Jason Calacanis – A Man On A Mission

jason-calacanis

A number of weeks ago Jason Calacanis laid down a challange to angel groups (Keiretsu Forum in particular) who charge start-ups to pitch, to drop the “Pay-to-Pitch” busisness model within 30 days or he would start a competitive angel group that would not only be free of charge for start-ups to pitch but would also quite possibly run and operate on the same days and in the same venues as its competitors. That deadline expired on the 16th of this month and surprise surprise, this practice had not stopped and the wheels started to turn. Jason asked for logo and website ideas to be submitted to him for the Open Angel Forum via his Twitter account and within minutes logos started knocking on his door for free and the #oaf Twitter tag began to run wild.

This all seemed to start when Jason found out that participants of his and Mike Arrington’s, TechCrunch50 Event had been approached by Keiretsu Forum and others to pitch to them. They expressed that this angel forum had told them of the fees to pitch, charging start-ups upwards of $6000 to pitch their company/ideas to whom they thought was a room full of investors. This turned out to be incorrect with the room being made up of service providers and the like eg. laywers, bank managers, HR etc etc. This in my opinion is absurd, almost all the big internet companies we now use everyday started because they were helped by Angels and Venture Capitalists. Google, Facebook, Twitter and they are just the really big names, i can alomst guarantee they were not charged to pitch their company to Angels or VC’s. Angels and VC’s make money by investing, by making smart decision and investing money in companies and ideas that will change the way we do things or make the things we do better and easier. Thats how REAL investors make their money.

So seeing what kind of a guy Mr Calacanis is from his podcasts, its evident that he never takes anything lying down, never one to back down or let things close to his heart get troden on. This is a trait of a very successful entrepreneur, he was the co-founder of the highly successful Weblogs Inc, which created blogs like Engadget and AutoBlog, which was sold to AOL, he was also the GM of Netscape and now is the CEO of Mahalo, which is a human powered search engine now hitting 10 million or more uniques a month. I remember listening to his podcast, This Week In Startups and hearing him talk about how he poached Peter Rojas from Gizmodo to help him built his new tech based blog Engadget for Weblogs Inc and in turn giving him equity in the company. When Jason says he’s going to do something it’s not done in halves. This is a worring sign for angel groups who “prey” on start-ups for money to pitch ideas. When interviewed over email in regards to setting the Open Angel Forum up, he said he would give 60 days before Keiretsu Forum were out of business – them be fighting words.

So with Jason’s Open Angel Forum in full swing of planning and start-up, first starting in Los Angeles, where Calacanis lives and has connections with many angel investors, then progressively rolling out to over 20 cities across the US and the world according to his signup pages, this is an exciting time for Jason, who has now retired from both blogging and public speaking recently, to really give back to the community, and help young entrepreneurs make their own way in the world, much the same way he did as a young entrepreneur. I wish him and the Open Angel Forum and all start-ups pitching the best of luck. Hit em where it hurts Jason!

If you are interested in pitching to the Open Angel Forum, or are an Angel Investor yourself, or a Service Provider, sign up pages have been created for you, as well as a new Open Angel Forum website. Please check the links below for more details. If you liked this article, you can follow me on Twitter @lucasburnett or by using the follow buttons up top for this site.

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Steve Bell = Troll.

Please don't feed the trolls.

sbell22

Hello Techanist, Just to let you know, there is a lot of incorrect information in your post. Jason hasn't retired from blogging and public speaking - that was a prank post made a few weeks back, as a joke (i don't think anyone could stop Jason from those activities, much less himself:).

Second, the whole thing about the Keiretsu Forum is incorrect. The Keiretsu does not "go out and contact" anyone; it is entirely driven by startups that apply. There is no fee to apply, or go through the early part of the 90-day process. The fee is not paid to the Angels; 90% of the Keiretsu's operating budget is provided by the Angels who are MEMBERS of the Keiretsu, people like myself (we pay $3k/year to be members, and receive nothing from entrepreneurs). The Keiretsu does not participate in any "upside" from the investments, which are made directly to the startups, by us Angels.

There is SO MUCH mis-information coming out of Jason CRASSacanis on this, that I've made a number of blog posts and videos setting the record straight. i also appeared on TWIST, but was only allowed a few minutes to refute his inaccurate information, before he muted me and kicked me off his show. He earlier, had invited me into his studio, but as I was driving from San Jose to LA, he chickened out and put me on Skype.

As you can tell, I'm not a big Jason fan, like yourself. But it's nothing personal; i just think a lot of people like yourself don't realize that he has not done his homework about this, and does not know the facts about the how the world of Angel investing works. He has also made a number of flat-out lies, and frequently resorts to profanity to describe myself, my fellow Angel investors, and the Keiretsu's leader, Randy Williams. Watch his performances on Leo Laporte's TWIT show, for example.

Jason is truly "in a rage" about his issue. But his rage has some other source, than the real facts of the matter. He frequently resorts to lies to buttress his case. For example, now he is running around claiming that "already, i have forced the Keiretsu Forum to drop half their fees, and I'm not done with them yet". Nothing could be further from the truth - the Keiretsu Forum has not changed anything. He also claims he will "put the Keiretsu Forum out of business within 60 days". That's absurd.

Jason also shows total ignorance to the most important Securities Laws which regulate how Angel investing groups can do business. He is on video several times as gung-ho for a "success fee", so that only startups that SUCCEED in raising money from his Angel Groups have to pay a fee. That is legal in the U.K., but DEFINITELY illegal in the USA. He also has scoffed at the idea that he'll have to restrict attendance at his meetings to "Accredited" investors, as defied by the SEC. I don't think he realizes, that there are Securities Laws that will put him in violation of the law, and will also make him liable for any investments made into startups, should he structure it that way.

Look up the definition of CRASS. It fits Jason to the TEE. You can read the ~12 articles I've written about this at StartupTrek.net, search my site locally for "Jason" and you'll have a list of them.

I stand by every factual correction I've made to his rage-a-thon, in those posts.

For a real education in Angel Investing, watch my new, 2-hour video interview with the #1 expert on Angel Investing in the US, Dr. Rob Wiltbank, Prof. of Business (Entrepreneurship) at Willamette University. He has been studying the micro-mechanics of this sector of private equity finance for 12 years.

Cheers,

steve bell | Startup Trek Television, Inc | Los Gatos, CA | (800) 946-1511 vmail | (408) 410-3857 cell |http://StartupTrek.net | Launching Q1 2010

Jason Calacanis – A Man On A Mission

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