This has been tried multiple times before (a startup funding marketplace) but all have failed because they couldn't build out the two-sided network.<p>AL is the first to solve this. They have quality investors and startups (the 2 critical sides of this network) which is what gets the flywheel turning on these marketplaces.<p>We see lots of Crowdfunding platforms getting funded and all focus on competing on features and fees but fail to build out credible network participants on both sides and getting liquidity on the platform. AL is doing this well.<p>Given that Naval also seems smart as heck, this is going to be big and I suspect quite disruptive to the broken VC model.
The interesting thing is that, from when I talked to the guys at AngelList, the bigger market (with larger monetization potential) <i>is not</i> its funding platform. It's the hiring platform.
I'm a huge fan of both Naval and AngelList. I'm excited to see what they do with this new war chest. AngelList played a big role in getting my company funded & I was lucky to have Naval as an investor as well. To me, the most impressive thing is they run AngelList like any other startup. I remember emailing Naval about a bug and 10 mins later he responded with news that it was fixed. The implicit data they are collecting is incredibly valuable and there's no one better positioned to capitalize on it than the team they have put together.
What's to prevent one of the incorporation mills from creating a flat fee syndication platform to manage the LLC and provide template documents? Asking for % carry as a platform that streamlines the legal filing and record keeping seems aggressive.