I just ordered my personal copy of Faded Glory, a documentary produced by my friend and Atlanta-based filmmaker, Rick Cohen.  If you are actively involved in the Atlanta startup scene, you may have run into Rick before.  Besides being a great guy, and an awesome filmmaker, the story behind the story is one for the ages.

Faded Glory is a true story of a group of aging athletes, good friends for over 18 years, who never gave up the dream of playing baseball at a competitive level. Through the eyes of their manager Rick Cohen, Faded Glory follows the National Network team, 18 men over the age of thirty-five who have overcome life’s adversities, including injury, divorce, bankruptcy, infidelity, drug addiction, incarceration, and one life-threatening disease. It all takes place as National tries to win a National Amateur Baseball World Series title. Faded Glory is a captivating document of friendship, courage, humor, and the indomitability of the human spirit.

Through his hard work and passionate evangelism of his film project, Rick raised some angel capital for this film (partially through connections he made at one of our StartupLounge events).  I haven’t sought permission to mention the name of the investor in question, but he is one of the most successful technology entrepreneurs in the past decade here – and a good guy to boot.  Just goes to show you, no matter what industry sector your venture is in, you never know where a possible angel investor is lurking, and what motivates them to make an investment.

And interestingly enough, this investor shared this with me:

“I did invest some money in his movie as a result of meeting him at your StartupLounge event.  Not so much because I think movies are a good investment, but because I admire his passion and the way he has bootstrapped it thus far.”

There ya go.

The film has gone on to win a lot of critical acclaim:

• Delray Beach Film Festival Audience Award
• LA United Film Festival Audience Award
• ALL SPORTS LA Film Festival Audience Award
• Atlanta Film Festival Runner-Up Audience Award
• Real to Reel International Film Festival Runner-up Audience Award
• Newport Beach Film Festival – Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment names the film – audience favorite.

And hey, you can’t get better endorsements than these:

ANGELO PIZZO -
Writer of both “Hoosiers” and “Rudy.”

“A compelling documentary with authentic, well-earned emotions.”

ROGER TOWNE -
Writer of “The Natural.”

“Roy Hobbs and the New York Knights live in Rick Cohen. I’ve not seen so much blood and guts, self-less honesty, despair, pathos, passion, honor, and above all, — so much bravery in filmmaking.  Rick’s poignantly invested and dramatized love for his friends and the game of baseball shows clearly in this documentary.”

LEIGH STEINBERG -
Legendary Sports Agent who inspired the character of “Jerry McGuire.”

“This is THE documentary that resonates and connects with the deepest hopes and fears of males throughout the country and is a landmark event–Rick is a truly gifted talent! Faded Glory offers an unique opportunity for women to experience the locker room environment and psyche of men in an alternative habitat. It should not to be missed!”

In fact, Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh (writer and director of Rudy!, respectively), are now on board to turn this amazing story into a feature film.

Hey Rick, can I get a cameo role for promoting this?

Sooooo ….. support a local Atlanta entrepreneur and pre-order this awesome film on DVD.  Get the original indie film before Hollywood turns it into a blockbuster that may or may not capture the true spirit of Rick’s original vision. You can visit the online store here.

Rick will be attending our upcoming StartupLounge event on March 6th, and we’ll be giving away some signed copies of the DVD there as well …

Cheers.

Jason Calacanis has a new cause.  He is railing against the so-called “pay-to-pitch” phenomenon.  A good read – check it out here.

Update: Scoble, Fred, and Lance have since commented on it as well.

My views on the pay-to-pitch thing are pretty well known, as I’ve written about it a ton in the past, and we’ve torn the topic to shreds several times on the podcast.  And I think we (the larger community, of which I am but a small part) have done a pretty good job here in Atlanta, at least, of (A) educating the entrepreneurs, and (B) tearing down the walls that allowed that sort of thing to come about in the first place.  Many of the pay-to-pitch groups don’t even bother with Atlanta any more (because they know they’ll get a boot in the face from the community). But I will add a few additional thoughts here …

I think the fact that someone with Jason’s “web-clout” is a bit late in jumping on this bandwagon is illustrative (to me, at least), of how “disconnected” the valley-minded crowd can be from the rest of the country.  Don’t get me wrong – I want Jason to fight the good fight   But StartupLounge (and others) have been screaming about this, and fighting against it, for several years.

