
Angelsoft Lets Startups Find Funding Through New Investor Filtering Tool - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/angelsoft-lets-startups-find-funding-through-new-investor-filtering-tool/
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wavesplash
Never ever pay to pitch. Not in the tech world at least.

Angelsoft is trying to monetize the introduction business from exactly the
wrong direction. If they add value to Angels, let them pay.

The good Angels (and VCs) will always talk to you for free.

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drstarcat
You should take a look at our new Investor Search Engine
(<http://angelsoft.net/startup-tools/investor-search>), the new feature this
article is actually about, which is totally FREE.

We aggregated about every VC and Angel Group in the country, built profiles
for them containing key metrics, and made a "Kayak" like search engine for
them. I think it's the best single resource for entrepreneurs seeking funding
on the web now. And as I mentioned at the top, it costs nothing to use.

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westside1506
My angel group uses Angelsoft to organize the deals we receive from startups.
I believe we pay Angelsoft for the privilege and get to use their tools to
discuss and evaluate the deals that come our way. It is useful.

There is also tons of crap listed from other cities and groups. I guess these
guys pay Angelsoft to pitch, but that part of the site is a complete waste.
There is so much noise in those deals that I never look at them.

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tptacek
And how many companies we know have scored funding by paying these people?

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thomaspaine
> According to Angelsoft, 2.6 percent of the applicants ultimately get funded

Charging poor startups to pitch seems like a pretty backwards business model,
and ultimately provides poor incentives for Angelsoft to operate on. They
should just take a percentage of funding or equity from each completed deal,
so they, you know, only get paid if they actually do something helpful.

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sgrove
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=evbart>

There's been considerable discussion on this already. If you feel that it's
worth the chance to pitch for the amount they charge, take it. If not, don't.

I think it's a bit opportunistic - there's very little value add for the
entrepreneur's point of view. But they've made a value-prop, good or bad.

That said, a small percentage on overall funding might not be a bad idea from
a feel-good stance. I wonder if it would be enough to compensate for revenue
lost from its current model, and how they would deal with people going outside
of the system to close deals.

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softbuilder
Um... Angelsoft = toilet paper? Symbolic? Ironic? Just unfortunate?

