I’m pleased to announce the first group of angel investors to join the Open Angel Forum
Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg
http://www.digg.com
Sandy Climan
Gordon Gould
http://www.gordongould.com/?page_id=2
Matt Coffin of LowerMyBills
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-coffin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Coffin
Sky Dayton of Earthlink, Boingo, etc.
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/sky-dayton
Bill Woodward of Anthem VP
http://www.anthemvp.com/?page=team&mod=detail&vid=1
Phil Kaplan, Founder of AdBrite
So what’s all this ‘Service Provider’ malarchy about then Jason? Hope your not going to fill the network with ‘money changers’ and those ’selling doves’. Cats can be skinned in so many ways….with friends like these, eh……? Hope I’m wrong, but have to say, thats a rare occurence.I’m like a one person ’scam spotting’ machine, or am I many, depends on which ’sam sam I am….today!’
Interesting first list. People you don’t hear about when reading about VC/Angel funding. I like that people personally come forward and want to give back in the first place. Like a real community.
Congrats to you Jason (& complizen) pulling this white rabbit out of the hat. Looking forward to the events and value creation.
SamSam: We are going to allow one service provider or so to buy a $1,500 ticket for every 2-3 uber-qualified angel investors. My guess is we sell five of these per event and that will result in $30,000 a year in revenue. The dinners will cost $5,000 each, so that leaves $10,000 for the other expenses (event planning) around the event.
That’s the basic business model.
I wish you the best of luck in getting the Open Angel Forum going! As you know, i am not a big fan, but hey Jason, i think it will be good for you to see how much work, sweat equity, capital, persuasion, charm, time, effort, (ETC) is required, in order to start, and build up an Angel group.
fyi – i know you’re not big on thinking, homework, study, that sort of thing – but for your information — there are about one million accredited Angel investors in the USA today; and roughly 450 Angel groups. So… welcome to the game, and i hope you rise above your humble beginnings to become a “player” in this space. I am of course, willing to come on your show and educate you in all the things you’ll need to learn, to excel at this.
Glad to see you have some friends, who are also wealthy Angels, who are willing to participate. But the thing you need to think about is, how will you be able to engage hundreds of Angels in every Chapter (City), to spend a fourth to a third of their time, working on Chapter activities? Do you have a format for your meetings that is highly engaging and entertaining, which will lead more Angels to join, and contribute?
I am going to enjoy, watching you spread your hours to engage in this project. Something tells me that you don’t really have it in you; it’s all about an ego contest, that you don’t even understand. I hope i am wrong, but hey either way it makes for entertainment. Best of luck.
-steve b.
neat Jason. some great people so far! exciting.