We have made this decision so as to avoid a conflict with the BIO conference that week, which is the largest biotechnology investing and innovation trade conference in the United States and is being held in Atlanta this year.  We are concerned that too many entrepreneurs with biotechnology businesses (medical devices, drug discovery) and investors will be forced to make an unfortunate choice between CapitalLounge and missing part of the BIO conference.  Therefore, while we are confident in our ability to hold a well-attended and energetic event, we don’t want to put our bio/medical technology community members in a bad position.

In the interest of encouraging the fullest participation possible in CapitalLounge, we have made the decision to move the event to June 10th.  The status of your invitations to the event is unchanged.  If you have received an invitation, it is still valid. If you have not yet received a response from us regarding your application, there is no need to re-apply – just stay tuned as we’re still evaluating the flood of applications for the event.  If you received an acceptance of your application to attend, but can no longer make the event, please drop a quick reply to this email so we can remove you from the list and make room for someone else.

We will send reminders as over the next few weeks.  We apologize for any convenience the change might cause, and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on June 10th.

Thanks for your patience!

The event formerly known as “Capital Connections”, and now simply referred to as “Capital Lounge” will be held on the evening of May 21st, 2008, from 5:30 to 9:30pm (location made available to you once you’ve been approved to attend). This should be another fantastic event, especially as we will be infusing a new wave of angel investors that are actively participating in our AngelLounge events. We’re expecting another raucous crowd.

Attendance will be capped at 250 people. We’ve historically had a backlog of people trying to get into the event, so if you are planning to attend, it would probably be best to sign up sooner rather than later. You can check out photos from past events here.

A Minor Change to the Event

Based upon overwhelming feedback from our investor attendees, we are no longer going to set up the free table area for entrepreneur demos. While the original idea was sound, it unfortunately turned into a little bit of a “science fair” type environment. We envisioned laptops and informal demos of things, not poster boards and projectors. Not what we wanted. Entrepreneurs need to be out there shaking hands and making connections – not loitering around a “booth”. So, that’s been remedied …

New Signup Process

Important – as before, if you do not apply and RSVP, you will not be allowed entry into the event. As you know, we take some pretty extreme measures to try and preserve the integrity of this event, and only invite the most appropriate stakeholders to participate.

If you would like to attend, please be aware that there is a new process in for signing up. We recently rolled out a new version of our web site, which has a number of basic tools in place to better help us manage our events. In the past, it was necessary for you to enter in your profile each and every time we had an event – very tedious. We have implemented a basic profile system which will allow you to enter your profile in once, and then use that profile to apply for all future events.

Please read the following information carefully!

1. Visit www.startuplounge.com and click the big “JOIN TODAY” button on the right-hand side of the page.
2. Create your account – very quick and painless (name, email address, password)
3. Once you’ve done that, log into the site using your new account, and then visit the “members” area.
4. Use the “profile manager” option to create and store at least one profile. A profile simply describes your company, venture fund, etc.
5. All newly entered profiles will need to be approved on our end. Assuming you meet our criteria (must be a fast-growth entrepreneur, not a service provider, a legitimate investor, etc.), we wil l approve your profile, and you will be automatically notified via email.
6. Once your profile has been approved, you may then visit our event calendar and use that active profile to apply to attend any of our events.

All profile information is not published on the web site – but rather, only used to help us vet and approve attendees.

If you run into any troubles, or have questions, you can get help in one of two ways. First, we encourage you to use our new forums. Second, you may email me (last resort, please – unless you are encountering errors, can’t login, etc.).

And a special shout out to our sponsors, who help us help you:

We look forward to seeing you all at the event! Please continue to spread the word!

Cheers.