There is a difference between someone in a place like the Valley paying to pitch, and someone in Des Moines, or Tampa, or Atlanta, et al.

If you are paying to pitch in the Valley, you and/or your idea, must really blow. It’s like the handful of applications for CapitalLounge that we get from startups in California that want to come to Atlanta to find money.  Wow – really? WTF?

If you are paying to pitch in some other part of the country (i.e. an under-served capital region, like Atlanta), you may very well be sitting on the next Google, but you likely don’t have the infrastructure and support system around you to tell you that you are wasting your capital paying to pitch – you may think that you don’t have an alternative. And that is where education comes in play.

Uneducated entrepreneur + desperation = “Gee, I bet I can charge this clown $5K to come ‘pitch’ at my service-provider dry hump fest.”

To me, it is all about supply and demand.  How do you kill the demand, since killing the pay-to-pitch organizers is, well, illegal? We’ve found that making more well-rounded, educated, and agile entrepreneurs is the best antidote for the pay-to-pitch problem.  If I had a nickel for every entrepreneur that we’ve collectively “converted” from the dark side through stuff like StartupLounge/CapitalLounge, PitchCamp, Startup Riot, ATDC, Startup Gauntlet, mentoring, et al, I could fund half the deals in the Southeast at least through Series-D

At any rate – good read – Jason’s a firebrand – gotta love it.  Kick ass – take names – peace out.

Cheers.

We made the announcement the other night at our quarterly CapitalLounge event, but here it is again for those that missed it.

AngelLounge is the angel investor community component of Startuplounge.  It is currently comprised of 80+ vetted angel investors in Georgia. The member list reads like a who’s who.

The good news is that not only have we not even scratched the surface of Atlanta, but we are also reaching out to other parts of the state as well, including Savannah, Columbus, Douglasville, Rome, etc.

The group meets each month in an almost “unconference” like setting.  The goals are to have an open forum for the discussion of topics relating to angel investing, to encourage cross-pollination among investors as it pertains to deal flow, to create new angel investors by bringing in high net worth individuals seeking to explore early stage investing as a vehicle, and to create a logical funnel for these investors into the early-stage scene in Georgia.

One of the key pain points that has been constantly brought up at the meetings is the lack of exposure to investment opportunities (“deal flow”).  As evidenced by the over 160 companies that attended our CapitalLounge event the other night (over half of which were new to the event), there is clearly “stuff going on”.  So, putting our entrepreneurial hat on – we listened to the customer, and came up with a solution.  Actually, two solutions – a short term and a long term solution.

The short term solution is available today (the better, long-term solution is in development).

We have rolled out an automated deal referral and distribution system.  To distribute information on your deal, simply head to StartupLounge.com. If you haven’t done so, you’ll need to create a free community account in order to participate.

This is different from investment matching sites such as GoBig Network etc. because this isn’t just matching business plans with a blind database.

The AngelLounge members have organized themselves into vertical markets ranging from IT to consumer products to alternative energy to biotech. Each industry vertical has an angel investor volunteering to serve as an IAC (Industry Angel Coordinator). Any entrepreneur within the StartupLounge community can go online, upload their one pager or executive summary, and select the industries that fit the deal. The deal will be distributed on their behalf to the appropriate IACs. 

Every deal will get seen by the network, period – no bottlenecks – no middleman – no gatekeepers.

The role of the IAC is simply to ensure that the information received is actually a fit for the industry (or industries) that the entrepreneur selected. If it isn’t a fit for that IAC (e.g. the entrepreneur selected the wrong industry by mistake), the IAC simply forwards the deal to the appropriate IAC. Assuming an industry match, the deal is then distributed to the angel members who have expressed an interest in seeing deals in that particular market.

Devlishly simple.

Each angel is free to follow-up with the entrepreneur on their own – this is not a pledge fund, or a fund of any sort, for that matter. This is merely a mechanism to get deal flow going among local angels.

The angels have committed to delivering an initial response to the entrepreneur within within one (1) week. This takes us out of the role of gatekeeper and lets you deliver your opportunity directly multiple investors that actively want to see your deal.

This makes StartupLounge/AngelLounge the largest organized angel network in Georgia, and quite possibly in the Southeast.  This group is growing like mad, and there is little doubt in my mind that we’ll reach 100 members by Q1, and quite possibly double in size in 2009.

