CommonAngels Lexington,Mass.

Entrepreneurs who approach CommonAngels can be assured that the group's members have been on the other side of the table: They've founded 118 companies (mostly high tech), sold 104 of them, been CEO of 93 of them, and taken 34 of them public. To apply for funding, send managing director James Geshwiler an executive summary. If the firm sounds promising, he'll have a group of experts in the technology in question grill management; if the deal gets past them it will go to a group of generalists. Firms that survive those three cuts present at the CommonAngels' monthly meeting. In 2000, about 20 members came up with close to half of a $3.2 million A round for Bitpipe, which distributes literature from IT companies over the Web; many members continued with two subsequent rounds. When Bitpipe was sold last December, members got from two to five times their money back.

FOUNDED 1998 / MEMBERS: 50 / TOTAL INVESTED: $27 MILLION / COMPANIES FUNDED: 27 / www.commonangels.com