Earlier today Venture Hacks announced the launch of the AngelList – a curated list of angel investors with an interest in early-stage funding pitches. According to a blog post by Venture Hacks cofounder Babak Nivi, legendary investors like FF Fund angel Dave McClure, Techstars’ Brad Feld and SoftTech VC’s Jeff Clavier are among the site’s first participants. ReadWriteStart caught up with Nivi to find out why he was moved to create the resource.
“Entrepreneurs are always asking us if we know any angel investors.” He says, “It’s one of the most common questions in the startup world. So we decided to make a list of the ones we know and also open it to ones we didn’t know. We also needed a place to keep track of the angels we know for our own reference. Hence AngelList!”
Anyone who has made $25,000 dollars in investments in 2009 and plans to do the same in 2010 is eligible to apply for the list. Participating investors receive information on three vetted startups per week and a place on the Venture Hacks blog and AngelList Twitter account. While some Angels may shy from displaying their contact info to the public, the list is actually a much better way to manage the pitch process as entrepreneurs are made well aware of investor objectives and interests. Startups can browse the site for contact information, investment criteria, trusted referrers and an investor’s current portfolio.
Explains Nivi, “Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time trying to get intros to investors – even the entrepreneurs who end up raising money from Ron Conway, Fred Wilson or Sequoia. We want to make it easy for qualified entrepreneurs to get the intros.”
To check out the list, visit venturehacks.com/angellist or to make your angel financing needs known, add yourself to the VentureHacks Startup List at venturehacks.com/startuplist.
