Angel Island: Connecting the Unconnected

We believe it takes an entire ecosystem to bring up the next Spotifys and Adyens of Europe, especially when the size of the network directly affects the success of these companies.

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PHX — Connect the Unconnected

4 min readJul 26, 2018

The secret behind the story of the famous pitch deck of Mathilde Collin — which has been viewed over 2 million times and raised 66M in series B funding — was not about the killer slides, but about the founder building close personal relationships with the investors. The same pattern has been noticed after the first two editions of Angel Island where, despite the no-pitching-allowed policy, attendees reported back that they managed to secure funding due to the close connections built during and after the event.

Angel Island 2018 is about achieving the biggest impact yet by uniting the most relevant and brilliant minds in one truly unique setting.

Two years in the making, the successful ‘no pitches, no keynotes, only meaningful connections’ format of the unconference is here to stay. Everything is about facilitating conversations to really get to know a person instead of speaking to just a job title in a company.

92% of attendees from 2017 said that they would be following up with at least one person they had met at Angel Island. Participants remarked that it was a tough, mysterious, adventurous, but refreshing setting which takes everyone back to the origins of bonding.

“Angel Island is a unique experience. Sail, meet, connect, build businesses and have fun with the most remarkable people. Enjoy the best of Amsterdam!” — Special Envoy, Constantijn van Oranje, Startup Delta

Universal inclusion and interconnectivity

We’re used to living in a world where technological advancements are singular — one step at the time. We’re now entering a world where rapidly accelerating technology innovation will profoundly impact the way we deal with resources, business & consumers.

~”Technology is evolving from compartmentalized technical infrastructure to ecosystem enabling platforms”

In the midst of these accelerated advances, there’s an ever growing consciousness among people today: we want to feel more connected.

We’ve had the pleasure to meet some exceptional individuals and original thinkers in the last years that are currently finding ways to facilitate the transition between the old world, where you’re either ‘in or out’ towards to model that embraces inclusion and enables connectedness.

But how do we break open those closed circles and get people to intrinsically to connect?

Angel Island 2018: What’s New This Year?

We believe in the entrepreneurs that have the passion and determination, but still need the resources, to make a dent in the universe. In the first edition, we brought them face to face with the Angel Investors that could fund their ventures. In the second year, we brought them together with the European network of influencers that could grow their scope. This year, we will bring a fully customized experience with the purpose of sparkling collaborations amongst the most influential minds.

Here’s how Ton van ‘t Noordende, CEO of 01Ventures and initiator of Angel Island would explain the updated concept:

“This year we’re working towards a framework that will enable the founders on a whole new level, not just funding related. We ask the founders who they would most want to meet and then we will do our best to bring those people to the island.”

We assume that they will name publicly well known individuals such as Tim Cook (Apple), Niklas Zennstrom (Skype), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Neelie Kroes (Non exec. board member Salesforce, Advisory Board Uber), as well as tech industry insiders such as Demis Hassabis (Deepmind), Anne Wojcicki (23andme), and top level investors; Deep Nishar (Softbank Vision Fund) and Kathryn Haun (Andreessen Horowitz) but we are open to finding anyone.

In 2018, we aim to bring 150 entrepreneurs (startups, scaleups and champions) to the island and connect them to the 350 most relevant and requested investors (angels & venture capitalists) & original thinkers (experts, ecosystem builders, city leaders, media, etc). Each entrepreneur will request the 5 people in the world who could be most impactful for them and their business. We will do our best to ensure they greet them when they arrive at Angel Island.

Angel Island fleet of tallships

How it will actually work is that together with our contributors we’ll get the top people (founders, original thinkers, VCs and investors) around a specific theme on one of our tallships that will sail to Angel Island (Pampus Island, 1.5 hours by tallship from city center). Every boat will have a prior specified, exact, diversified and highly curated mix of individuals (around 40/50 per boat). The island will again be a ‘safe haven’ where we’ll further connect our guests on a meaningful and surprising way.

This year’s themes are centered around:

Also, we want to take special notice of industries that are not yet clearyl addressed in the global tech scene:

Ecosystem |Impact | Musictech |Sportstech

You too can be a part of AI 2018.

* If you’re a founder with ambition to change the world, apply for an invitation here

* if you’re an investor that values impact as well as ROI, contact us here

* If you’re an original thinker that can help facilitate new ways of thinking and doing, contact us at heroes@angelisland.co
If you’d like to be a partner in making this happen, contact Shahar

See you on September 26!

The Angel Island Crew
Shahar
Camille
Jitske
Simona
Ilonela
Victoria
Ariana
Dennis
Nick
Nathan
Marcel
Hans
Constantijn
Ton