Quick Start Guide:

1. Enter your location in the left hand column of the Group Finder to sort groups by distance from you.
2. Click the View Site link to learn more about the group and the Start Application button to begin the application.
3. You can have up to three active submissions. If you apply to more than three, your deal will go into the group's Bulk Submission folder.
4. If you want to apply to an additional group click the Delete button next to an active submission. This will free up a spot and allow you to submit without being placed in the Bulk Submission folder.

Full Explanation:

Finding the right group to apply to can save you considerable time and money. Groups often have specific criteria they are looking for in a business such as industry and investment range. Applying to the correct group greatly increases your chance of additional funding talks. While it may seem like a good idea to send your plan to as many groups as possible, this can actually hurt you. Angelsoft is an ecosystem, and investors quickly ignore companies that abuse the system. To further prevent misuse, if you have more than 3 active submissions, your application will go into a group's Bulk Submission folder. You may delete an application to free up a spot. If you are looking for broad exposure we suggest applying to OPENdeals, which is accessible to the 8000 investors and 450 groups that use Angelsoft.To find the right group for you, start by entering your location in the left hand column of the Group Finder. This will display the groups that are closest to you. A local deal is more attractive to an Angel, so these are the best groups to apply to first.

Click the View Site link next to a group's name and familiarize yourself with their funding criteria. If you think your company is a fit, click Start Application. If you do not have an Angelsoft account you will be asked to register.

You can save an application as you work on it, so there is no need to finish it at once. All of your applications can be managed from the My Application tab. You can start as many applications as you want; you will only be placed in the Bulk Submission folder if you SUBMIT to more than three groups.
If you have already submitted to three groups, and would like to submit to an additional group, you can click the Delete button next to an active submission. Usually you would do this after the group has declined your deal. This will allow you to submit to an additional group without being placed in the Bulk Submission Folder.

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Entrepreneur, HowTo :: Comments

Once you have submitted your application you will be brought to the Entrepreneur Funding Manager.

From here you can see the number of investors that have viewed your deal, referred your deal into their Angel Group, and the amount of time your have remaining in OPENdeals

On the right hand side is the News Feed, where you will see all investor activity on your application. Investors review submissions to bring the best opportunities to the top of OPENdeals. The investor can choose to share that review with you which will appear in the News Feed.

If an investor is interested, they will refer your deal into their Angel Group’s Angelsoft account for review. Angelsoft is used by most of the world's Angel groups to manage ALL their deals, not just the ones from OPENdeals.
When an investor refers your deal into their group's Angelsoft account, the General Manager is notified by email. That deal shows up at the top of the New Submissions list which is the first thing that the members of the group will see the next time they log in.You will be notified by email of the referral. When you log into the Funding Manager you will see that you have a new section for this group.

A deal-specific email address is included. This allows you to communicate with the investor that referred your deal along with the General Manager of the group. As your deal progresses, you will continue to use this email to communicate with all interested investors.

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Entrepreneur, Open Deals :: Comments

1. Click the Get Started button on the OPENdeals page

2. Register or Login if you already have an account

3. If you have previously applied to another Angel Group, you will be asked if you want to import your answers from that application.

You can do this at any time by clicking the import button at the top of the screen

4. Fill out your application. This is often the only document that an investor will look at; make sure that you fill it out completely. Do not put “see business plan” in any of the fields. Investors do not look at business plans until much later in the process, if at all.

5. Upload a video pitch or click “Record With Webcam” to record a video using your webcam directly in your browser. A video pitch vastly increases the number of investors who will look at your application.

6. The application will autosave every 10 minutes, but you can click save at the top of the screen at any time. Click Save & Close to finish your application later.
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7. When you are ready, click Submit at the bottom of the page. You will be brought to the payment screen where you will be asked to pay by credit card. The cost to apply to OPENdeals is $250.

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Entrepreneur, HowTo, Open Deals :: Comments

Over the years Angel Groups have found that by charging a submission fee, they dramatically reduce the number of frivolous submissions from entrepreneurs. The logic goes that a less than serious entrepreneur will find a fee daunting, while a serious entrepreneur will find the fee a nominal cost of business.

We applied this same logic to OPENdeals and have found that it works. It’s not a perfect system, but it does act as a pretty good filter. Without it, our investor community would be crushed with an influx of low quality deals, and its value would be lost for both entrepreneurs and investors.

In the interest of full disclosure, we operate a global infrastructure and provide world class software tools for both Investors and Entrepreneurs. OPENdeals submission fees help cover some of these costs.

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Entrepreneur, Open Deals :: Comments

OPENdeals is an investor community open to the 8,000 investors in the 450 groups that use Angelsoft. We have spent 4 years hand-selecting each Angel Group on our system to ensure that their membership is only made up of SEC Accredited Angel Investors.

These are wealthy individuals who have already made their money and are now looking to invest in startup companies. They are not looking to startup another business, and therefore not interested in stealing your idea.

Any of these investors can see your deal and has the option to provide a review. These reviews are used to bring the best opportunities to the top of OPENdeals, similar to Digg. The investor can choose to anonymously share their review with you. You will also see the number of investors that have viewed your deal. We unfortunately cannot tell you who these investors are in order to protect their privacy. However, if they are interested in your deal, they will refer it into their own Angelsoft account for review and you will be notified.

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Entrepreneur, Open Deals :: Comments

While we wish we could let you in to take a look around, we need to keep it restricted to SEC accredited investors.

What we can do is give you a peek behind the scenes of what OPENdeals looks like to Angels.

Deal Directory

The Deal Directory is where investors can browse through submitted deals by criteria such as location, rating, number of views, and industry.

Summary Information

On the Deal Directory each company is shown with a summary of their information.

This includes:

• Company name
• The number of views the deal has received (you can also see this number on your Application Manager)
• The rating other investors have given the deal (you can see these ratings in the News Feed on the Application Manager if the investor chooses to share it with you)
• Whether or not a video is included
• The One Line Pitch
• Industry

A Deal

Each deal is displayed in a standardized format that Angels are familiar with from their personal Angelsoft accounts.

• The answers to your questions are listed in the main section. Your companies vitals such as Management and Financial Information are listed in the side bar on the right.
• The video is available to watch as the investor reads through your application
• Your documents are available for download. A PDF of your application is automatically generated for the investor to print out (You can also download this PDF by clicking on Preview in your application)

When An Investor Is Interested

If an investor is interested in a deal they can refer it into their own group for further review. At this point you will be notified.

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Entrepreneur, Open Deals :: Comments

Joe DiPasquale - CollegeWikis.com

Brett Blake - Acceptx Financial Solutions

Rob Kamphausen - Fyrebug.com

Jason Schwartz :: Jul.15.2008 :: Angelsoft 3.0, Endorsements, Entrepreneur, Open Deals :: Comments