1. “Have a product on the market. Nothing speaks more loudly than revenue coming in.”
2. “Do not ask other people for money unless you have spent your own.”
3. “The business plan you show to potential investors should be concise. He [Ted] suggested using software on Angelsoft.net.”
4. “Explore every angle. If an Angel says no, ask him for the names of four other Angels who might say yes…My goal is to get 100 introductions to get 10 meetings to get three presentations to close one deal.”

Read the article

Funding Q&A

Jason Schwartz (Community Manger) and Evan Bartlett (Senior Account Manager) lead a packed session at the Web2Open on funding. The Web2Open is the free section of the Web 2.0 Expo that I hope more entrepreneurs take advantage of in the future.

The primary topic of discussion was helping entrepreneurs understand where their company falls in relation to a startup an investor would consider ‘fundable’. I plan on blogging more on this topic later.

Sales

Evan  Bartlett lead a Web2Open session on Sales covering how to get a meeting, and figuring out who the key decision maker is in an organization. Sales is often an overlooked part of a startup and some quality information was shared on how to succeed.

Angelsoft Entrepreneur User Group Meeting

Entrepreneurs from all over the Valley came to speak with us about their experience with Angelsoft.  Entrepreneur feedback is crucial for us to build the best product possible, and I appreciate all of you who came out.  I also spent some time going over their one-pagers to tweak them for optimal effect with investors.  For those of you who were able to join us, I hope you found the meeting as informative as I did.

Challenge and Opportunity: Angel and VC Funding During an Economic Crisis

I had the pleasure of interviewing Angelsoft’s CEO, David S. Rose, during a session at the Web 2.0 Expo.  The hour long interview covered a lot of ground including the landscape before and after September, and how this has changed investor’s strategy.  More on this in a future blog post.  David and I had the opportunity to speak with entrepreneurs who spent another hour with us after the session.  If any of you did not get your question answered, feel free to ask it in the comments below.

This summer they are hosting their first conference and it’s shaping up to be a must-attend event.  Startup 2009 will be one-day conference that will feature interviews with entrepreneurs, expert panels, networking, and a 10-company startup contest.  The 10 companies selected will compete for bragging rights, buzz, and a $50,000 prize!

They are using Angelsoft to manage the screening process for the contest so if you already have an application, all you need to do is apply.

The Contest

Emerging online companies are invited to submit applications to present at the conference.  Their panel of VCs and experts will evaluate the applications in Angelsoft.  They will then choose 10 finalists from the pool of applicants to present at the event.

Applying to the contest is free and all companies that apply will be evaluated by General Catalyst, Softbank, and Venrock for possible investment.  One of the finalists will also win a $50,000 prize, which will consist of a $25,000 cash investment from General Catalyst Partners and $25,000 of in-kind services.  The latter will include:

• Up to 6 months of office space in NYC.
• Marketing campaign with Silicon Alley Insider.
• Legal services from a top-notch law firm.

How to Apply

Emerging companies in the online industry are invited to apply.  (They’re defining “emerging” as less than a few million of seed capital.)  Concept-only companies are fine, but you will need to describe your planned product and value proposition in detail.

Here’s how to apply:

1. Log-in to Angelsoft on the right hand side of the Startup 2009 Profile to start an application.  If you do not have an Angelsoft account click Sign Up directly under the Login button.

2. Ignore the “Apply For Funding” part.  You’re applying for the contest, not funding.

3. If you already have an Angelsoft account, you will be asked if you want to copy your answers from a previous application.  If not, fill in the information and upload your business plan–any other uploaded material will be discarded.

4. Save your work and submit your application.

We want to ensure that entrepreneurs have the best possible experience when working with the investors who use our deal flow management software.

The team really enjoyed having a chance to sit down face-to-face with our entrepreneurial community to hear how we’re doing and what we can do better.  Balancing the needs of entrepreneurs and investors is a tricky challenge, but one we are committed to get right. We plan on hosting User Group meetings in the future so you can share your feedback on our progress and learn how to best utilize our tools to find funding.

There they gave a great 30 minute presentation about how prospective angels should find deals, work with portfolio companies, and approach angel investing in general (I won’t spoil their grand finale, but suffice it to say that the last five minutes of their presentation should be mandatory viewing for every past, present and future angel investor on a monthly basis.)

But don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself:

Below is our press release which explains our new features and the thinking behind them.  You can also read about our release on these blogs: New York Times: Bits, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Social Times, and Innonate, paidContent.org

Finding Startup Investors Just Got Easier

How can I get access to the Angelsoft Investor Search tools?
At the very top of the page lick the drop-down arrow next to “Investors” and select “Find a Group”.

How can I find the right group to Join?

Geography and investment sector are really two most important criteria when searching for an angel network to join.  You can filter the list of investors based on where you live, and you can look for groups based on which industry they specialize in.

What will an Angel group want to know about me before I can join?

Every group will have different requirements, ranging from a a simple exchange of email to a full blown application process.  Investing with others in a group requires trust, so expect them to want to get to know you first.

Who will receive my membership inquiry in the group?

Your inquiry will go to the Administrators of each group, and depending on who is in charge of memberships, someone will contact you.

Once your company has received funding, this tool helps track your deal terms. You can also track the percentage of your company owned by each investor.

Who will see the information I enter here?

When an investor commits funds to your company, they will be brought to a similar page where they can enter the amount invested. They’ll be able to see other investors in their group, as well as see how much money has been committed by outside investors (though they will not be able to see the names of those outside their group).

Who can edit this information?

Investors can enter their investment amount, which will automatically show up on your Investor Relations page. You can edit any information and add investors who have not entered an amount.

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Angelsoft is a New York City-based software company dedicated to providing tools to investors and entrepreneurs in the early stage venture space. Our investor tools focus around deal flow management, company communications, group management, and deal sharing.

Your investment data is extremely secure. One advantage of using the Angelsoft platform is a dedicated team that works to keep your data private. Since this is our core expertise, our engineers have designed a system with several layers of security, both physical (network level with firewalls, intrusion protection, database security) and logical (application level security, secure data delivery over SSL). Each entity (VC funds, angel groups, et. al.) lives in its own sandbox, secured from other entities by strict authorization architecture that ensures only authorized users can access your data. The customer has complete control over who has access to their account, and can revoke permission at any time.

Angelsoft is a platform open only to qualified business angel networks and venture capital firms. We provide the software free of charge to angel groups and offer a subscription service to venture capital firms. Pricing varies for venture funds depending on size, starting around 5K per year.

Contact us at info [at] angelsoft.net. Why isn’t sign up automatic? We take the time to get to know every investor group that wants to use our software in order to preserve the high quality of our Angelsoft investor network. Someone from our business development team will get back to you in person to give you a demo, confirm that your group qualifies, and set you up with a trial account.

We provide a series of tools that make it easier for you to keep track of your deals in our “deal log.”  You can input data through bulk import, e-mail forwarding, and entrepreneur self-service, or the old-fashioned way: manual data entry (which most VC partners tend to avoid!). Once your data is registered in the deal log, you can build an investment pipeline to move your deals through each step in the investment process while tracking notes on the status of each one. Then, using our simple reporting tools, you can get an overview of which deals you’re working on and what your next steps should be.

Our goal is to minimize the pains of administrative data entry while maximizing the power of reporting so you can spend your time working on deals, not dealing with software.