VentureBeat

The Funded, the site dreaded by some venture capitalists because it lets entrepreneurs posts reviews about them – the good, bad, and in many cases, quite ugly — is coming out of the closet.

Since launching in March, the founder, who goes only as “Ted,” has refused to disclose his identity. We know from our frequent conversations with him that he had some run-ins with VCs, and that he shielded himself in part to allow the site to gain some credibility.

Next month, however, he’s showing up in Silicon Valley, and finally revealing himself. He’ll also issue a list of the top ten venture capitalists, according to the ratings on his site. Ted owned up to his plans during a phone call today when we confronted him with a copy of an invite to his shindig, slipped to us by a source:

Dear xxx

I wanted to personally invite you to the first public event held by TheFunded.com and the only event where the detailed operations of the site will be revealed to the public. The event will be held in Palo Alto, around Stanford University, on November 15th, 2007, starting at 5:00 PM. It should provide an interesting opportunity to socialize with leading venture capitalists, CEO’s, and The Founding Member.

We will cover many topics that have been questioned, such as how the site was formed, how we process the 50-200 daily CEO applications, and how content is inputted and screened. We will also go into the many lessons learned from nearly 5,000 posts on the site.

It should prove to be both a memorable and enjoyable evening, and we hope to see you there. Click the special invitation link below to register.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please not that the event is invitation-only, limited to 100 guests. Do not forward this to anyone. If you are interested in attending, reserve your seat now. The invitation will expire when all seats are filled.

Look forward to seeing you at the event.

Enjoy! - Ted, The Founding Member

At the meeting, he’ll inform VCs and the entrepreneurs with more details about how the site works, from how he deals with membership applications, to what members see, how members rates and contribute to the site, how he monitors activity, how anonymity works and what he does if he feels someone has done something inappropriate. Here’s a link for more.

He invited only a select crowd, and he’ll inform people who have accepted his invitations of the exact location of the event a few days beforehand. However, it’s hard to believe that Valleywag won’t get slipped a copy of the location, and won’t show up with camera and crew and take embarrassing snapshots of VCs kowtowing to the founder of a site that has helped severely abuse their reputations. Surely, though, Ted would love it.

Note: We’ve been experimenting with linking the names of VC firms to reviews in The Funded when we mention them.