Creative Agency Secrets

Following my post about the Angels Den investment club and my reservations about the business name and model.  It seems that my fears were partly valid.

I was called by Struan Johnston who has paid £99 and a is considering a further £400 to get his plan reviewed.  He posted a comment on the original blog post (see link above) and gave me a call.

Struan is concerned that this is a scam because there are no phone numbers to contact the organisation.  We spoke for a while and I have offered this blog as a forum for people concerned about the organisation to let us know about their experiences.

As luck would have it (ha ha) I met Bill Morrow at the Telegraph Business Club’s one day seminar a week earlier.  His contact details were in the literature and I reproduce them below - and they are on the original blog post so anyone needing follow-up go call / email him and Lois Cook his co-founder.

here is the text of the email I sent to Bill and Lois about my concerns and contact from Struan (he was cc and so should read it himself shortly).

Dear Lois and
Bill

I was at the Daily
Telegraph event two weeks ago where Bill was speaking / networking.  Following
that, and a posting that I made on my blog earlier (21^st August)
about the Angels Den service, I got a question written on my blog about you and
I have been unable to answer it.

Follow the link to see my
post and the question from Struan

Johnston

I think this shows up some
possible communication “holes” in your messaging and it suggests that there may
be some negative observations circulating around the blogosphere.  In Bill’s
profile from the Daily Telegraph Business Club handout it says “We are making a
lot of noise in The Press, come and see why.” 

Clearly you need to enable
more direct communication in a two-way manner with prospective angels and
businesses – somehow Mr Johnston fell through the gap.  He thought he got an
automated reply complimenting him on his business proposition and saying you’d
be back to him.  But he’s heard nothing.  For a
while.

If you want to ‘set the
record straight’ I would be happy to publish your reply on the
blog.

Best
wishes, Rebecca Caroe

I am doing some work for a business helping them raise finance through angel investors.  And along the way I came across this new service, Angels Den, which appears to be sponsored by the Telegraph and a couple of VC angel network groups.

I will register to do some research into the angel side…. anyone want to volunteer to post a business plan needing funding to the other side in order to get a view on the proposition?

PS I do think the name SUCKS big time….. and I loathe watching Dragons Den.  It’s a hyped version of reality made for TV, and I know that, but the whole programme puts my teeth on edge.

[update… here’s the spiel from the Telegraph.  Sounds like a money making scam for whoever owns the website….

Angels Den has proven to be a great hit with business angels. More than 2,200 angels have registered, looking to invest an average of £136,000 each. Almost 100 entrepreneurs (including many Business Club members) have put their summaries on the site and more than 1000 others have registered. A further 120 have finished their summaries but are hesitating before investing their £99 fee.

I suspect that their hesitation will be quickly erased by news of Angels Den success. Many of the summaries have prompted qualified angels to ask for a full business plan (which costs an extra one-off £400 fee) and two dozen have moved on to the stage where they’ve met angels face to face at least twice.