If you had attended the UK Business Angels Association's Awards ceremony in Liverpool earlier this month, apart from being struck by the venue (Liverpool Cathedral) I think you would have noticed the sea change in the ocean that is private equity. At last crowdfunders, angels and VCs and entrepreneurs have adjusted to the fact that they all have a common mission in mind. And it appears that dissing each other to get ahead is going rapidly out of fashion. Will hearts join wings and pound signs as the favoured images of our world - maybe?!

I rarely comment on a particular deal, but given the opportune timing of the publication of this month's AngelNewsletter, just one day before Crowdcube launches its latest equity campaign to and get this COINVEST ON EQUAL TERMS alongside Balderton Capital, one of our coutnry's most distinguished tech investors -see http://www.crowdcube.com/blog/2014/07/17/balderton-capital-invest-3-8m-crowdcube/, the opportunity has to be taken.

This campaign is probably the most public example yet of why the UK can claim to be the leading innovator in financial services in the world. It is a shot over the bow of angels and VCs sceptical of crowd funding and crowd funders who are similarly hostile to establishment investors. Stop carping from the sidelines and come and play nicely with and learn from each other, please. Let's face it VCs and angels are all live on the crowd - for goodness sake, Mike Jackson's WebStart Bristol has even raised a seed fund on Seedrs - not once but twice! The world will never be the same again.

Up in Liverpool I met Andy Chung of Angellist, the US platform for angel deals, which is now planning to launch formally in the UK later this year. For those of you who do not know Angellist just go to its website - it will be self explanatory - angels are now out of their cupboards and shouting about it. But what you may not notice immediately is that it DOES NOT CHARGE either investors or entrepreneurs to make use of its services for a basic fundraising and it only charges carry at the time of exit on its syndicates https://angel.co/help/syndicates#syndicates-cost.

That is something that all angel groups, VCs, advisers and many, many others (including the FCA) need to notice. Even if the only impact is to take friction out of the market by challenging/removing the notion of commissions on fundraisings, that on its own will be highly and deeply significant. But most of all it is highly and strategically significant to the whole private equity industy (those in PE houses need to take note too by the way!). We are now seeing the true and lasting impact of the web on the financial services industry and that impact will be just as significant as the tsunami that has hit music, books and the press.

In this new dance to the investment of time, we are all going to have to rethink our position on the floor, but most of all we are going to have to be able to make the case far more clearly and succinctly about the value and the services we offer, particularly if we are going to charge for our services. That is going to be a challenging, but wealth giving opportunity for most of us as we start applying a price where value is due and perhaps removing a price where value does not really exist. But for the greedy and selfish who exploit the unwary entrepreneur or investor be warned and be scared. 

The world won't come to a stop with everything to do with financial services becoming free on the web. Look how the newspaper industry has helped its customers see the value of its different offerings - from subscription models to paid for with advertising sites. And in music we have seen an explosion in music overall with everything from free online access to a stunning growth in festivals, concerts, merchandise etc. We now pay for live when we used to pay for recorded. Don't laugh, but will we, in due course, see the scepticism about "paying to pitch" reverse itself?

I don't think I have ever been more excited about angel and VC investment since I joined the industry at the time of the dotcom boom - I hope you feel the same as you depart for your summer holidays. See you in the autumn when I suspect there will be even more examples of innovative behaviour for me to comment on!