From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Five members of the Sacramento Angels were part of a group of investors who put $1 million into BrainCandy Co., a producer of early childhood development products in Seattle.

The company operates Web site Braincandykids.com and sells learning products for pre-school children. It was started by a couple of Seattle computer company veterans who were looking for fun educational products for their own twins. When they couldn't find what they were looking for, they quit their jobs in 2004 to start Brain Candy.

The couple had been seeking regional angel investments in the Pacific Northwest. The Sacramento Angels heard about the company and recruited them to present to their group, said George Linscott, one of the angels. He is one of the five Sacramento Angels to invest in BrainCandy. The angel's aren't saying how much they put into the company.

Linscott said he particularly knows there is a market for the company's products. His wife is expecting a child "any day now."

The Sacramento Angels is a group of qualified investors who invest in early stage seed companies. A qualified investor is one who has a minimum net worth and can tolerate complete loss of investment.

Let's hope it gets better results than Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby. A recent study published in the Journal of Pediatrics showed that for every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," they knew six to eight fewer words than other children. Parents aiming to put their babies on the fast track, buy hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the videos.

Dr. Christakis, one of the doctors who conducted the study, said children whose parents read to them or told them stories had larger vocabularies. "I would rather babies watch 'American Idol' than these videos," Christakis said, explaining that there is at least a chance their parents would watch with them — which does have developmental benefits.

Oh, the joys of angel investing in early-stage companies!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive