Open Angel Forum Boston

Venalytica was honored to be selected a finalist for the Open Angel Forum in Boston. I was happy to attend and meet new people. The other 5 companies were represented by a fine group of entrepreneurs with great ideas and powerful demonstrations. Networking with them and learning about their different challenges was illuminating.

Boston can be a tough place for startups. While there are many Angel groups, they often see themselves as mini VC's more interested in fund management than nurturing new companies. The OAF model seemed to be to try and find actual high net worth "angels" who are checkbook-ready.

I would say about half of the attendees fit that description. The other half were angel group directors of members looking for deal stream. I had previously either presented to their groups or contacted them. It was discouraging to see some of them caucus with the investors instead of taking the opportunity to mingle with the entrepreneurs who took time to hone their demos, some traveling from as far as Montreal and San Francisco.

Still, there was some interest expressed for Venalytica and the other companies and you never know what networking opportunity arose as a result. Overall I would call it worthwhile and a good use of time.

Open Angel Forum

The Six Companies Pitching At Open Angel Forum Boston

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by Leena Rao on Jun 14, 2010

The Boston edition of Jason Calacanis’ Open Angel Forum is taking place next week in Boston and we have the six startups that will be pitching investors come June 18. Calacanis established the Open Angel Forum (OAF) recently to provide entrepreneurs and startups with free and open access to angel investors. OAF has held sessions in LA, New York, Silicon Valley and Boulder.

Below are the six startup finalists:

Textaurant’s web-based waiting list management technology allows restaurant patrons to get stuff done nearby while they wait for a table. Textaurant will alert people on a restaurant’s wait list via a text message when a table is ready.

Keenkong, which debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt a few weeks ago, helps manage the social media overload for marketers. Keenkong semantically segments the conversations taking place on Facebook and Twitter by topic (what), by intentions (why), by network size and more.

Zazuba is an appointment booking service that allows consumers to view appointment availability at local businesses in realtime.

Venalytica develops an SaaS product, Consumer Preference Analytics, that gives retailers greater insight into the way consumers find and purchase products online and in stores. The product allows consumers to indicate the strength of their preferences for product or service features resulting in a ranked list of choices on a retail or consumer research website.

Tasted Menu aims to provide a centralized, structured destination addressing two of the most pressing questions regularly faced by diners: “What’s good to eat here?” and “Where do I find the best…?”

Hello Vino’s mobile apps give consumers custom wine recommendations on the go. Since June of 2009, the app has made over 5 million recommendations.