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Collette McKenna Parker

September 3, 2008

Believe it or not, Atlanta's angel investors really, really want to see more local deals. So much so, that they've agreed to respond to every entrepreneur who presents a venture proposal to them.

On Wednesday, August 27, StartupLounge founders Scott Burkett, a serial entrepreneur, and Michael Blake, managing director of Adams Capital, announced that AngelLounge will now provide a unique resource for connecting entrepreneurs and angel investors. Through AngelLounge, entrepreneurs will be able to submit a one-page synopsis of their business plan to a network of 80 Atlanta angel investors. The investors are divided into 13 vertical markets (ranging from IT to consumer products to alternative energy to biotech), and the plan will be sent to a representative angel of the industry it best fits. And here's the amazing part – each and every plan will be read by at least one investor, and the investor will respond to the entrepreneur within one or two weeks.

"Every deal will get seen by an angel investor in that sector and distributed. They won't screen it," says Blake, in the way that some deals are rejected based on the entrepreneur or other cursory judgments. "Every early-stage company will have their day in court."

"This will fundamentally change the way capital is raised in Atlanta," says Blake.

The AngelLounge is a part of StartupLounge, and was conceived by Charlie Paparelli in January of this year as "an unstructured environment for local angels to meet each other and learn from each other," according to Burkett. AngelLounge is a group of approximately 80 Atlanta-area angel investors who gather to discuss their ventures and is the largest organized angel group in the Southeast; and, "The member list reads like a who's who," of angel investors in Georgia, according to Burkett.

Essentially, AngelLounge will take the gatekeeper role out of the equation for entrepreneurs, allowing them to contact potential investors directly. Entrepreneurs will go to StartupLounge.com, and if they have not already done so, create a free community account. Then, he or she uploads a one page summary of the business and selects the relevant industries, and the deal will be distributed to the appropriate angel rep of that market (or, IAC - industry angel coordinator).

While other "matching" sites exist – like GoBigNetwork.com  –  AngelLounge is unique, and specially create for Georgia. "These are not random investors," emphasizes Blake. "We've taken relationships we've developed and are empowering entrepreneurs."

And it was created to fill a void in the market. "Angels are saying 'we're not seeing enough deals,'" says Blake. Atlanta angels are interested, and Burkett predicts more angels will join the network - perhaps totaling 100 by next year. AngelLounge plans to reach out to angels across other parts of Georgia as well, including Savannah, Columbus and Rome.

And the new ideas are out there, as well, as evidenced by the 160 entrepreneurial faces (and half of them new, according to Burkett) at the CapitalLounge event at which this announcement was made.

Stuff's happening again, folks.

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