In their recently published landmark study, Professors Josh Lerner and William Kerr were able to demonstrate that on the whole, angel-backed companies enjoy performance gains of 30-50% when compared to other non-funded startups. Their paper is meticulously researched, invoking in one instance Hammurabi's Code itself to underscore the ancient provenance of individuals making equity investments in high-risk ventures. A great deal of the data analyzed was derived from the actual practices and outcomes of both the Tech Coast Angels (Southern California) and the CommonAngels (Boston).