Open Angel Forum is an event bringing together entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and industry professionals. We are not a venture capital or investment firm, but rather an event company. Our mission is to host events that are free to startups and investors. If you are selected to present as a startup or attend as an investor, you will not be charged. Period.
We expect to have around ten high-quality angel investors at our first event, which will take place over dinner in Los Angeles on January 14th from 6:30 to 9PM. At that event, we hope to have five startup companies present for 10 minutes each, then take 5 to 10 minutes of questions. The entire event will be two hours long and take place in the private dining room of a restaurant. The angel investors will be eating dinner during the first couple of presentations.
If you’re an entrepreneur interested in presenting to the group, please fill out the application here.
A large number of service providers, including lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and consultants, have asked to attend the event. While I personally love my lawyer and accountant, we can’t allow every service provider in the world into the event or it will be 90% service providers. In order to resolve this issue, I’ve come up with a revolutionary concept: charge the service providers to attend the event. In fact, that is the business model of the Open Angel Forum: free for startups, free for angel investors and very expensive for service providers. (Don’t worry; they can easily afford it!). We are currently opening up five service provider seats to the event (i.e. lawyers, recruiters, etc) for $1,500 each. Yes, the service providers are paying for dinner. 
You can purchase your ticket here.
You can purchase your ticket here.In order to attend the event as an angel investor, you must have made at least three investments of note in the past 18 months, and must meet and be approved by me personally. If you would like to apply as an angel investors, please let us know here.
Unlike the TechCrunch50 conference, which I co-founded and co-host with Mike Arrington, this event does not require your company be in stealth or launch mode at the event. In fact, most companies will not even be formed at this event! This is the event that you attended BEFORE you apply to TechCrunch50! Of course, you can apply to raise angel investment for a company that has already launched. Obviously, we are not looking for companies to present which have already raised venture capital. (Don’t be greedy!).
General Disclaimer: We’ll do the best we can to bring together good companies and investors, but we obviously can’t endorse anyone or take responsibility for their behavior at or after the event. Please do your due diligence/homework as an investor or entrepreneur.
Look forward to seeing you all at the first dinner.
all the best,
Jason McCabe Calacanis
Founder, Open Angel Forum
Dear Jason – can you tell me (I am an entrepreneur) what sorts of companies you are seeking (purely IT?) and also whether you are vetting prospective start ups for the upcoming LA dinner or have already selected them?
Thank you.
Jason… absolutely, 100% fantastic. Thank you from all of the aspiring entrepreneurs out there. Josh
Jason – you are amazing. It’s so nice to see someone trying to help out businesses looking for funding. I am so skeptical these days trying to weed out the scam artists, etc. It’s all very unnerving.
I would love to apply to pitch your investors…I am based on the East Coast (MD)…do you suggest waiting until another date is announced, or do you think your investors are okay investing in a business on the other side of the US?
Thanks again.
Dani
Will you look to do this on the east coast as well?
As a lawyer who works hard to get out and meet promising entrepreneurs, and has also hosted networking events for startups I completely understand the attendance/pricing point. One of the biggest complaints about my prior firm’s Angel Law Forum was the ratio of service providers to bona fide angels.
A clarifying point: read up on legal news if you think law firms are sitting on piles of cash. 2009 has been a bloodbath for the legal profession. Most lawyers are under-utilized and struggling to drum up business- the same as many of their startup clients.
And in the Law of Unintended Consequences Department: be aware that when you charge lawyers $1500 to attend an event, they need to recapture the expense, and the only way to do that is through fees to clients.
I hope your event goes superbly and I look forward to hearing great things about it. In the meantime, I will be attending cheapie networking events so that I can keep my rates low.
Best,
Jay Parkhill
Virtual Law Partners
Viva la revolucion! Looking forward to an upcoming session in SF.
Congrats.
Nice strategy. I don’t always agree with your public relations tactics, but (outside of being hypocritical) they are effective, and this launch is a good way to really start stamping a big footprint into the start up market.
If you own (or have interest in) the surrounding media ecosystem you can pump your own interests after investing in them. A sure way to ensure they get the right types of exposure & adequate public relations + PageRank.
Dear Jason, i can say that your personal statement is working, at list for me
i read a lot and learn from you, i love this concept and hope to be part of it.
@Jason personal mission statement in life: “To inspire, educate and support entrepreneurs.”
Jason,
This is awesome. Thanks for the continued work to bring LA to the forefront of the tech/venture world.
-Victor
Jason,
As a Founders Funded Institute portfolio company seeking funded, this model you have created is fantastic! Thank you for helping struggling entrepreneurs!
Thanks!
Quick suggestion: Entrepreneurs should get a list of angels attending to get a picture on their investments to prevent a conflict of interest based on their investments already…
Sincerely,
Chirag Pancholi
FFI graduate Summer 2009 – Inaugural class
Any chance you’ll be hosting events in NYC?
Let me know if you’d like some help with this event.
For anyone interested. I have just published a post about my experience creating the Open Angel Forum logo design.
http://engineactive.com/abstract/2009/12/open-angel-forum-logo-how-to-identify-opportunity-and-run-with-it-in-3-easy-steps/
Can a start-up from outside of U.S. apply? And of course I mean start-ups who are ready to incorporate in U.S.
You have a great business model.
Jason,
Congrats on getting it this far.
Just for clarity what is the purpose of the $1500 fee for the service providers aside from filtering who & how many service providers attend?
Evert.
Can entrepreneurs stop by and check out the event?
This would be supercool to do in London! Please bring it over asap!
Love the podcast btw!
Quick note… your comment the other day on TWIST about Google buying the rights to the top-films that didn’t get distribution deals at the Sundance festival was brilliant!
Love the show, keep up the good work. Keep inspiring.
Thanks for sharing your concern Ann. We’re very aware of the issue you raise and happy to report that don’t see that being a problem given that we carefully screen the angels we allow to participate.
Thomas, when you have great companies pitching and other great angels at the event, the angels are happy to fly across the country to attend as many have at the first 2 events. In fact it looks like the majority of angels at the upcoming SF event will be fly-ins.
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