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Comment by epc | Hacker News Reader

I stopped angel investing when the “ask” jumped from $25k to $250k. At $250k I’d just as soon be an LP in a fund and spread the risk (and let the GPs do the work).

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That's surprising to me. I've been doing 2-3 angel investments/year in Silicon Valley (while being a full-time VC), and I've never personally seen anyone ask for a $250k min check at seed stage. FWIW all of my investments are $10k (the max that my fund allows me to invest on the side), and I don't get pushback on that 90% of the time.

On a slightly different note, minimums are rarely set in stone. If someone says the min is $100k and you come back with "ah that's a bummer, I love your company and think I can help with X and Y, but I can only afford $25k," there's a good chance that suddenly the minimum will drop to $25k just for you. At least that has been my personal experience.

I’d evaluate up to ten per year but typically only do 2-3 as well, primarily US East Coast. Fairly consistently, starting in 2015? 2016? the minimums kept creeping up, until a prospective CEO told me I'd wasted his time (he'd contacted me) when I said 25k was my limit.

I may return to it at some point but it wasn't particularly lucrative and the sense of entitlement I ran into just turned me off.

Sounds so very strange. Entitlement while asking for money...in tech, beggers CAN be choosers then?

That CEO sounds horrible. Don’t let a bad apple ruin angel investing for you.

Perhaps 'angel investor' needs to be rebranded or redefined so that it sets up expectations better..

Let's say the range is approximately $10-50k for 0.1% to 1% equity. Wonder if there's a term that can represent that kind fo range. Starter. Initial. Beginner. Micro. ..

I certainly see less of this than you, but you have a brand. I suspect that matters a lot.

Yes, but then most angels can't help you with X and Y.

Is it possible that you get a wider berth with regards to terms due to who you are and what you do?

Not a snark... genuine question.

At this point it probably helps, but I've been doing this for 6 years now and had zero brand/reputation when I started. I started w/$25k angel checks in 2013, quickly realized I wouldn't be able to afford that for more than a little while, and moved to $10k by 2014. So the reputation might help now, but I don't think it mattered in 2014, and people would still take my $10k checks back then.

What can you possibly do with $10k or even $25k in the Valley? How can these kind of money can be productively used?

If you have the opportunity to get help from lpolovets, you should jump at the chance at any minimum. What does $10k or $25k get you in the Valley... not a lot. But if you keep expenses low and have support from great people like lpolovets, suddenly you have a lot more than when you stated.

To be frank, you can use it to run a business outside of the Valley for double or quadruple the time. At that amount, you can't really afford to hire (doubly so in SF), so who cares if you have access to the "talent pool" (but we all can work remote now, so, hey).

It's less about a single $10k check. I think a better way to think about it is: what could you do if you get 10-20 angels to each give you a $10k-$50k check (for a total of $400k or something like that). Then you'd have enough capital for a few people to work full time for a year, plus you'd have 10-20 individuals who are eager to help you in different ways.

What does the startup give up to get the $10k check? 1% equity or something?

Closer to 0.1-0.2 percent. Maybe a little more if it's very very early.

My loose coalition of angel friends did a blind survey among ourselves. Sixty responses received from 700 angels, conducted in March 2018. The median check size was $25K. I do not remember the exact distribution, but check sizes of less than $10K were rare, as were checks over $50K.

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Made an enquiry about parent's angel investing, attracted a bunch of downvoting, realise HN is not the forum for this. Apologies community!

I'm not.

Thanks anyway for responding!

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