The first startup has been funded through StartupList. The investor is Matt Mullenweg and it’s a Y Combinator company. We’re not releasing the name of the startup right now but let’s call it Startup #0. This is a big milestone and we want to thank Matt, the AngelList investors, and the startups who’ve applied to StartupList for making it happen.

Power Brokers: Our new referral program

We also want to thank you for referring startups to StartupList and AngelList. And we want to single out Rob May (@robmay), founder of Backupify, for referring Startup #0. So we’ve created a referral program to thank you for your referrals. It starts with a list Power Brokers: people who’ve referred high-quality startups to StartupList — check it out.

Here’s what we do for the power brokers. If we select a startup you’ve referred for StartupList, we highlight your name to all the investors on the list (for example). This is an awesome way to build a relationship with the investors on AngelList (and us). Second, we’ll highlight your name in announcements about the startup (see the fine photo of Rob above). Third, we’re brainstorming other ‘thank-you’s’ for the power brokers. An invite-only conference with the angels on AngelList? A demotivational poster? Please share your ideas in the comments or email me.

If you refer a startup to StartupList, please tell them to fill in your name in the field for referrers in the application.

New investors on AngelList

We’re working through the investors who’ve applied to AngelList. There’s 54 investors on the list so far and about 25 of them have asked for intros to StartupList startups — here’s a few examples:

Ann Miura-Ko from Maples Investments

Jon Callaghan (Investor in Meebo)

Michael Dearing (Angel in Aarvark)

These are just a few of the new angels who’ve asked for intros… go browse all the investors and tweet them a hello.

And you don’t need StartupList to get in touch with the angels — you can contact many of them directly or, better, through the referrals they list. But you should still apply to StartupList because it often takes three tries to get a meeting.

Twitter Widgets

I’ve collected Twitter testimonials from AngelList members in our Twitter favorites:

And this Twitter list of AngelList members is always fun:

Startups: apply to StartupList here. Angels: join AngelList here. Everyone: thank you for being part of this.

Thank you to TechCrunch, Business Insider, and ReadWriteWeb for describing these lists better than we could.

Thank you to the well-known investors, successful entrepreneurs, and up-and-coming entrepreneurs discussing these lists on Twitter.

Widget: Twitter discussion about AngelList and StartupList

New angels on AngelList

75 new angels have applied to AngelList. We’re going through the applications one-by-one. I added some great investors today:

Chris DeVore from Founders Co-op
Robin Klein in London
Thomas Korte, an investor in Heroku
David Shen, an investor in bit.ly
David Rose, a New Yorker with 75 angel investments
Shervin Pishevar, founder of SGN
Pejman Nozad, an investor in Dropbox

And I didn’t even know these three entrepreneurs were angels until they applied to AngelList:

Jeremy Stoppelman, founder of Yelp
Joe Greenstein, founder of Flixster
Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint

Silicon Valley has a tradition where entrepreneurs start investing as soon as they can — and that tradition is spreading to the rest of the world.

Startups are getting intros

Since we released StartupList on Twitter a few weeks ago, we’ve introduced 7 startups to 11 investors. With their permission, here’s a list of investors who’ve gotten intros:

Jeff Clavier (Angel in Mint)
Bill Lee (Angel in Posterous)
Mike Hirshland (Polaris)
Chris Yeh (Angel in AppJet)
Naval Ravikant (Angel in Twitter)
Jeff Fagnan (Atlas)
Brian Norgard (Angel in ad.ly)
George Zachary (Charles River)
Alex Finkelstein (Spark Capital)
David Cohen (Techstars)
Matt Mullenweg (Angel in DailyBurn)

How to get on StartupList

We’ve received 50 new pitches from startups. If you’ve got a good pitch, don’t worry about getting lost in the noise. A good pitch will stand out — and we will find a way to help that startup through StartupList or something else. If you’ve got a great startup on your hands, people will insist on helping you out.

Yesterday, we published guidelines for applying to StartupList. We said we look for the same things that early stage investors look for: traction, social proof, and team. But we didn’t mention another critical piece of the puzzle: the quality of the pitch itself.

Spend time writing and re-writing an awesome elevator pitch. Our elevator pitch template is a good place to start. Then get feedback from good writers — writers who have fans. You have 100% control over the quality of your pitch and there’s no reason not to kick its ass.

Apply to StartupList. Browse AngelList. And enjoy the weekend.

Today, we’re launching a cool new way to get intros to these angels: StartupList. It’s a weekly email we send to AngelList, with 3 high-quality startups who want intros. Here’s how it works: you send us your pitch, we review it and, every Monday, we email the best 3 startups of the week to AngelList.

StartupList is already getting meetings for startups

I’m psyched because StartupList is already working. We released it on Twitter a few weeks ago and 9 investors like Mike Hirshland (Polaris), Matt Mullenweg (Founder of WordPress), and David Cohen (Techstars) have already asked for intros to 7 early-stage startups and counting. See the full list of investors who have gotten intros here. (We’re publishing these names with the permission of the investors.)

Startups: How to use AngelList 

If you’re a startup, apply to AngelList here. We welcome startups from all over the world. We look for the same things that early-stage investors look for: traction, social proof, and team. You don’t need all 3, but you need to kick ass in at least one of them.

Build a minimum viable product, put it in front of customers, and learn something about product/market fit. If you can’t get this far on your own, find some idea investors instead.

Then write a 150-word elevator pitch and apply to StartupList. Our elevator pitch template is a good place to start. Spend time writing and re-writing the pitch until it’s awesome. Get feedback from good writers and entrepreneurs who have raised money. You have 100% control over the quality of your pitch and there’s no reason not to kick its ass.

Runners-Up

If you’re not one of the 3 startups we highlight on StartupList each week, we may include you in the runners-up of the week. Investors have asked for intros to the runners-up, so it’s also a good place to be. One of the runners-up writes, “Where can we send you a small token of thanks? This added some social proof in itself with a couple of the folks we’re chatting with. I greatly appreciate it.”

Privacy

No one will review your pitch except the Venture Hacks team: Nivi and Naval. If we send your pitch to AngelList, it’s obviously out of our hands, but that’s no different than sending the pitch yourself. At your request, we can also send your pitch to specific angels instead of the whole list.

Angels: How to get StartupList

While AngelList is public, StartupList is only emailed to the investors on AngelList. If you’re an angel, apply to AngelList here. At a minimum, you should have made two $25K angel investments in 2009 and plan to make two more $25K investments in 2010.

Why we’re building StartupList and AngelList

Entrepreneurs are always asking us if we can introduce them to angel investors. It’s one of the most common questions in the startup world. And startups spend a lot of time trying to get these intros. Even the startups who end up raising money from Ron Conway, Fred Wilson, or Sequoia.

We think this is an unnecessary friction and we want to make it easy for qualified entrepreneurs to get intros to qualified investors.

Apply for StartupList and please help us spread the word! I’m looking forward to discussing your feedback in the comments.