Ron Conway to the super-angels: I'm in this game because I love seeing entrepreneurs build cool stuff. You guys aren't. Stop worrying about term sheets and valuations and worry about adding value beyond cash. I've wanted to say this for a long time, but have bit my lip in your presence. I no longer want to be involved with any of you. And Dave McClure, quit being a classless embarrassment to Silicon Valley.
When I read his email, my thought was that the email was a great image-building propaganda tool and that he wrote it with the knowledge that the email would be made public.
His email talks how great he is, how he loves entrepreneurs and how other investors are in it for self-serving factors like ego and money. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether that is true or not. However, I'm willing to bet that many unscrupulous investors could easily write a similar email.
Maybe he wouldn't have written that email if this story hadn't been aired. Maybe he would have. But the email fits with his past actions, so to me it doesn't matter.
My guess is that he knew the email would be aired, and he wrote it to entrepreneurs as much as to the super-angels. His brand is all about trust-with-entrepreneurs, and if he loses that his deal-flow gets severely cut down.
To solidify that trust, he publicly threw down the line in the sand and said, "I'm on the entrepreneur's side. Always. I'm even willing to give up friendships / partnerships with these other investors to prove that loyalty."
I suspect he is mortified this got out. It must have been leaked by one of the super-angels themselves. Which is a little surprising, considering the things it says about them. There must be at least one super-angel so eager for attention that he believes there's no such thing as bad publicity.
I didn't leak ron's email, and I've been consistently public about this from the beginning.
the issue here isn't collusion, it's convertible notes.
your post on hi-def investing captures it perfectly, and some investor are likely not comfortable with that.
however I agree with you, and conv notes are definitely the future of early-stage investing...
angelgate sensationalism or not, that's the core issue here.