Comments on Why does everything suck?: One Of The Coolest Homepages I've Seen

Thank you very much. I'm very happy to know about ...

2010-02-26T23:07:41.683-05:00

Thank you very much. I'm very happy to know about AngelSoft and the home page IS cool.
Very best!

I think at 3am est there is not much traffic and s...

2008-09-23T05:22:04.218-04:00

I think at 3am est there is not much traffic and so it may show older stuff. But during the day it is real-time and there is regular, immediate activity.

Is it only semi-live ... I've refreshed a few time...

2008-09-23T03:12:07.640-04:00

Is it only semi-live ... I've refreshed a few times and still have the same feed come through with the same timestamps...

The coolest web page, no. One of the coolest, may...

2008-09-05T17:23:21.156-04:00

The coolest web page, no. One of the coolest, maybe. Thanks for pointing it out though because the concept is great!

We can argue semantics all day most of what is pos...

2008-09-05T14:33:06.698-04:00

We can argue semantics all day most of what is posted here is nothing more than a difference in opinion, heck to be honest i'm reminded of viewing the news on my Nintendo wii for the first time. (which is great btw)

on to a more positive note:
While this may not be the most original website, the fact is its a clear sign that the internet is alive and evolving we may not be impressed with one homepage, but collectively its amazing that so many similar sites can accomplish such a dynamic experience for users.

What a great post! thanks Hank

@David RoseNo, the study that the ACA did proves t...

2008-09-04T19:56:49.527-04:00

@David Rose

No, the study that the ACA did proves that the groups that responded to your survey - a subset of the angel groups that use your software - fund twice as many companies as the total group. So, if you allowed entrepreneurs to post their business plan to the groups that responded to the survey, then, yes, they would have a 2.5% chance of getting funded. Don't try to twist the numbers, David.

I don't dispute the fact that it is difficult to raise money from angels. It's exponentially more difficult to raise money from investors in angel groups. Angel groups have a ton of dealflow and are generally there to hang out with their rich buddies as much if not more than they are there to write checks.

Why not provide other alternatives for entrepreneurs? Why not allow independent angels to see the dealflow? If angel groups are all you have to offer, you're never going to make a difference for entrepreneurs.

As before, I maintain: FAIL

erm...did anyone see a little website called flick...

2008-09-04T19:55:22.190-04:00

erm...did anyone see a little website called flickr?

Mr. Anonymous above takes Angelsoft to task becaus...

2008-09-04T19:29:04.354-04:00

Mr. Anonymous above takes Angelsoft to task because our own statistics show that only 1.3% of deals receive funds. In fact, that is EXACTLY why we have put up the industry statistics in the first place! The reality of the early stage market is that there are many, many, many more entrepreneurs than there are investors, and thus it is MUCH more difficult to get a startup funded with outside equity than most people realize.

A typical top tier venture capital firm will receive something like 5,000 - 10,000 business plans annually, and make perhaps five to ten new investments, meaning that their funding rate is roughly 0.1%. In contrast, angel investors invest smaller amounts of money, into many, many more companies each year in the US. But it is still a highly selective process (indeed, almost ten times more selective than getting into the most selective of colleges!)

The Angel Capital Association, which is made up of the 144 largest and most active angel groups in the United States, recently completed a survey (http://tinyurl.com/5c89hb) which showed that on average these groups (the cream of the crop) funded roughly 2.5% of the companies that they bring in for screening. Since groups typically only screen a quarter of the companies that initially apply for funding (the exact rate at the moment, taken from the Angelsoft logs, is 24.72%), that means deals processed through Angelsoft are being funded at a rate of more than TWICE the rate of the BEST and most active angel groups in the country!

While as an entrepreneur I would love to see money growing on trees, and funding for all who want it, as a realist (a very different thing :-) I am painfully aware of just how difficult it is to find financing...which is why I started Angelsoft in the first place!

@Jason SchwartzThat's my point. You're not increas...

2008-09-04T18:44:16.049-04:00

@Jason Schwartz

That's my point. You're not increasing the entrepreneurs' chances of getting funding.

Why not offer entrepreneurs loans, factoring, etc. so their chances of finding money are increased -- in addition to your angel database. I know FundingUniverse does that. I'm sure there are others.

Again, FAIL.

On a positive note, I do like the real time activity charting on the front page. It just needs to have more actual "success" activities -- i.e. funded companies.

Home page seems to be failing now...3:15 Thursday ...

2008-09-04T18:11:53.308-04:00

Home page seems to be failing now...3:15 Thursday PST

http://www.thisnext.com/activity/map/

2008-09-04T18:11:14.906-04:00

http://www.thisnext.com/activity/map/

@Anonymous,1.3% would be about the industry averag...

2008-09-04T17:36:48.507-04:00

@Anonymous,

1.3% would be about the industry average no matter what early-stage investor you are talking to. They are writing checks, the ratio of fundable deals to unfundable deals that investors receive is staggering. This is the reality, and we think its important for entrepreneurs to know what they are up against.

Jason Schwartz
Angelsoft Entrepreneur Community Manager

Wow,Harsh haters above. I like the site, and the e...

2008-09-04T17:32:58.383-04:00

Wow,
Harsh haters above. I like the site, and the excitement of seeing in real time how the service is being used.
It is not totally original, but I like how the function is served by this design - you see that real things are happening with their software world wide. Will this help them sell the Angelsoft service to other investor groups - to be seen.

Howard Greenstein

Twittervision and Flickrvision are pointless. Watc...

