As anyone who's tried speed dating knows, it doesn't work (and yes, I realize that you probably know a friend of a friend who's an exception, but bear with me). Sure you can figure out whether you're interested in someone in right away, but it actually can take more than three minutes to determine whether that someone is nuts. I could go on.

So, now that my bias is on the table, you'll understand why I was surprised to learn that someone has taken this concept and applied it to pitching investors. Check out this post by Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger John Cook about his experience at a "speed pitching" event on Wednesday night. According to the post, entrepreneurs had 8 minutes to pitch potential investors. While he makes it sound hip and cutting-edge (he was drinking Guinness! He had a buzz!), I can't imagine that anyone gets a second meeting this way. In fairness, eight minutes is more than enough time to give an investor your elevator pitch, and some of the people on the guest list seemed legit. But do investors just do this to show some community good will or on the off chance that someone will actually have a profitable idea? While there are real business summits where the same thing happens, it strikes me that these speed pitching events at bars are more of a free-for-all. Maybe I'm being cynical, but we all know that the investment world is a tough one to break in to. Anything that's too easy strikes me as a scam. Has anyone tried this?