Ultra Light Flies With the New York Angels

Entrepreneurs mingle at an Ultra Light Startups event.

Image: Ultra Light Startups

It’s a match made in heaven, or at least New York City. An event company for technology startups, Ultra Light Startups, has forged an alliance with the city’s largest collection of angel investors, New York Angels.

Three winners of the Ultra Light Startups monthly pitch contest, held in the city, will get a shot at presenting their companies to the New York Angels, a group of more than 70 venture capitalists, CEOs, and other wealthy investors. Those investors lead deals of $100,000 to $1 million, enough to give a pretty good boost to a very young company; most top incubators, for instance, provide funding of somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 to help get a company off the ground.

For New York Angels, the alliance provides a screening process to separate the promising startups from the pretenders in a city that has been brimming with new tech companies in recent years.

"With the dramatic increase in New York-based tech startups seeking angel investments, it's becoming increasingly important to separate the viable businesses from the pack so they can be funded as quickly as possible." said Brian Cohen, vice chairman of New York Angels’ board of directors.

For Ultra Light Startups, the deal gives entrepreneurs another reason to attend its events.

Ultra Light Startups, founded by Graham Lawlor, is a community built around monthly events in New York, Toronto, and Boston, with plans to expand to Cleveland and Austin. The events cost $20 to $30 for entrepreneurs to attend, and $50 for entrepreneurs to enter the pitch contests. Events, which are built around the pitch contests, networking, and investor panel discussions are also live streamed for free. Voters at the live event and those watching over the live stream choose pitch contest winners by voting using Twitter.

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