2008-09-04T17:09:02.988-04:00

Twittervision and Flickrvision are pointless. Watch them for 5 minutes and you want to kill yourself, overwhelmed by the utter futility of the world.

Sure, Angelsoft uses the same trick, but here it serves a real purpose. It very elegantly visualizes what their platform does.

It also doesn't distract too much from the navigation and the Investor/Entrepreneur Tools buttons. It really draws you in.

Looking at the comments I can say "Welcome to the ...

2008-09-04T17:02:37.283-04:00

Looking at the comments I can say "Welcome to the wonderful world of web site critiques."

Having run WebPagesThatSuck.com for over 12 years, I can tell you that it's far less controversial to discuss good web design than it is to discuss bad web design - a fact you've discovered.

In an upcoming article I state:

Bad web design is objective: Dictionary.com defines objective as "...not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased: an objective opinion." Bad web design is obvious. You know it when you see it.

Good web design is subjective: Combining two definitions from Dictionary.com we can define subjective as "...existing in the mind; belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the object of thought. Placing excessive emphasis on one's own moods, attitudes, opinions, etc.; unduly egocentric." Good web design depends. People can argue about whether Amazon's web design is good; next to no one will argue about whether the International Glaucoma site is a really bad design.

Just like I knew back in 1996 it was better to call my site "WebPagesThatSuck" rather than "WebPagesWithSomeProblems", your article title, "One of the Coolest Homepages I've Seen" is better than the more appropriate "Semi-interesting Web 2.0 Website."

Oh. My initial reaction is the Angelsoft site wouldn't make WebPagesThatSuck.

@David Rose"...while in reality, Angelsoft is the ...

2008-09-04T16:44:23.081-04:00

@David Rose

"...while in reality, Angelsoft is the only legitimate site of the bunch."

Your own statistics say that only 1.32% of the entrepreneurs that post to your site get funded. http://angelsoft.net/industry/

You can talk all you want about how many investors you have, but if they're not writing checks, you can have 5:1 ratio in favor of investors and it won't matter.

Nice try David.

FAIL!

The homepage is very enticing while it grabs your ...

2008-09-04T16:21:54.473-04:00

The homepage is very enticing while it grabs your attention, you then realize what is going on. "Wow this is all taking place as we speak, I must be missing out!" However I then just think that this is some sort of flash show that will have the same results every time. (yeah I am that cynical)

On a marketing front this is great. Free exposure and a captivating audience. Great work, design, and implementation. this along with mint.com are my favorite designs.

Thanks for sharing the Amazon bell story, I want familiar with that.

I think your hot, no matter your taste in home pag...

2008-09-04T15:56:38.080-04:00

I think your hot, no matter your taste in home pages.

Can't say I'm really impressed with a flickrvision...

2008-09-04T15:14:34.641-04:00

Can't say I'm really impressed with a flickrvision rip off...

Just a drive by comment ... Angelsoft has an inter...

2008-09-04T14:17:00.529-04:00

Just a drive by comment ... Angelsoft has an interesting site .. but wouldnt put it in the category of coolest .. as there are many map mashups out there that update based on activity .. Looks like you've not seen a good Flash/Flex site or you're just trying to give Angelsoft a bump.
Either way I think they have a cool business model, just not one of the coolest sites. But then hey, every1 has an opinion.

Great marketing tool. Gives the sense that there'...

2008-09-04T13:55:31.611-04:00

Great marketing tool. Gives the sense that there's real activity on this site and plays on people's natural tendency to want to be where the action is. Very smart.

Hank,It looks like you've stirred up quite a bit o...

2008-09-04T13:49:13.794-04:00

Hank,

It looks like you've stirred up quite a bit of discussion with this post. As the person at Angelsoft who proposed the map on the homepage originally, I think it makes sense to understand the business case, as well as the aesthetic and technical issues that people have been discussing.

We were facing a real business issue: There are dozens of sights that purport to have networks of investors. We know for a fact that we are the only one who really does. The business problem was how to we show that in a way that the pretenders couldn't copy.

That's why we made the decision to display a live window into what's happening with our software on the homepage. There is no gloss on this. Sometime we look lame (like in the middle of the night or the fact that only 1.3% of applicants get funding). Sometimes it looks like our network is exploding with investors (most of the time or the fact that 1.3% of applicants actually get funding).

Either way, we thought it was time to cut through the talk and let people see who we are and make their own decisions. I'd challenge any other purported network of investors to do the same.

Ryan Janssen
COO, Angelsoft

I too have recently seen a homepage using a google...

2008-09-04T13:39:15.961-04:00

I too have recently seen a homepage using a google map in the same way (some startup in the physical meet up area) and loved the concept. I was immediately struck, not because of the way it looks, but because of the function. It brings the website to life by showing the real time participation level. It's one thing to post what the latest commenter said or what video someone is watching right now, but that content is static unless you refresh the page. Having the activity update dynamically right before my eyes really conveyed that people are participating this very instant and made me want to jump in. The map from the startup I saw also made it feel like real people were participating because a picture from their profile popped up with their activity and location on the map. There are different ways that this function can be presented visually, but overall, I feel like this will grow in usage.

I like... dashboard as landing page.

2008-09-04T13:36:37.504-04:00

I like... dashboard as landing page.

The web page is pretty, but the company's ignoranc...

2008-09-04T12:14:45.200-04:00

The web page is pretty, but the company's ignorance is obvious with the glaring misuse of the the word "ecosystem".