August 26, 2010
Wrapping up an amazing summer here at OAF, we had fantastic events in Boston, San Francisco, New York and Boulder. 24 companies presented, and many of them have closed their rounds. More on all that great news to follow soon!
We will be returning to LA on September 20th. Interested companies can apply here, angels here and if you are interested in sponsoring you can do so here.
July 12, 2010
As you might have heard from David Cohen, we will be in Boulder on August 4th. You can submit your company here. Angels can apply here, and if you are interested in sponsoring you can do so here.
June 23, 2010
We made a lot of great friends at our Boston event last week. Six great companies presented at Dogpatch Labs in Cambridge to a room full of incredible angels. Read their recaps below:
May 26, 2010
Mark your calendars, we will be back in San Francisco on June 24th! Companies can apply here, and interested angels can apply here. If you would like to sponsor the event you can apply here.
May 21, 2010
This past Tuesday night we made our triumphant return home for OAF LA No. 2. This edition featured 6 more amazing companies, a stellar room full of angels, and some delicious kobe burgers. Check out the recaps from the companies below.
Also, check out Scott Walker’s most excellent Ode to Open Angel Forum
May 19, 2010
We are heading back to the east coast for our first Boston event on June 18th. As usual, we will bring together 5 great startups (apply here), a handful of great angels (apply here), and five seats for sponsoring service providers (apply here).
The deadline for startups to apply is Friday June 11th!
April 19, 2010
Last Friday night we kicked off the inaugural OAF Silicon Valley. As usual, six hand selected startups presented to a room full of angels. Rather than give a detailed description of the evening, here are some blog posts and tweets from the a some of the startups and angels themselves.
A very special THANK YOU! to the partners without whom there would be no event…
Anthony McCusker of Gunderson Dettmer
Also a huge thanks to Wenceslao Casares for the generous hospitality and beautiful venue; and a very special thanks to our SV chapter heads Dave McClure and Shervin Pishevar for making it all possible!
Stay tuned for announcements regarding our new national sponsors and new chapter dates coming shortly!
Note: The following is a guest post by Arik Waldman who presented TekTrak at OAF Silicon Valley recently.
As you struggle to raise money for your venture, you encounter a lot of investor attitudes. Some people will just ignore your e-mails or calls, while some respond shortly saying they are not interested; some let you pitch just to tear you to shreds, while others go ahead with you. However, almost every time you feel like investors are doing you a favor by talking to you. After all, they have the money, many entrepreneurs and start-ups are chasing them, so you should be grateful that they even talk to you, especially if you’re a first-timer (and I’m not even going to talk about the assholes that ask for money just so you could pitch them).
This is part of what makes Open Angel Forum an amazing event. My venture got into the Silicon Valley OAF. There were about 20 angels, and 6 companies that pitched. The first thing you notice is the relaxed, intimate atmosphere. You don’t feel intimidated. On the contrary, you feel like the angels are really interested in what you have to say. The pitch format (5 min. demo, 5 min. Q&A) keeps everybody’s attention – you manage to present your main concept and answer the main questions, and you can dive into more details in the networking session following the presentations.
The angels themselves are amazing. Each angel presents him or herself when the evening begins, including what other companies they invested in. My partner and I were eyeballing each other constantly. The names you hear are amazing – companies that made it big time (that’s an understatement) – and they know their stuff. They have incredible track records, either as investors or as entrepreneurs (or both). And you have 20 of these amazing people, sitting in front of you, listening to your business idea, giving insightful advice and helpful suggestions, and considering investing in your venture. It doesn’t get more “smart money” than that.
So for any seed-stage venture out there – go for it. OAF gives you a really unique opportunity and exposure to many prominent investors in a great forum concept. I hope OAF will become a global standard of how angels listen to entrepreneurs. Everybody would benefit.