Comments on: New regular feature: "Send me an Angel"

By: Ø¬Ù�Ù�

Ø¬Ù�Ù� — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:13:44 +0000

Thank you and the subject site's outstanding منتديات فحص البيج رانك

By: Send me an Angel: Sean Glass

Send me an Angel: Sean Glass — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:43:59 +0000

[...] our continuing “Send me an Angel” series profiling Angel investors who can energise early stage startups, we present Sean Glass, co-founder [...]

By: 47 Hats - MicroISV Digest

47 Hats - MicroISV Digest — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:38:51 +0000

[...] (the U.K based version) started a new feature, Send me an Angel, where they’ll be posting Q and A with Angel investors about their approach to [...]

By: Jof Arnold

Jof Arnold — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:33:14 +0000

Why are VCs “afraid”? Afraid of what? Who on earth started that stupid meme? I bet it was that YCombinator rabble

If web tech startups don’t need big money any more – as everyone keeps saying* – then surely VCs will move to later-stage or other technologies rather than trying to shoe-horn their not-at-all-unsuccessful business model into something it doesn’t fit. Furthermore, aren’t VC’s actually better off by having more angels to take the hit on the poor/low-level investments? After all, an angel can do it for love but a VC does it entirely for the win.

* On the subject of money, how many companies can you name in the last 5 years that have hit home runs without any VC investment? Now, I’m all for bootstrapping and self-funding, but that’s because my personal goals have little to do with “being the next google”. But if you want to be big, installing MySQL on EC2 doesn’t stop large tech companies from being expensive to run! I doubt many companies in this space are able to be monstrously successful without a few rounds of VC money.

I digress, because what I came here to say was “thanks Mike; the article gave some useful insights into the angel investor world”.

By: Fabrice Epelboin

Fabrice Epelboin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:21:48 +0000

Brilliant idea Mike, I’ll be following this ‘send me an angel’ thing closely
I totally agree with you, now that VCs are afraid, we’re gonna see angels taking over.

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:13:23 +0000

@fletch – I don’t turn information into data. I turn it into media.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:59:24 +0000

It would be cool to see somebody to implement the simple webapp that would allow startups to “send Angels” to each other…

By: Robleh

Robleh — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:19:22 +0000

I don’t think the point is that you ring the guy up and he gives you cash. It’s more aimed at creating an understanding of what angels are looking for and what sort of help they can give.

I think some entrpreneurs are fixated on money. I have found that access to networks and good advice is often far more valuable when you are building a product.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:10:03 +0000

how is it pointless? its a pretty popular investment “strategy”. its not Michael’s job to be helpful to you. try businesslink for that…!

By: Why post that?

Why post that? — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:21:27 +0000

I found the article pointless. ‘I only invest in my friends…’. Brilliant. To all those start up’s not friends with Micheal Smith tough luck.

As more helpful approach would have been, send me 500 words and a few links. If I like it I’ll email you back to discuss. Otherwise what the point of telling us his strategy?

By: fletch

fletch — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:07:33 +0000

Dashford – nice thought but the FSA might jump on that one. The research I’ve done leads me to believe that the startup profiles would have to be private, and even then, the people who do get to view them might have to be ‘certified high nett worth individuals’, or ‘self-certified sophisticated investors’. Might be nice to hear from someone actually from the FSA about this issue.

By: Dashford

Dashford — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:02:38 +0000

A great idea. But I thought “Send me an Angel” was going to be about profiling a startup that is specifically looking for an Angel, not the other way round.

Maybe it could work both ways:
> “Send me an Angel” = profile of startup and their Angel funding requirements
> “Show me an Angel” = profile of an Angel and their approach to investing

By: fletch

fletch — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:46:13 +0000

Nice to see an Angel initiative Mike, and yes, you’re probably right that the tech startup market has the potential to provide investors with returns outside of the more traditional markets seen to be struggling at present.

However, although I now know more about Michael Smith and his investment profile, I’m not going to find him on linkedin or whatever and then attempt to contact him. That would be simply rude.

What if, though, you gave these Angels access to the data able to be submitted through your contact form and we knew this was actually happening? That could be automated so it wasn’t a time drain on you – and it would make a central repository of Angel Investment opportunities which in itself would be something of value.

And you already have the ‘yes’ / ‘no’ button at the bottom of the form as well. Then we could follow the Angels you are profiling, keep a list as you build, and know they are glancing over our stuff.