A new club of angel investors sees promise in Northern Colorado’s technology startups, made up of members who are more than familiar with the risks that come from investing in fledgling companies.

For the uninitiated, angel investors might sink, say, $750,000 to help a startup realize a great idea. The angels — they’re called that because, unlike a venture capital firm, they typically fund companies at their earliest stages — can gain a roughly one-third stake in a company, shooting for a return of 10 to 20 times their initial investment after a few years.

Or so they hope.

But the founders of Colorado Angel Investors Inc. are not naïve. Fort Collins tech incubator Rocky Mountain Innosphere board members Brad Florin, Mark Kent, Dave Dwyer and DuWayne Peterson all have been around the tech startup block. Their organization at the moment totals more than a dozen members, and it’s aiming to add to its ranks of accredited investors.

“You do five or 10 or those (companies), the hope is you really only need one of them — or two (to return your investments),” said Kent, executive-in-residence for Access Venture Partners of Westminster and a self-