Comments on: Why would a seasoned entrepreneur use AngelList?

By: NuNet

NuNet — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:01:25 +0000

What works for me is this – Angel List is the only & I mean the ONLY funding place I have seen so far where they do not ask 1st time/wannabe entrepreneurs to present their Business Plan, without even looking at their idea.
I mean for Pete’s sake, most of us either do not understand or are unable to differentiate between terms like Entry barrier, Valuation, Term Sheets & stuff like that. I mean, as of now, atleast where I am concerned ( and I am sure most of you are), we are busy just trying to run the prototype of our Startup on a day-to-day basis, so where is the time to make such a detailed Business Plan? And because we are short of funds ( remember that’s the reason why we going around asking people for money?) we cannot outsource it to an expert on Business Plans. Our prototypes are actually putting the money where our mouth is, guys. It is what speaks of our idea, after all. Of course, all of us do have a rough idea on how we eventually plan to earn money out of the sites we launch but who can answer such demanding questions as posed in “proper” business plans? Case in Point – Till recently, even the hugely popular Twitter did not know where its revenue were coming from. If wanna-be entrepreneurs were so good at making business plans, and thus being great businessmen, they would rather be playing the stock markets or would have by now joined some financial institution, rather than go around asking people to fund their ideas. Elevator Pitch is fine, and the things that Angel List has asked us to fill out in our profiles is really cool because that’s what really helps create the 1st impression all around.

By: Rick Wittenbraker

Rick Wittenbraker — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:24:41 +0000

Nivi,
Another great, insightful post. As both and investor and entrepreneur, I couldn’t agree more.

PLEASE keep this coming…

Thanks,
Rick

By: Kevin Kruse

Kevin Kruse — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:22:56 +0000

Nivi, great post and I think you’re being very humble. Obviously Angel List has become THE digital “media” for angel deals.

As a member of an angel group (delawarecrossing.org) there is no problem with deal flow…I see deals every month. But scanning Angel List almost always gives me a meta awareness of what’s hot, what’s cold, what has too much competition, etc.

And of course, for entrepreneurs who still want to sell vacuum cleaners door to door, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Go make your sales door to door, but use Angel List to validate your deals.

Cheers, Kevin

By: Thomas Stone

Thomas Stone — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:57:51 +0000

I think there a whole bunch of sites and programmes, both online and off, that claim to connect entrepreneurs with investors, many charge entrepreneurs for the privilege. I would personally tell people to *beware* these.

However, clearly AngelList is *not* of this ilk and testimonials show it offers a great service.

Lets face it venture funding is no perfect market (information asymmetries, non-homogenous… etc.) but anything that smooths the flow of early-stage capital and increases transparency is surely a good thing.

“You buy customers on Google.”

I like how these guys tell it like it is