What advice would you give to someone like me, who is willing and able to put money into an early-stage start-up?
How to be an angel investor: http://www.paulgraham.com/angelinvesting.html
Think of angel investing as doing startups, before the big results...you have to spend 3-5 years growing your site, 1 user at a time. So take the next 5-10 years building up your credentials and contacts, and by then you'll have something to offer besides money.
What a ridiculous notion. I won't disagree that an angel has to build their "practice". But really? You think the majority of Startups out there wouldn't take cash from someone who brought nothing else to the table?
1 in 100 startups has the luxury of being super choosy with investors. Every YC session, there are YC companies that raise less than they wish they could.
And, to be honest, there isn't consensus about whether investors generally DO bring more to the table.
To the OP, go get 'em. You won't get in on the competitive deals but there are still more promising startups than there are angels to fund them. But yeah, first and foremost, you have to be an accredited investor.
And yes most people only want the money, but money comes from different sources. Would you really want a crack dealer as your investor? How about someone with a criminal record?
And yeah, I think most 20 year old folks would be terrible at investing (I'm pretty sure I would've been at 20-- hell, maybe now!). We have a 24 year old investor, FWIW.
But I think there is this (largely incorrect) notion that your investors are going to be working for you. For the most part, they aren't. Oh, they'll keep their eyes peeled for opportunities for you. And if you are on fire, they might smell the win and start pouring on some effort. But for the most part, they are filthy rich, have tons of investments, and tons of interests. They are stretched SUPER thin and their time is way more scarce than their money.
My favorite quote from a YC dinner (names redacted):
Q: "How to you make sure you get investors who bring more than money to the table?"
A: Famous Internet Entrepreneur: "What? Investors don't bring anything to the table other than money. Wait. Scratch that. One time [famous web 2.0 investor] carried a few servers up a flight of stairs for us."
(that's paraphrased, but that exchange actually happened)
Wonder how many 20-year-old college students with a million spare bucks to be an accredited investor there are? If you eliminate trust-fund kids (which typically don't have access to all their wealth), what? A dozen or so? Versus how many 20-year-olds willing to ask bogus questions in a room full of people likely to take them seriously and respond?
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I really feel you punked us with this question.