Venture Hacks

Many investors prefer to invest in specific locations.

For example, Silicon Valley angels may be more likely to invest if you will move to Silicon Valley.

So we can call you to discuss your startup.

If you're usually on Skype, Gchat, or AIM, please give us your info so we can contact you.

Describe your product in 3-5 words. Learn more about high-concept pitches.

Flickr for video. (YouTube)
Friendster for dogs. (Dogster)

What is the product? What does it help the customer do? Who is the customer? What's the high-concept pitch?

"Ning lets you create your own social network for anything. For free. In 2 minutes. It's as easy as starting a blog. Try it at http://ning.com

1. Are any "known" people in your industry involved in your company?

2. What is their role, e.g. on your team, advising your team, soft-circled to invest in your team, already an investor, etc.

3. Why is this person impressive?

"Paul Buchheit is an advisor. He wrote the first version of Gmail and founded FriendFeed which was acquired by Facebook."

Metrics about customers, revenue, users, etc.

"We have over 115,000 user-created networks and our page views are growing 10% per week."

What has your team (including the founders) accomplished in the past that would make investors think you will be successful?

"Our lead engineer previously built Twitter up to 1M users."

You can use 150 words for this question.

Now that you've answered the product, social proof, traction, and team questions, you don't need to include an elevator pitch. Still, feel free to include your elevator pitch here. See our elevator pitch template for suggestions.

Please upload your deck to DocStoc and put the URL here. Use our deck template if you need one.

If we can't access your product online, please include pictures/screenshots of your product in the deck.

Your deck is not a replacement for concise answers to the questions in this form. We only open the deck if we like the pitch so far.

Please send your video to Posterous and put the URL here. Here's some instructions courtesy Y Combinator.

This is experimental. Whether you include a video won't affect your application.

This is our first business model experiment. Your answer will not affect the intros you get.

If we can build a sustainable business, we can make intros easier for entrepreneurs like you.

Who told you about StartupList? Please be specific. If it was a blog or tweet, please tell us which blog or tweet.

This information lets us thank the referrer and we look kindly on startups who fill in this box. Also, a high-quality referrer adds to your social proof.

Another business model experiment. Again, your answer will not affect the intros you get.