The eCoast Angel Network describes itself as “entrepreneur advocates.”

So it’s fitting that the startup investment group based on the New Hampshire Seacoast is this year’s winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.

The award is part of the college’s Paul J. Holloway Prize, given each year to an entrepreneur and to a team of students with the best startup business idea.

“It’s an honor for us,” said Michael Marsh, vice chair of the eCoast Angel Network executive committee.

William Nyhan, chair of the executive committee and a co-founder of the network, cited the group’s “incredible journey. It’s been a blast and very rewarding — making a difference, having an impact, working with great people, having some fun and, hopefully, making a little money.”

Angels invest their own money in a startup in exchange for equity in the company. In fact, the business term, “angel investors,” is rooted at the University of New Hampshire.

In 1978, William Wetzel, a professor and founder of UNH’s Center for Venture Research, minted the term in the first study of how entrepreneurs raise seed capital to help start businesses.

George McQuilken, another of the founders of eCoast in 2000, was himself recognized in 2007 by the then-UNH Whittemore School of Business for his commitment to the state’s business community.

“It’s pretty impressive the amount of money we deal with, the things we do, the reach we have, and I think they figure we all deserve it,” said McQuilken of the group award this year.

Robotics investment

According to Marsh, eCoast’s membership numbers about 40, most of whom are based in New Hampshire.

Unlike venture capitalists, who usually invest as part of a group, angels at eCoast invest individually.

“We don’t invest as a group, we invest as individuals,” said Marsh. “It’s not like we’re a fund. Where we can’t provide all the funding we’ll typically go out and talk to other angel groups. There’s probably 15 other groups in the New England area.”

The group recently agreed to financing $2.5 million for a startup robotics company in Massachusetts.

“They came to us three months ago,” said Marsh. “We liked what we saw, we negotiated a term sheet with them for equity to raise $2.5 million. We put in more than $2 million of it, and we’re working with the founders every day to raise the last half million.”

While other investors might throw a little bit of money at several different startups, Marsh said eCoast’s directors distinguish themselves by providing a lot of money for a select few startups.

“We choose a small number of the companies, but we tend to invest a lot more,” said Marsh. “We want to be part of the growth with them. We almost always take a board seat. In completing a deal, we’ll write the term sheet that defines the deal, we’ll bring in a substantial amount of money, and we’ll go out and help the entrepreneur find additional funding, other groups and other sources.”

Biggest success

At its inception, most of eCoast’s deals had to do with software, according to Marsh, but they’ve been extending their reach of late.

“When George and I got started almost all the deals were software deals, and that’s changed dramatically,” said Marsh. “They’re still out there, but a lot more of the deals are life sciences, med devices, some sort of med technology. And we’re adding people who have expertise in that specific area, because a lot of us don’t.”

As they continue to look at opportunities — and poll their directors on the directions they’d like to go — one area that is of no interest right now is cryptocurrency.

“The one thing that caught my attention is nobody was interested in crypto.

To the extent that we’re savvy guys — and I’m not sure that we are — we’re saying crypto is not the future. We may all regret that five years from now, but that’s what I’m thinking right now,” said Marsh.

The group’s biggest success, Marsh and McQuilken agree, is Aras, founded in 2000 in Andover, Mass., as a developer and publisher of product development software. The company says Airbus, Audi, DENSO, Honda, Kawasaki, Microsoft, Mitsubishi and Nissan are using the platform to manage business processes.

“We were involved from day one until the exit,” said Marsh. “We were on the board. We had a great relationship with the CEO. In fact, the CEO, after he sold the business, has now joined our group as an investor.”

Marsh added, “I think the CEO would say that without the assistance of eCoast both in terms of financing when things looked dark and giving advice and support and whatnot, he would not have succeeded the way he did.”

The group has no home office, per se, instead relying on video-conferencing and the occasional inperson session. When they meet in person, said Marsh, they do so wherever they be accommodated. For instance, they’ve met in the past at Bottomline Technologies and Great Bay Community College, both in Portsmouth at the Pease International Tradeport.

The fact that the group relies largely on videoconferencing, particularly during the pandemic, has given it greater reach, according to Marsh.

“What this allows us to do now is get a lot more entrepreneurs coming from farther away,” said Marsh. “We expanded our group. We have members now from the Midwest, so virtual is not a problem.”

Going forward, Marsh said he’d like to continue to bring more women on board.

“We’ve got about seven or eight women now, and we’re actively recruiting more,” said Marsh. “They’re some of the hardestworking, best organized people, so it’s been a real advantage for us.”

Given the eCoast angels’ individual success in their respective businesses, Marsh sees the group as having an opportunity to give back to the business community not only with their capital but with their acumen.

“We have a lot of real solid, experienced people. There are over 40 or so members, probably half of them were CEOs of some sort of tech company. It used to be all software. Now, a lot of it is med devices and clean tech and what have you, but tech companies of some sort. So there’s a lot of experience, and we’ve been through it a lot,” said Marsh.

Marsh himself is a former president of Unicam Software, developer of electronic manufacturing and engineering software that aided in the process of making and testing printed circuit boards and formerly located at the Pease Tradeport.

Unicam was acquired by Tecnomatix, an Israeli company with its own line of manufacturing software. Tecnomatix was later purchased by Siemens.

“A lot of the entrepreneurs we see are very eager, with a lot of energy and great ideas but not a lot of experience doing it,” added Marsh.

“There’s a million different places a company can fall flat on their face. We can, at least to a certain extent, help them avoid some of those mistakes.”

Other winners

The award given by UNH on May 11 is named for Paul Holloway, prominent New Hampshire businessman best known for auto dealerships in his name. In addition, he’s served in several capacities in service to public higher education in New Hampshire. He has served as chair of the University System of New Hampshire board of trustees and as chair of the Community College System of New Hampshire.

The annual startup competition is for students from UNH, Plymouth State University, Keene State College and Granite State College competing for cash prizes totaling $40,000.

Winner of the student competition and $15,000, was Kicker Sticker, described as a soccer training tool for anyone who is looking to improve their kicking technique, but may not have access to affordable, quality coaching. A removable decal that is applied to the user’s own soccer ball, it helps the user learn and practice eight different kicking techniques by identifying the areas of ball contact and the correct kick execution techniques.

Second place and $10,000 went to SideGuide, a coding course platform designed to help new developers learn and apply concepts.

Third prize and $5,000 went to Project Happy, a revenue generating nonprofit technology startup on a mission to reconnect young people to their community, in an effort to help them live happier and more connected lives.