What do you like about it? If you paid $250 for something other than getting in touch with investors if not actually securing investment, I'd definitely like to know. Otherwise, it seems that "liking it" is not a useful evaluation of their service.
I have a 1-yr startup and we fight tooth and nail to go to career fairs and conferences for free. $250 is not something we spend lightly, especially on something that doesn't give us a good chance of meeting people in person. It all depends on your situation, though. Ours could be quite different.
> "I signed up and paid $250 to have my application submitted to thousands of potential investors and investor groups. It has only been 3 days, so I don’t know how effective it is, but so far, I really like it."
I like the fact that I can reach 1000s of investors instantly. I know this isn't a substitute for a real relationship and networking but the cost/benefit IMHO is pretty good.
It's like posting your resume on monster.com. Sure, you will have a better chance getting a job from people you already know and have a relationship with or by going to job fairs but does that mean you should post on monster.com?
FYI: As of right now, 16 investors have looked at my application on angelsoft and I got 3 thumbs up and 0 thumbs down. Whether all this translate into actual investments or not, I don't know. But stay tuned, I will report back. I will even come back and post the results here, so you don't have to visit my blog :)
I've experienced this firsthand (last startup I worked for did the angel cartel thing). Don't get your hopes up.
These angel cartels work in phases -- you start with a big pool of hopefuls, then if they "like" you, they start to require that you give more presentations, and attend more parties and whatnot. At each phase, the time investments get larger and larger, and ultimately, you have to put in a lot of effort for a relatively small amount of money.
Meanwhile, you'll find that you're competing with "startups" that aren't startups, or that are in completely different fields (some of the top-rated presentations at our sessions were for real-estate investors!) Very few people get funded by these things, relative to the starting pool, and those that do get funded tend to be "startups" that have relatively conventional business models (like the aforementioned real-estate people).
My impression is that angel cartels are gathering places for modestly rich people who want to get their feet wet in angel investing. Given that you really want your first investors to be experienced and helpful, these things probably aren't a good match for an early-phase tech company.
Hello fellow business man. I have a very interesting and time sensitive officer for you. We will connect you with 10,000 investors with millions of USA dollars $$$. We guarantee 100% funding. They have too much money LOL! This is legit.
Friend, email me as soon as possible so you can get the money to be rich! You only need to pay $1000 USA dollars before you get 100000 time that back LOL!
I have a 1-yr startup and we fight tooth and nail to go to career fairs and conferences for free. $250 is not something we spend lightly, especially on something that doesn't give us a good chance of meeting people in person. It all depends on your situation, though. Ours could be quite different.
> "I signed up and paid $250 to have my application submitted to thousands of potential investors and investor groups. It has only been 3 days, so I don’t know how effective it is, but so far, I really like it."