These organizations thrive in those geographic areas where you don't have a critical mass of angel investors amongst whom you can syndicate a deal. It's really quite that simple.
Here in Chicago, DePaul University puts on an annual event that cost $80 to attend to "Meet the Angels". Too bad none of these "angels" actually do any deals, so it's a total sham. I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank.
I read about those events in the "College of Computers and Digital Media" (or whatever they are calling the CS department now) newsletter/mailings a while ago (after I relocated to SF), and thought it sounded like too good to be true. I think the main goal of it is to be marketing for the CS department like "if you attend here, look at the kind of access you'll have".
Here in Chicago, DePaul University puts on an annual event that cost $80 to attend to "Meet the Angels". Too bad none of these "angels" actually do any deals, so it's a total sham. I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank.