Gust Looks for Whirlwind of Cash

New York-based startup Gust (previously known as AngelSoft) has rebranded itself and is now hoping to transform the way early-stage individuals and companies invest in the startup community.

Image: Gust

David Rose was an eager entrepreneur touting his first startup at a conference two decades ago when a venture capitalist walked up to him and asked, “How much are you looking for?”

“How much of what am I looking for?” replied the young Rose, who wasn’t yet familiar with the concept of venture capital. (“I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” Rose said later.)

So it’s somewhat ironic that Rose, the founder of the New York-based startup Gust, is now hoping to transform the way early-stage individuals and companies invest in the startup community. At this week’s DEMO 2011 conference in Silicon Valley—a showcase of the newest and most promising tech companies—Rose unveiled that he has signed up 150 venture capital funds, 600 business angels, and 35,000 accredited angel investors to Gust. The company was formerly called AngelSoft, a rebranding effort that was also announced at the conference today.

The goal is to connect hungry entrepreneurs with money and facilitate deals. While other companies have made similar efforts, they have run into trouble getting bored investors to sign up, Rose said.

That’s exactly why he’s patiently spent nearly a decade—the equivalent of half of a lifetime in startup years—convincing angel groups and venture capitalists to sign up for Gust.

“We have been at this a long time because it took a long time,” said Rose, who invested his own money to fund the company. He won’t say how much, except to say that it’s a “nontrivial” amount.

And speaking of money, Rose said he’s recently been approached by several venture capitalists about a second round of funding, but, again, he’s coy on the amount he’s hoping to raise.

If Rose is successful—and he believes Gust could be worth upward of $1 billion—he could drain the commissions of high-profile investment banks like Goldman Sachs, as a Motley Fool writer pointed out today in this post. Investment banks broker deals between startups and investors to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Perhaps Goldman should sign up for Gust?

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