AngelPad breaks into angel investing
Ex-Googlers bring money and mentoring to startups and entrepreneurs
Seven ex-Googlers have banded together to create AngelPad, a startup incubator that aims to provide capital and mentoring in a collaborative environment.
This new venture, founded by members who are already, for the most part, private angel investors, will represent a mix of talent and capital.
Any of the founders chosen to participate in the program are given the chance to learn from the combined experience of the former product, marketing, advertising, and research managers who helped Google become the success it is today.
AngelPad, which will be based out of their offices in San Francisco, will be opening their doors on September 10th. The company will focus specifically on technology-driven startup.
"It has never been easier to launch a technology startup," said Thomas Korte, one of the project founders, in an interview with me. Korte is a former international product marketing manager and product evangelist for Google. "It is cheaper than ever before... it has become more accepted to be an entrepreneur and there is more seed capital available than one could hope for. What has become really difficult to come by are great advisors. AngelPad is our way to formalize how we support and advise companies we invest in: Founders get funding, mentorship and they work alongside each other in our San Francisco office."
While the incubator has already chosen all of its projects for the 2010 fiscal year, it is currently taking applications for the 2011 project year, which will begin in February. Interested parties can sign up for updates on the site, or follow the company on Twitter.
The seven founders of the company include:
Thomas Korte, former international product marketing manager and product evangelist for Google. He was the first manger made responsible for responsible for European advertiser and partner acquisition. Currently he is an angel investor and advisor to several San Francisco based start ups.
Richard Chen, Google’s former product strategy team lead. He was the brains behind Googles advertising, content, and distribution products in the international arena. He currently is an angel investor and founder of an interactive marketing agency based in Tokyo, Japan.
David Scacco, former Google business executive. He was the company’s first advertising sales executive. He is currently on the board of isocket and infoaxe.
Vibuh Mittal, who previously worked for Google research. Currently he is the owner of Root-1 Research, an educational applications company.
Gokul Rajaram, the former product management executive at Google. Currently he works as the founder and CEO of Chai Labs, as well as sitting on the board of several other internet based start up companies.
Deep Nishar, former Google Exec and current VP of Products & user experience at linkedIn where he is responsible for product management, data analytics, user experience, design and customer operations teams.
Keval Dassai, the former Google product management executive and current VP of Product at Digg. He was also the co-founder of Achex, Inc. Currently advises for and angel invests in: AdPulse, Backblaze, MyLikes, Optimizely, Rixty, Setjam and Spotmixer.