A special thanks to Jeff McConnell, Chris Demetree, and the others who logged a lot of time brainstorming the system.  Also thanks to Charlie Paparelli (Paparelli Ventures) who puts a boatload of effort into driving the overall effort with AngelLounge.

BTW, if you are interested in joining AngelLounge as an investor member, contact me. There is no fee to join (why should there be?), but there is an interview process.

Cheers.

Our next Capital Lounge event is next Wednesday, 8/27, and man is it shaping up to be a good one.

As it stands right now, this will be the best investor turn out to date (due I think in large part to the success we’ve had with our Angel Lounge initiative). Right now we have over 40 investors signed up, and that number will probably drive closer to 50 in the next few days. There is a slight edge in the number of angel investors, but it is pretty evenly split between angels and traditional venture capital firms.

Over 150 entrepreneurs have signed up as well, and about half of them are new deals. Very cool to see that trend continue.

Of course, we try very diligently to weed out service providers, job seekers, etc. in order to create an environment conducive to having substantive discussions between innovators and capital providers.

if you want to meet the movers and shakers in the startup community (ATDC, VentureLab, regional VCs, local angels, and a veritable army of fellow entrepreneurs), you need to be there. And why not? It’s free.

We’re going to be making some cool announcements there as well.

As a reminder, we are capping attendance (for entrepreneurs, at least). So if you haven’t applied, and you want to attend, you should probably apply sooner rather than later.

Cheers.

The next Angel Lounge meeting is coming up on Thursday, March 6th at 11:30-1pm.

The purpose of the Angel Lounge (a part of Startuplounge.com) is to create an unstructured environment for local angels to meet each other and learn from each other. Our goal is to stimulate investment in Atlanta startups while creating the next generation of Angel investors.This is our second monthly luncheon. Last month we had about 15 angels and everybody was excited about the opportunity to come together on a monthly basis and talk angel investing. We also took a small survey to determine what topics may be of interest to discuss.

This month’s topic is “How to develop your investment profile.” Some of us will share while others will just listen. Not all attendees have made investments. Some of the attendees are just investigating angel investing.

Please feel free to invite a guest or two. The more angel investors and potential investors the better. Just be sure to tell me how many will be coming.

If you are interested in attending, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the right person. To attend, you must either be (A) an active angel investor here in Georgia, or (B) someone who is interested in becoming an angel investor (and has the means to do so).

Cheers.

As we continue to evolve our efforts at StartupLounge.com, we’re always trying to find new and innovative ways to foster early-stage entrepreneurship in the Southeast. In anticipation of our next StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event, we have decided to hold another quarterly event: Angel Lounge.

There are a lot of new angel investors out there, as well as many that lurk, but aren’t quite sure where to begin. Well, we’re here to help.

Kudos to Charlie Paparelli (of Paparelli Ventures) for suggesting this idea. Charlie is a very experienced angel investor, and the newest member of our StartupLounge.com steering committee. Sig Mosley of Imlay Investments has also graciously agreed to attend and lend his expertise to the room.

The Angel Lounge – Free Lunch!

Building the startup ecosystem in the Southeast (and in particular, Atlanta) is what the Startuplounge.com is all about. The Angel Lounge is an opportunity for our angel investor attendees to get to know each other and for us to get to know you. Our goal is to “help you help each other” get to the right investment more efficiently. In this open, lounge-like, environment, angel investors will meet prior to the Capital Conference to:

• Meet fellow investors
• Gain an understanding of fellow investor interests
• Discuss the various methods of angel investing
• Learn about the various deal structures and what to expect
• Understand how to best evaluate opportunities while attending Capital Connections
• What to expect in the first meeting outside the conference

More importantly, you’ll get to meet some very interesting people just like yourself. And it is literally a free lunch (compliments of one of our sponsors, Adams Capital). Who knows, maybe someday you’ll do a deal together.

If you are an angel investor in the Southeast, and would like to attend, please let me know. The cost is free, but space is limited.

Angel Lounge will be held on Wednesday, January 30th at the offices of Adams Capital in Atlanta. The actual Capital Connections event will be held a week later, on Wednesday, February 6th.

Cheers.

If you are an early-stage entrepreneur in the Southeast U.S., and you want to come hang out with a couple hundred like-minded investors and entrepreneurs, you won’t want to miss the next StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event.

Cheers.