The Open Angel Forum is a recurring event designed to aid early stage

startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

seeking funding, via presentations to prospective

angel investors An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

. Launched in 2009 by tech entrepreneur and media figure

Jason Calacanis Jason McCabe Calacanis (born November 28, 1970) is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster. His first company was part of the dot-com era in New York. His second venture, Weblogs, Inc., a publishing company tha ...

, the event was the culmination of a series of public comments by Calacanis questioning the ethics of groups who charge fledgling companies to present to wealthy investors. Calacanis, already co-founder of startup competition TechCrunch50 with

Michael Arrington J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970) is the American founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in America and elsewhere. Magazines such as ...

(which ran from 2007 to 2009), had spoken out repeatedly against specific groups he characterized as preying on small, hopeful companies seeking financing. The conversation evolved quickly over the course of several days, beginning with
blog post
calling for "

Jihad Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...

" against the

Keiretsu Forum Keiretsu Forum, which was founded in 2000 by Randy Williams, is a private group of international members comprising an angel investor network. The network has 53 chapters in cities such as San Francisco California, Seattle Washington, New York C ...

, a discussion on his online broadcast This Week in Startups, and two impassioned polemics outlining the impetus for creating an alternative model: th
first
self-described as "declaring war" and "written with boiling blood" quickly followed by
second
containing quotes from other prominent tech industry pundits such as Fred Wilson and Brad Feld as well as anonymous individuals claiming to be formerly affiliated or familiar with the groups in question. Upon formalizing the organization, several principles were outlined regarding qualifications and structure, the most notable legacy of the initial controversy being a strict rule against fees for both presenters and investors for participation. Startups presenting at the Open Angel Forum are picked by the event's organizers (which include regional "chapter heads" as well). Six companies are chosen and each presents for 10 minutes. Angel investors must apply for admission as well, and required to be active, with at least four investments in the past year. The first event was held on January 14, 2009, in Los Angeles and to date events have been held in six cities:

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Boulder, CO Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Colora ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Though news reports and blog postings by participating companies, as well as the organization itself, have touted funding offers following the events, the group does not maintain a comprehensive list of presenters, nor have they announced the success rate or other metrics as to the efficacy of the program as a source for startup capital for participants.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Business conferences Computer conferences