Calling all angels to invest in LI firms

Michael Faltischek is looking for 75 good men and women. He defines good, in this case at least, as those who would be willing to invest $25,000 in a new technology or biotechnology company on Long Island.

Faltischek is chairman of the Long Island Angel Network, a 3-year-old investors group made up of some of the Island's most powerful executives from law firms and energy and tech companies.

The Network has recently revived itself, after a quiet period during the depths of the recession. About 100 of its members turned out in force Friday morning for the organization's annual meeting in Melville.

"Our primary goal is to put together companies and investors," Faltischek, of the Uniondale-based Ruskin Moscou Faltischek law firm, told the gathering. "It's our hope we can help these companies stay on Long Island and grow on Long Island, just like they do in Silicon Valley."

The Network used to charge a $1,000 membership fee but has waived it for the 2010-2011 year to help stimulate growth in the organization, Faltischek said. In an interview before the meeting, Faltischek said he hopes to attract about 75 new members who would be willing to invest $25,000 in one or more new companies in a year and every year after. But members are not obligated to do so.

The Network is not a venture capitalist group, and it is certainly not your typical friend-of-the-family who loans some seed money to get a business started. It is "in between" those, Faltischek said, seeking not only to make some loans but to provide "nurturing" for companies that could later seek VC help.

Can it work? Network secretary Peter Goldsmith thinks so. "We need this here," he said.

Faltischek said he would know in about a month whether Friday's meeting has attracted 75 good people.