Angelgate is a controversy[1] surrounding allegations of price fixing and collusion among a group of ten angel investors in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[2] The scandal began in September 2010 after Michael Arrington, editor of the TechCrunch publication, wrote in his blog that he had been turned away from a secret meeting among so-called "super angels" he knew,[3] held at Bin38, a wine bar in San Francisco's Marina District.
[4] The participants at the meeting, among other things, discussed how they could compete with other angels, venture capitalists, and the Y Combinator business incubator for the limited pool of worthy investment opportunities.
[7][8] Investor Ron Conway, whose business partner attended the meeting, wrote an email highly critical of the angels involved and called the event "despicable and embarrassing".
Among other things there was a flash mob at the wine bar, a Hitler Downfall parody, a spike in the establishment's Google rank, a number of Twitter jokes,[4] and so-called "fakeplans" for super-angel meetups on the site plancast.com.