TechCrunch Disrupt SF: AngelGate Is Talk Regardless Of Arrington's Claims

UPDATE: WSJ takes the bait!

TechCrunch Disrupt SF is this week, and while this blogger will be out of the San Francisco Bay Area for personal reasons, what happens there will not escape Zennie62.com. So far the talk of Pre-TechCrunch Disrupt SF news isn't that Barry Diller's coming, or that MC Hammer's the entertainment, but that news item called AngelGate.

AngelGate is a meeting between Angel Investors that took place in an alternative universe, at a popular San Francisco Marina District restaurant called Bin 38, and that this blogger was on the PlanCast list to attend as per invitation. No, I'm not an angel investor at all, for now. My objective was food, wine, and friends.

OK, really it was, at first, a joke on TechCrunch Founder and Editor Michael Arrington (pictured above giving one of his favorite gestures) - a fake plan. But ever the brilliant showman, Arrington turned AngelGate into something real. Now, the story's of AngelGate's making it's way around the Internet, and some publications are treating it as if it's real.

Moreover, Michael doesn't want anyone to talk about AngelGate, thereby assuring that it will be the talk of TechCrunch Disrupt SF.

The idea is that Angel Investors were meeting to collude and work against entrepreneurs, who have been asking for more money and more control over the companies that are formed around their creations. While AngelGate itself is an alternative universe creation, the tug-and-pull between entrepreneurs and investors is very real.

The idea was an Angel Investor wanted the majority of your company. But the problem is and has been that many investors don't get what the entrepreneurs is trying to do or what the intent of the creation was. Logical, because they didn't create the product.

Still, hungry for investment, many entrepreneurs knuckled under to the terms presented to them, and then eventually got stuck in a bad situation with little control. Enter Facebook.

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg now has control of three seats on his five-member board of directors after Sean Parker left the board due to a drug-related arrest. That means he can't be fired by his board and they can't successfully conspire against him.

Now, you may say "that's Facebook," but it's an objective many entrepreneurs now seek, more than ever. Full corporate control.

Can Angel Investors actually conspire against entrepreneurs and regain control? Effectively, no, because if you look at it, almost anyone can be an investor. AngelGate is a Silicon Valley story; as we saw at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, the idea of Silicon Valley, along with the culture tech entrepreneurs and investors, has effectively spread out of the Bay Area.

As for AngelGate, it's all in fun, even it's it's resulted in some rather vile comments directed toward Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch.   Tisk.  Tisk.

Stay tuned for more.