Venture Hacks

Launch: AngelList, a curated list of angel investors by Nivi on February 2nd, 2010

I’m psyched to announce AngelList, a curated list of super high-quality angel investors. And how to reach them. Investors like Jeff Clavier, Dave McClure, Rob Hayes, Aaron Patzer, Brad Feld, and 50 other investors have already joined. I want to thank all of the angels for taking the time to fill out these extensive profiles. And it’s not fair for me to list just a few of the investors here — they’re all awesome. You should click and browse the entire AngelList. Together, they represent $80M that will be invested in early-stage startups this year. Angels: How to join AngelList If you’re an angel investor, apply to join AngelList here. At a minimum, you should have made two $25K angel investments in 2009 and plan to make two more $25K investments in 2010. Startups: How to contact the angels Read an angel’s profile before you try to get in touch with him. All the angels have listed how many investments they expect to make this year, their typical investment amount, the markets they invest in, how to get intros, and lots more information you can’t find anywhere else. Some of the investors let you contact them directly. But, before you do, build a minimum viable product and learn something about your customers by putting it in front of them. If you can’t get that far on your own, go find some idea investors instead. Then send the angels an amazing 150-word elevator pitch. Don’t send them nonsense. Angels talk to each other and they talk to me. Your reputation is all you’ve got — so please follow our suggestions in the previous paragraph. And — stay tuned — we’re announcing a sweet new way to reach AngelList soon. Get AngelList updates Get notified about new angels on AngelList via RSS or Twitter. And here’s a Twitter list of the angels on AngelList: Anatomy of an (un)fundable startup by Nivi on June 22nd, 2011 Naval and Mark Suster recently gave the keynotes at the 7th Founder Showcase. Andrew Chen did a better job of describing Naval’s keynote than I ever will: “People spend a surprising amount of time on things that will contribute little or no value to getting them to a seed round, and this talk is the best I’ve seen in terms of presenting the issues in its entirety. “Naval broke down the 5 main qualities of an ‘exceptional startup,’ in the following order: 1. Traction 2. Team 3. Product 4. Social Proof 5. Pitch/Presentation “And while all these qualities are important, Naval explained, the most important thing is to understand that: ‘Investors are trying to find the exceptional outcomes, so they are looking for something exceptional about the company. Instead of trying to do everything well (traction, team, product, social proof, pitch, etc.), do one thing exceptionally. As a startup you have to be exceptional in at least one regard.’”

Anatomy of a (un)fundable startup from Venture Hacks