However, many entrepreneurs have a problem. On one hand, the traditional sources of financing?family, friends, personal savings, the local bank -- are often inadequate. On the other, the venture capitalists who have played such an important role in the high-tech industry are interested only in investing much higher sums than most entrepreneurs need.

Enter angels: a new type of investor looking to invest between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in a company. There are about three million angel investors, and there's a huge market of entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs who want to learn how to attract angels' interest -- and their money.

John May and Cal Simmons are at the forefront of this trend. Not only do they have years of experience in advising, managing, and investing in early-stage companies, they are also the originators of The Dinner Club, a Washington, D.C.?based group of successful businesspeople who hear pitches by entrepreneurs seeking funding and then decide whether to invest their own or the club's money in those entrepreneurial ideas.