On Thursday (10/22) this week, join us for a full day of worthwhile events in Altadena at Tech Week. The morning’s session features a Cleantech program, moderated by Ben Kuo of SocalTECH.com. Along with Ben’s program, there’s a great keynote presentation by Barbara McQuiston of DARPA and a couple of panels featuring Wired Magazine reporters.  [Shameless Self-Promotion Alert]…The last program of the day is the annual Pasadena Angels program on the state of Angel and Venture Capital in Southern California. We’ll have a great group of panelists (no immodesty here, since I’m just the moderator) that afternoon, and I’ll provide some comments and feedback from the event in my next post.

Interesting post on Jason Calcanis’ blog this week (also picked up by Ben Kuo and SocalTECH) with further thoughts on Angel groups charging startup companies to pitch. All of his posts on the topic are not only good reading, but accurately describe what goes on within some Angel groups (e.g., These pay-for-play scams remind me of the “modeling agencies” that charge people for representation, acting lessons and to have their headshots done.). Although I’ve written on this topic and share Jason’s ire,  I’m not yet at the point of ‘jihad’ (crusade maybe) or calling out particular Angel groups. Other than what Jason and I have already mentioned, the only other advice I can give is beware of for-profit angel groups based on a franchise model–as those are typically the ones that charge companies. If they don’t make money the old fashioned way and exclusively through investment returns, then they aren’t worth talking to.

As I was writing another installment on what the Pasadena Angels look for in company pitches, I came across a good post from Steve Blank about sufficiently understanding your customer and target markets and decided to use that instead. Steve’s observations are pretty representative of what we regularly see when companies pitch.

Lastly, Jeff Sheldon, a longtime member of the Pasadena Angels and well respected IP attorney and litigator put together a good reference on Patenting Inventions.

Have a great weekend. Patenting Inventions