 at an EDA conference in Pittsburgh.” She recalled. “He was terribly dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops. But I loved what he was saying.”

“I asked him for a drink, and it turned into many and a long-term relationship based on believing there are brilliant problem solvers and entrepreneurs in every zip code.”