Lesson #1 = if you intend to show investors how much your company could be worth by comparing it to other companies that have gone public, make sure you know how much revenue that company was making before going public!

How do you pitch an angel investor group?

I'll tell you...I don't know. I've done it several times now and it's hard to tell what works, but it's incredibly easy to tell what doesn't work. For those of you who don't know, angel investors are called angels because they invest in your company without taking everything you own, unlike the reputation of venture capital groups (or vulture groups, as some call them).

I have a pretty good idea of what doesn't work because of my experience with CondoCompare. In case you don't know, CondoCompare is an on-line real estate brokerage that lists for sale tens of thousands of residential condo projects. It's about a billion times better than other sites for condo buyers because it gives buyers access to the same "historical" information that real estate agents have. This means that users can look at a potential condo and see whether the units have appreciated and at what rate--seriously, it saves you from buying a stagnant piece of junk.

Okay, background over. So I'm the COO/Business Development guy, and have pitched or helped pitch our business to several groups. We recently pitched to an Angel Network. In one section, I was talking about exit strategies of selling to another group or having an IPO. I neglected to give (and didn't remember) the pre-offering valuation of the company, and one of the investors immediately asked. I had no recollection whatsoever. In some ways, my comparision of CondoCompare to Move.com, was like someone only telling me they sold a house for a million, but didn't tell me how much they bought and invested in it. The guy had a great point.

Next time, I won't forget that "little" detail.

So, there I was shopping with several people in Mario’s Seattle store and in the center of the floor was a jacket with a prominently displayed upside-down American flag. I was like, whoa!

I was referred to the manager, and told him that during a time of war when our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel are daily fighting to preserve his First Amendment Rights, I found it breathtakingly inappropriate that he would abuse his position as a manager to advertise such a blatant anti-American message. His response was sardonic and telling, “Noted. None one else has said anything …thanks for your opinion. ”

While I have no problem with a person expressing their views about America—no matter how ridiculous and misguided they may be—I do have a problem with Mario’s and its Seattle store manager ambushing customers like me and using their store as a platform to express their apparent disdain for America and the citizens who have made the store so profitable.

I have been a customer of Mario’s for years, and have purchased apparel for appearances on the Today Show, the Apprentice, MSNBC, ABC, CNN and various NBC affiliate programs. Needless to say, I ain't going there anymore.

Unbelievable.