

Jason Calacanis's Open Angel Forum is accepting applications.  - lyime
http://openangelforum.com/

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_pius
_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._

Makes sense to me.

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jasonmcalacanis
The good news is that by charging a substantial fee, we are eliminating a lot
of the annoying, cheap and low-rent service providers. Those type of folks are
already complaining to me about the fee--which is exactly what I want.

Any decent lawyer or accountant of note will look at the fee and say "$1,500
is a lot for dinner, but if I attending eight of these over two years and get
one client it pays for itself." That is to say, the right providers will take
a long-term approach to this.

We've got a sick group of angels already lined up for the 14th, and you don't
have to be a startup from Los Angeles to apply to present. You can be a
startup from anywhere around the world (although closer to California is
obviously better since most angels like to invest within a one hour flight of
the startup).

The angels coming will have 200-300 angel investments between them I think...
really exciting, super qualified and intimate. I'm trying to get 100% of the
companies that present funded.

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
Yup, my comment focused more on events as a whole and service providers
attending.

You roll with a top notch crowd and put on events to match. If I were a
service provider, I would pay the fee to be at the table.

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richardburton
The intention behind this kind of event is awesome. Focus on getting the
founders and the funders to talk (whilst allowing serious service-providers to
come and catalyse the reactions between these two parties) and you're bound to
create some awesome companies.

~~~
jasonmcalacanis
Thanks pal. Really hope we see a lot of y-combinator folks sign up to pitch!
Note: you don't have to be based in LA or California to present... we'll take
a great idea from anywhere in the world.

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JLaramie
very exciting news; and definitely a great list of angels involved in the
event. In light of all the market pressure and negative effects on the VC
industry, an opportunity like this for startups is priceless, literally. Great
stuff. We will definitely be applying.

