Bit Angels on fast track to invest in Bitcoin startups

A new venture that aims to connect Bitcoin technology startups with investors calls itself the "world's first distributed veteran entrepreneur and angel investor group."

Led by founders David A. Johnston and Michael Terpin, along with angel investor/"polymath" Sam Onat Yilmaz, Bit Angels launched its website and reddit subreddit on Tuesday. The company's online presence took shape only days before during "a pretty amazing experience at the 2013 Bitcoin Conference," Johnston wrote on reddit.

"Sunday morning I hacked together the first Bit Angels website, made a post on Reddit about a 12:00 noon meeting and a quick announcement at the conference about doing a first meeting of the Bit Angels. I invited 6 people and more than 20 showed up to the first meeting. Now more than 35 people have joined the group as of this posting. I've volunteered to be the Executive Director and things are moving fast. If you are an experienced entrepreneur and have a few BTC to invest come join us."

In response to a question about the size of seed round funding Bit Angels expects, Johnston noted that "200,000 mBTC (roughly $20,000 USD) level investments will have the most impact."

He added, "The idea is to be very Y-Combinator-ish. Meaning invest enough money to allow a hacker or two to focus 80 hours a week on a new startup they have been developing during weekend and evenings."

Johnston, who was a panelist at Bitcoin 2013, has grown a number of technology companies that have attracted $12 million in direct investment and is currently the CEO of Engine Inc. Terpin is of the social media marketing agency SocialRadius, and Yilmaz is a graduate researcher at Johns Hopkins University and vice president of product conception at Engine Inc.