1.5 Years Of AngelList: 8000 Intros, 400 Investments And That’s Just The Data We Can Tell You About. What’s the Real Deal with AngelList? In case you missed all the kerfuffle this weekend, I posted this blog post originally on TechCrunch.
I attempted to do a fair balance job of an increasingly important service – AngelList – started by a friend of mine – Nivi with the feelings of a colleague who I respect – Bryce – who has opted out of the service. I hope I straddled people’s points of view well enough not to have offended anybody while adding a framework for how I think about the service. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList.
I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? A few reasons. Bryce Roberts, a person whose opinion & judgment I greatly respect as well as a person I consider of high integrity has gone on record as having “deleted his AngelList account.” Where do I stand on AngelList? 1.
I have no reason to delete my account. 2. 3. 4. 5. I feel angels need: Hear, hear. Yes, The Angel Financing Market Is A Massive Bubble. [Note: This was sent to the www.JasonNation.com e-mail newsletter.
If you don't want to miss a thing than you should join the nation!] The bubble is back, baby! Yes! Let’s raise lots of money…Aeron chairs for everyone! Oh wait, I’m angel investing now...higher valuations means I get a smaller percentage! Boooooo! Bubbles are bad! Bad bubble, bad bubble! If you read the blogs, you’ve been hearing intelligent venture capitalists like Fred Wilson and Bill Gurley lament the bubbly conditions they’re facing.
[Side Note: If you're reading this and not Fred Wilson and Bill Gurley's blogs, you need to free up five hours and read everything they've written in the past six months. Everyone at the Web 2.0 conference, which I am lobby crashing during the LAUNCH conference announcement, is asking me if there’s a bubble, when it’s going to pop and what they should do. There are four distinct bubbles right now: 1. Based on these I have four pieces of advice for startup founders: a) Close Your Angel Round — NOW! Myspace Accused Of Ripping Off Stealth Startup Pinterest. This morning Pinterest co-founders Ben Silberman, Paul Sciarra and Yashwanth Nelapati woke up to a barrage of tweets, “So @myspace has completely ripped off @pinterest.
It really pisses me off when an old, tired hack tries to undermine hardworking inovators. [sic]“ Myspace revealed its new redesign last night and Pinterest users quickly picked up on the similarities between the two site aesthetics, leading to an intense Twitter debate. The offsite grid layout used by both Myspace and Pinterest is nothing new; Lazyfeed, and countless other sites have a similar design (there’s even a Tumblr theme). But the fact that former Myspace Director of Technology Dave Peck emailed Pinterest back in March asking for an advance invite is interesting, especially when you read the email. Founder Silberman told TechCrunch, “The Myspace product team joined our site really early and so I’m sure they took inspiration from it. Pinterest is still invite only and is currently seeking funding.
You've gotta be kidding me. AngelGate.