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Comment by TrickyQuestion | Hacker News Reader

Over the last 20 years I have founded and co-founded multiple software startups myself so I know a bit about making a software business successful.

I would love to invest something like $100K in small software startups. But I have no idea how to go about it.

My favorite approach would be to band together with a few other small time investors and put $10k of my money into 10 different companies each.

One issue is that all my friends are still in the "dreaming about building a startup" phase. Nobody in my circle has the money/interest to invest.

The other issue is that I don't know how to find startups to invest in.

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Too big for your first check, spread it around. Check out Seattle Angel Conference for getting your feet wet. Fully booked this round but might be room for next (6mo). Safer than going alone, good crew to educate investors. Don't have to be on Seattle

Isn't 10k a small investment?

You should check out AngelList (https://angel.co/) and find a few syndicates of successful investors that you'd like to join.

The going rate for seed rounds right now in SV is $5M/20%. I know 3 different founders that got this deal relatively easily in the last year.

I don't have a solution for this in general, but I do have a specific company that is looking for that level of funding -- feel free to reach out if you're interested to hear more!

I'm in a similar position. Made money (> 2 mio) with side projects and smart investments and would love to invest 10 ~10k into good looking projects but it is difficult finding them, especially since I don't live in the US or SF. I tried to register for syndicates but they ask for previous investments which is a chicken and egg problem. I haven't invested in other projects before, I successfuly build my own side projects.

Thank you for sharing - just so you know HN loves to hear stories about successfull side projects. If yoy haven’t already, it would be great if you post about it in great detail.

I don't know if this is appropriate, but since it's the only way to contact you:

I run Niceboard.co, currently looking to raise first money (~100-150k), profitable SaaS business, growing month over month, would be happy to send you a pitch deck and chat.

Relevant for new angel investors

https://www.onstartups.com/a-weird-and-wacky-approach-to-ang...

I don't think 10k will go very far. I think it makes more sense to team up with a few people who are also willing to invest and help companies raise $XXX,000 for a serious seed round and take an advisory role to help these companies succeed.

To find startups have a look at https://upvising.net - there's a matching algo that shows you relevant startups based on your profile.

Check out https://www.thesyndicate.com/. I just joined, as I’m in a similar boat.

I’m part of it and despite Jason C having obviously a very good track record I find myself very unimpressed with deal flow quality. I’ve invested in 75 or so startups via AL and exactly 0 through the syndicate. I’m usually not into consumer stuff though so In fairness that’s a good part of why.

Investing into something like Tinyseed might be what you are looking for.

Program Director at TinySeed here — we're right at the tail-end of fundraising for our second fund, check out our investment thesis here: https://tinyseed.com/thesis

You're not gonna like it but I think buying crypto might provide this. Many projects/teams/small startups provide the equivalent of equity via their tokens. Investing in those is a bit like providing seed funds.

Of course, tons of scams, but there's some real projects out there too.

The problem with crypto is that there is no good on-ramp.

For example: To buy crypto on Coinbase, you have to send them a scan of your passport and your bank accounts. I don't want a foreign company to have a copy of my passport.

Not entirely true. You can use https://localbitcoins.com/ to buy bitcoin without an exchange and then use Uniswap to invest into up and coming tokens. If they're on Coinbase, it is often already too late to be an early stage investor.

Localbitcoins seem to do the same digital KYC dance as Coinbase. So you will probably also have to copy your passport for them.

I thought localbitcoins was made illegal in the USA unless the seller has a certian money handling license? It could just be an NY/CA thing, but still...

I'm fairly skeptical of cryptocurrency hype personally, but if you want to invest 6 figure sums in a startup company, that's a legal agreement, and you're going to be giving a lot more personal information than that to the entities involved. This is no time to be squeamish about who has a copy of your passport.

It is not about providing informtion. But having a copy of my passport allows the other party to identify as me to other parties. That is something I want to avoid.

Unless you're in a country that literally outlawed any form of crypto you must have some sort of local company/exchange that would take your money so you can trade. You just have to look for it.

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