Startup Md. Pitch to Win closes Friday // Ed Chalfin on angel investing [Roundup]

This is the Startup Roundup. Every Wednesday morning, Technically Baltimore will put together the smaller pieces that make up our startup ecosystem.
Technically Baltimore reported this week that Impossible Studios, a subsidiary of North Carolina-based, Gears of War 3-developing Epic Games, has opened in Hunt Valley, and employs former employees of the now defunct Big Huge Games. Did we mention that Impossible’s mascot is a unicorned bear with wings?
Startup America and Startup Regions have partnered with DEMO to give four startups nationwide the chance to launch their projects on the main stage at DEMO Fall 2012. To be eligible for the national Pitch to Win contest, Maryland startups need to submit pitch videos by this Friday, August 17. DEMO conferences have been held in the U.S., China, Singapore and Brazil, and  “focus on emerging technologies and new product innovations.”

Reed Street Productions continues to make gains in the Social Madness competition, beating out BuzzFeed.com to reach round four, according to the Baltimore Business Journal. The White Marsh-based company founded in 2011 puts on “Run For Your Lives” races nationwide, in which eager participants slog through mud and other obstacles while dodging zombies.
Ed Chalfin, site manager for Texas Instruments Low Power RF group in Columbia and angel investor, offers some strong words on what he views as a forthcoming “crowdfunding” issue in angel investing. The central issue seems to be startups’ inability to understand an angel investor’s needs:

[I]t seems to me that startup entrepreneurs have now been conditioned that Step 2 in having a successful startup (Step 1 being think up a snappy name that ends in ‘ly’) is to raise a lot of money from angel investors.  Many of these entrepreneurs do not understand or care about the equation from the angel’s side, that even ‘sure thing’ investments are quite likely to fail. Angel investing necessitates a high risk tolerance but insanity should not be a requirement. In any event, I strongly feel that angel investors and startup entrepreneurs can and should coexist in a fair and mutually beneficial relationship. [more]

Fells Point-based CityBizList, Inc. successfully completed a round of funding on August 14, raising $150,000.