Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sitting in on Angel Boot Camp 2011 at MIT in Cambridge. From the moment I arrived I was greeted with a who’s who of the Boston investment scene. Big names like Bijan Sabet, Fred Destin, Dharmesh Shah, Jeff Bussgang, Rich Miner, Eric Paley and many more were running around putting the last minute touches on their respective speeches or panels. Sprinkled throughout the crowd were a number of young VC associates like Victoria Song and entrepreneurs like Jeremy Levine, Punit Shah and Brian Balfour. Whether you were speaking or attending, everyone at the event was there to learn from one another.

For those unfamiliar with the event, Angel Boot Camp is the brain child of Jon Pierce, a well known Boston entrepreneur. The event aims to bring out a new breed of angel investors by introducing them to seasoned veterans in the community. Angel Boot Camp consisted of a series of talks, panels, office hours, breakout sessions and casual networking among breaks.

The afternoon kicked off with a highly energetic speech from HubSpot cofounder and angel investor Dharmesh Shah. Shah talked about his approach to angel investing and offered two very important tips for both entrepreneurs and angel investors. To the entrepreneurs, “make your story as easy enough to understand, because I have to convince my wife before I invest.” And to the angels, “just write checks.”

Following Shah was Bijan Sabet, VC at Spark Capital and investor in Twitter. Sabet took a moment to rile up the crowd and make a statement on getting rid of employee non-compete agreements in this state. Aside from a series of Y Combinator mentions and Paul Graham quotes, Sabet’s main take away was that most companies have many years ahead of them, do not get anxious. “There is a reason why venture funds are 10 years long; these are long term businesses,” he preached.

CEO of recently acquired BuzzAgent and co-founder of recently funded Smarterer, Dave Balter wowed the crowd with an incredible presentation on stones and sponges. Highly invest-able entrepreneurs must mimic that of a sponge and a stone. Sponges must explore and soak in as much information as possible, not just reading blogs but learning from mentors, advisors, heroes and creating an ecosystem around them. The stone philosophy speaks to their work ethic. They must work harder than anyone else, have strength of conviction, a fearless grinding it out mentality and the believe that the impossible is possible.

The talks were promptly wrapped up by co-founder of TechStars David Cohen with a memorable quote. “You only need one giant win to pay for 100 idiotic mistakes.” Also, one interesting fact was that TechStars came to Boston because Cohen met Bill Warner as co-investors in a startup years ago.

As the speeches were taking place I took some time to gaze out into the 300 plus person crowd of VC’s, prominent angels, entrepreneurs and curious new angel investors. Sure I recognized some but who the hell were the rest of them?

As the event continued on I was able to get the scoop on three new investments, that were announced by proud angels. Most of these angels I couldn’t even recognize by name or face, where have all of you been hiding?

I consider myself relatively networked in the community and was still blown away by all of the new faces asking questions and announcing investments yesterday. It is clear Boston is literally chock full of angels, but where do they hide and why did it take Angel Boot Camp for them to show their proud deep pockets?

There was one consistent theme that was harped upon by David Tisch, Managing Director of TechStars NYC and that is to get out and network. “As an angel you must constantly be sourcing new deals and going out and finding entrepreneurs to invest in,” said Tisch.

Now Boston has no shortage of startup events. There are literally hundreds of events every month catering to all of your wildest technical and entrepreneurial dreams, and yet I don’t see many angels at them. Where are they hiding? How can we get these aspiring angels in front of all of the startups and entrepreneurs here in Boston?

Hopefully, there are more answers than just at Angel Boot Camp. Major props to Jon Pierce for throwing this event, I learned a ton and had a blast, but really hope this was a wake up call to the rest of the audience to encourage each other to get out, hit the streets and make some deals happen.

Thanks to Abby Fichtner for the photos!

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