Venture Hacks

Oct 26, 2011

share [flickrslideshow acct_name="47186762@N03" id="72157627967768674"] Last Friday night, BostInno and Atlas Venture partnered to host AngelList Unplugged with special guest Babak Nivi. Nivi is the founder of popular blog Venture Hacks and of course AngelList . The goal of the event was to give entrepreneurs unique insights on how to raise money using AngelList. And there was no better way than to hear from the co-founder of the site himself. The sold out event was held in the  atrium of Atlas Venture's office, which is also home to HubSpot. In front of a crowd of 200 people, the event began with a fireside chat featuring Atlas partner Jeff Fagnan and Nivi. The two go back over 10 years to Nivi's days as an engineering student at MIT. Fagnan made it clear that if we wanted to really understand AngelList, we had to understand Nivi. So we took a ride down memory lane. Editor's Note: I included time cues to where you can find the story in the video below. The two met while Fagnan was at Seed Capital when a long haired, unmatched shoe-wearing engineer came into his office looking to become a venture associate. Regardless of his appearance (and thanks to Fagnan's gut), Fagnan reluctantly hired Nivi. At that time Nivi was in a fraternity called TEP, which turned out to be an incredible breeding ground for high tech startups. Datapower, Veracode, Covio, Squid Labs, Instructables all came out of that MIT fraternity. Nivi noted that a lot of that was luck, but he did always surround himself with quality people. (3:45) After a seven year stint at MIT (Nivi joked that he should have dropped out way before) and after successfully raising a few rounds of investment, Nivi teamed up with Naval to write down their some of their entrepreneurial experiences and advice that they had come across over the years. And VentureHacks was born . The tagline for Venture Hacks was "valuation is temporary, control is forever," meaning that your valuation doesn't matter today, what matters is your valuation when you exit, which is determined by how much you control of the company. The goal of the site was to level the playing field for entrepreneurs and share some of the great advice that the two founders had acquired along the way. (5:05) Venture Hacks worked because entrepreneurs were always seeking the answer to one question, "I have a term sheet, is this a good deal? " said Nivi. "But the real question [is] do [we] know any investors? " "Dude," Nivi recalls Naval saying. "Just make a list of investors and put it up on a web page. " (11:45) And just like that AngelList was born. The site started as a simple list of investors on WordPress page and a Wuffoo form. "We asked investors the right questions though," said Nivi. "How do you add value, how much are your typical investment amounts and how many investments do you do a year? " "We're trying to take the advice on Venture Hacks and productize it on AngelList. " Now, startups and investors can create profiles and network in a private online community all through AngelList. The site has facilitated over 10,000 intros between startups and investors and somewhere between $100 to $200 million in funding has gone through AngelList. Jeff Fagnan referred to AngelList as "the most interesting and compelling thing that has changed venture capital in the last decade. " (14:25) Today, 75 startups and 15 new investors sign up EVERY day. If you are a startup looking to raise a round of investment, it is imperative that you sign up and get on AngelList. ( Find tips and tricks here ) Just like most startups, AngelList is constantly being iterated on. And Nivi was lucky enough to give us a sneak peak on what we can expect to see soon. (16:38) The most prominent new futures include a job board and a one-click check out, essentially automating the funding closing process. These features could potentially save investors and startups thousands of dollars in recruiting and legal fees. AngelList hopes to suck all the friction out of raising money for a startup. And they are well on their way. Check out the video below of the incredible chat with Jeff Fagnan and Babak Nivi. FILED UNDER: