BBC America has begun airing a series that a friend of mine from London was telling me about last year.  Dragon’s Den airs Thursday evenings at 6 and 9 on BBC America.

The hour long reality show features five successful entrepreneurs who are putting up their own money to invest in start-ups.  Over the course of the hour long program several hopeful start-ups pitch for investments ranging from $150k to a million dollars.  While, as you may expect from network television, the staging is a bit sensationalized, it is actually quite instructive for entrepreneurs hoping to pitch to angel investors.

Think “American Idol” for entrepreneurs. As in “Idols” the contestants are routinely savaged by the angels.  Usually with complete justification.    The major difference between this program and reality as we know it in the US Northwest is that on the television program angels will say “no” while brutally dismantling the pitch.  Here, an angel is more likely to say, “Interesting, but it does not fit my investment profile.”

I’ve only seen one episode, but it’s more entertaining and closer to reality than MOJO’s recent Start-Up Junkies series.

Hoyt Prisock, author of this post, is a Seattle area entrepreneur and NWEN Board member.  He is also an active angel investor in the region.

DeSilva+Phillips wrote a great whitepaper providing an overview of online ad networks. A must-read for anyone trying to familiarize themselves to the world of online advertising, covering:

• Why ad networks exist, and the value to publishers and advertisers.
• The differing objectivs of brand and direct response advertisers.
• Ad network business models.
• Recent mergers, acquisitions and venture investments in ad networks.
• Rank, reach and ownership of the top ad networks.

Jordan Mitchell, the author of this post, is the CEO and Founder of Others Online, his 4th Internet startup. Others Online helps Web site publishers and networks better understand, target and monetize their audience through the use of proprietary affinity profiling software. Jordan blogs regularly and tweets even more!