Dr. Charles Hofer

I first met Karen through the MIT Forum many years ago. I asked her to be a judge at one of my "Concept to Reality" competitions and then in our extremely important Georgia Bowl. I knew she advised companies and organized investor events, but had no idea really how deep her knowledge was until I heard her feedback to the companies in the competitions and then as I attended one her investor events as an observer. I sat through one of her workshops on raising capital and even though I have been involved in every aspect of launching businesses to investing in businesses, I learned a great deal from her in that one workshop. She sets a high bar for entrepreneurs wanting to pitch to her group of investors. I am honored whenever she agrees to allow one of the entrepreneurs I am working with to invest their time and money with her to participate in an event she is organizing. She strives to remove the obstacles for entrepreneurs to connect with investors and increase each company's chance of becoming a successful well run company. In the last 12 months, I have had 3 companies come before her investor group. One has received a commitment of funds and each of the others valued the experience immensely. Atlanta, and the entrepreneur market at large, is served well by Karen Rands through her paid engagements and her multiple volunteer commitments to mentor and advise entrepreneurs. (2012) UPDATE: I continue to seek Karen's expertise as a mentor & judge for the business plan competitions I coordinate at Georgia Tech and other Atlanta area universities. She has been active in helping me help these start up companies for over 5 years (2016)