Masterclass: How to Start an Angel Syndicate

Most people who want to invest start by trying to raise a fund, which means a management company, committed capital, and partners who have to say yes for ten years before anybody has seen a single deal. A syndicate asks for none of that. You find one company, you take it to people who already trust you, and the ones who want in come in on that deal and no other. It is the cheapest way to start writing checks with more than your own money behind them, and it is how most of the capital that reaches founders in our communities is going to get there. Led by someone who spent seven years advising on more than $20 billion of transactions at UBS and CIT, and now sources deals for his own firm.

Who this is for

Professionals with a network and no fund, angels already writing small checks who want to bring others alongside them, and founders who want to understand who is behind a check before they take it.

On the table

• What a syndicate is, deal by deal, against what a fund would commit you to for a decade
• Where does the first deal come from, and who is actually willing to back it?
• What do you owe the people whose money is in it, on the day something goes wrong?

You'll leave with

• The anatomy of one deal: sourcing, the SPV, the carry, who pays for what, and what it costs you before it pays anything
• A straight answer on whether to syndicate at all or simply to invest on your own
• The questions to put to a lead investor that you would otherwise learn the answers to too late