HN Explorer

Ask HN: A competitor is part of the angel group I want to pitch to

5 points by davidmurphy ↗ HN
I am thinking of applying to pitch at the Open Angel Forum next month (the group recently founded by @Jason Calacanis, who recruited some awesome angel investors from SF & LA), but I noticed that the CEO of a potential competitor is one of the angels. Open Angel Forum says the details from the applications will be shared with their angel membership -- should I be worried the guy in question will just steal my ideas & improve his product? Should I apply anyway?

4 comments

[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 19.9 ms ] thread
jacquesm
Why would they invest in a competitor and you both ?

I remember another HN member here saying in very clear words that a startup he worked for got stuff from would-be competitors through VC pitches. Be careful.

davidmurphy
Thanks for your thoughts.

FYI, Open Angel Forum is a new group; I am applying to present at their first meeting. (They haven't invested in a competitor -- it's that the CEO of a competitor is also an angel and is one of the guys said to be one of the investors.)

Jason (the founder of the angel group) has recruited lots of rich people (mostly successful entrepreneurs) together to hear pitches and invest in companies.

So the group hasn't already invested in the other company in question; it does so happen, though, that one of the angels is CEO of a company in a similar space (competitor).

However, I assume they all are making their investment decisions separately, and don't want to miss out on the chance to pitch to all the other great angels.

ScottWhigham
There is no way that I would pitch to them. I wouldn't even pitch to any of the members individually because your pitch will likely get back to the competitor. And I'd be especially wary of getting a lot of interest, then going down the path of due diligence, only to get rejected later (while all of your IP and mojo got passed on to the angel).

Does it sound like I'm paranoid? Sure, but I don't think that doing my competitor's work for them is a good strategy. I've been around long enough to know that angels share with one another; there just isn't enough deal flow anywhere in the world that one or two angel investors can find and develop on their own. As an angel, you need to develop a lot of contacts and to do that, that means sharing deal flow and helping out friends whenever possible. Be careful.