In his latest blog posting, Jason Calacanis has declared war on angel groups that charge startups for the honor of getting a chance to pitch to them. Here in Australia I have found a lot of online angel networks where you have to pay to get listed or get access to angels.

So you have to pay even before you can pitch...

Here some local examples that I don't like:

http://www.businessangels.com.au/fees.php Basic Listing AU$795 Full Service Listing AU$1275 Premium Service AU$2929 Success Fee 3% of funds invested “Private Capital for Private Companies” Guide AU$50 With Registration AU$75 Without Registration

http://www.australianinvestmentnetwork.com/entrepreneur 1. Investor Referral Service fee of $199. Your proposal remains active for 90 days and paying the Referral Fee gives you access to the contact details of ALL the investors interested in your proposal during this period. 2. Upfront fee of $249 and take advantage of our Premium Services

http://www.angelsinstitute.com/87408_87415.html A charge of $150 is incurred to register your details for consideration by this Angels Institute group http://www.findangelinvestors.com.au/investors PayPal?

The baseline is: If you are the one with the money, you can make the rules and get more money from those desperate for it.

Post by Erik Unger

Follow Erik on Twitter: @ungerik