From the time the first Sooners struck oil, there have been financially successful Oklahomans who showed a strong appetite for investing in high risk, high return deals.

In that way, angel investors have been a presence in our state since the first oil well gushed.

In another way, angel investing is a more recent phenomenon as individual angel investors — wealthy individuals who provide capital to startup companies in anticipation of significant returns — are increasingly organizing into angel groups.

As the state’s flagship university, UConn conducts ground-breaking research, works to better the lives of Connecticut’s residents, and educates students who will become tomorrow’s leaders and scholars.

What tends to be less apparent is the vital role that a top public university such as ours also plays in contributing to our region’s economic well-being. As a leading higher education institution, UConn is also responsible for fostering the kind of innovative thinking that will ultimately lead to the creation of jobs and thriving new business ventures.

Fortunately, we are seeing the state’s recent investments in this area beginning to take shape – investments that respond to a critical need to revitalize Connecticut’s economy over the course of these next few years.

The Angel Investor Management (AIM) Group announced today the formation of the Central Alabama Angel Network (CANN) to serve the capital needs of entrepreneurs and investors in a seven-county region.

"The Angel Investor Management Group is bringing together a single network of angel investor groups in Alabama. By banding together to share the expenses of operations, the economies of scale will work to benefit all," said AIM Group CEO Dick Reeves. "In this way we expect to increase the number and quality of investment opportunities available to investor members, and to speed up the process for entrepreneurs seeking capital for their companies. The result for Alabama will be increasing angel capital availability to early-stage companies throughout the state."

Does Maryland offer sufficient tax incentives to entice angels to invest in local startups?

Are tax incentives even applicable to angel investors?

The Wall Street Journal ran a story recently on the successes and failures of such incentives in other states.

"Tax breaks for angel investors have cropped up in recent years in about two dozen states as a means of stimulating job growth. But the effectiveness of the incentives-which range from breaks on 15% of funding in Colorado to 100% in Hawaii-are coming under greater scrutiny, particularly as states face budget pressure. Many states' programs expired at the end of 2011, were stripped of funding or were placed under a moratorium."

To aid the state in recovering economically and educationally, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has laid out a plan that includes creating jobs through public-private partnerships on capital projects and offering school districts aid incentives to implement new teacher evaluation systems.

Kenneth Adams, commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development, presented Cuomo's Regional 2012-13 Executive Budget & Reform Plan at the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University on Jan. 25.

Capital funding for high tech startups is in a dismal state, having dropped by a factor of 10 over the past decade.

Why is seed funding so hard to find? It all has to do with risk and risk management. It goes without saying that risks are enormous at the seed stage and, what is worse, they are hard to mitigate. On the other hand, many (though certainly not all) innovative early-stage companies hold an allure of "changing the world" and bringing high financial payoffs to their investors.

From a societal standpoint, it is a good thing to create and invest in innovative companies. The economic data for Canada suggests that 40 per cent of new jobs are created by young companies that make up about four per cent of businesses. Clearly, finding a workable mechanism that would ease the pain of raising seed funding and provide practical incentives to investors should result in new businesses being formed, providing significant economic benefits that would contribute to the prosperity of all of us.