

Y Combinator putting on special event called AngelConf for would-be investors - pclark
http://www.angelconf.com/

======
webwright
This is a brilliant idea for YC. Having gone thru the YC experience and demo
day, I would say that the scarcest resource for YC companies is that bridge
between "just launched" and Series-A-fundable or profitable.

A lot of companies can be lean enough to survive this phase on their own, but
a lot teams/projects are capital intensive (or slow to get revenue) amd need
seed-stage help. There are precious few VCs that focus on this stage (True
Ventures, First Round, USV, SoftTech, etc).

~~~
pg
Not just for YC companies. I've gradually come to believe that the number of
viable startups is more a function of the amount of angel investing going on
than any other factor. VCs are useful in getting really big, but without
angels startups don't survive to the point where VCs are willing to invest.

~~~
skmurphy
"Have you thought about investing in startups, but didn't know how? [...] How
do you pick winners?"

Why not raise a side fund and do full fledged seed investing if you can pick
winners?

------
sutro
These are the Glengarry leads.

~~~
echair
Can someone explain what this means?

~~~
gojomo
It's a memorable line from a monologue delivered by the Alec Baldwin character
in the movie 'Glengarry Glen Ross'.

[scene] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI>

[transcript] <http://www.whysanity.net/monos/ggr2.html>

(Language is NSFW... unless of course your workplace is like the one in the
movie.)

~~~
vlad
A more modern, work-safe version from SNL:

[http://www.hulu.com/watch/3362/saturday-night-live-
glengarry...](http://www.hulu.com/watch/3362/saturday-night-live-glengarry-
glen-christmas)

------
staunch
I'm hoping someone is going to post videos (if permitted).

~~~
pg
Justin.TV just agreed to webcast it.

------
jfornear
Good idea! This seems like the type of thing that will really help stimulate
the economy and help liquidity start flowing again.

~~~
davidw
Probably not all that much, in the big picture, where billions of dollars are
the order of magnitude that things seem to be happening at, but it's cool to
see in any case.

~~~
sachinag
I dunno - the logistics of investing are _hard_ and the sample documents are
just a start. If you give people step-by-step directions and access to the
right professionals, you may very well see a demonstrable increase in angel
investing.

Things like this are why the Valley's so important. You'd think someone
somewhere else would have done this, but noooooo. You just know that if
someone else had done this, they'd have tried to make a buck on it. This is a
completely altruistic move on YC's part - hell, they're setting up additional
competition for the YC program.

~~~
davidw
Oh, I agree it's really cool and all, but compared with job losses in the 10's
or 100's of thousands... I'm just not sure that it'll make much of a
difference in terms of "help stimulate the economy and help liquidity start
flowing again".

But that's no argument against it, or saying it's not important; just that
perhaps getting a few more people investing is not going to fix the economy
overnight.

~~~
sachinag
Sure, but if we got funding, what would we do? _We'd hire people._

~~~
davidw
So the way to figure out whether that means anything at a large enough scale
to matter, is to look at how many angels might invest how much money. I
honestly have no idea, but here are some random numbers:

10,000 investors invest 10,000 dollars each is 100 million dollars. You could
vary that to 1,000 investors doing 100,000 of investment each. 1,000 investors
each doing a million dollars would be 1 billion dollars. What relationship do
those random numbers bear to reality? Has YC even spent a million dollars on
all the companies involved? And there are several people investing in YC, so I
think it probably comes out to less than a million a head, and they've been
doing this for a while now.

The real impact of startups is not likely going to be in hiring in any case,
but still, it's worth looking at some numbers to get an idea of the order of
magnitude that we're talking about.

~~~
cellis
For the first part of your math, YC has spent at least 1.5 million (~300
founders * 5000). Team sizes vary, but if we hold them at 3 members, we get
another half mil. So by my very back of the envelope calculations they've
invested about $2 million.

~~~
gravitycop
~250 founders of 102 companies: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHlj3xKyChg>

We need to add another 100 ghost founders to account for the extra $5,000, so
that makes it: ~350 founders x $5,000/founder = ~$1.75 million invested, so
far.

Y Combinator has (I personally believe, but do not necessarily know to be
true) additionally sunk capital investment into:

    
    
      * Beans and rice
      * A building and associated land in Boston
      * A building and associated land in Mountain View
      * Utility bills
      * Travel expenses
      * Legal fees (including 102 incorporation-fee packages)
      * Accounting fees
      * Misc.

~~~
gravitycop
_~350 founders x $5,000/founder = ~$1.75 million invested, so far._

Was there something incorrect, or otherwise objectionable, about this comment?

------
vaksel
I sure hope that this isn't a one time event. If this gets popular, raising
funding will get easier for all of us.

------
alain94040
The big question is whether this event is for accredited investors only or
not?

My means don't allow me to invest much money at all (say $5K), and I am not
accredited (I wish I was of course). So I'm like an amateur in the game but
very interested. I can't tell if the event is for me or not.

~~~
webwright
If you aren't accredited and you are investing in a company, a lot of times
you are doing them a disservice. Have you read up on the consequences of
taking on non-accredited investors?

I'd love to be an angel investor, too-- but if you can't pass that particular
test, you really shouldn't be in the game.

And, honestly-- $5k isn't worth the cost of the legal paperwork necessary to
take you on as an investor.

If you want to be in the game, try to get an advisor role with a tiny sliver
of stock.

~~~
aneesh
Do you have to file some paperwork to be officially accredited, or is simply
meeting the wealth or income criteria sufficient?

~~~
alain94040
The precise definition is at <http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm>

Either you are, or you are not. There is no paperwork or exam (is that
constitutional to seggregate based on wealth?)

For most individuals, the requirement is:

a natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent
years or joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000

or

a natural person who has individual net worth, or joint net worth with the
person’s spouse, that exceeds $1 million

------
johnrob
I'd love to finally know how to tell if a startup will succeed! Please post
the knowledge afterwards.

------
dustineichler
So what kinda people are you looking to attend this event. I'm interested, but
i'm a developer. Nevertheless, i don't mind or wouldn't mind helping someone
else out in the hope someone might do the same for me one day. Make sense? I
have zero accreditation in investing.

------
dfranke
> March 5 2009, 1:30-3:30

You're going to get through that whole program in two hours?

------
iamelgringo
Can I get an invite. :D

------
Harj
any confirmation this is an official YC event?

~~~
davidw
You can do a whois on the domain name. It's registered to a Paul Graham. It
was reported on TC. So either it's real, or an elaborate ruse to kidnap a
bunch of wealthy people.

~~~
jcl
Why can't it be both? :)

------
jmtame
Fundraising 101 brought to you by Lil Wayne:

"Start with straight shots and then pop bottles. Flirt with the hood rats and
then pop models."

Translation:

Do a few startups, then build a Google. Talk with the angels, then do series A
with VCs.

Citation: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ3I4YY4YJA>

