Angel investing by experienced MBAs* to fund the best early stage investments all over the country.
Benefits
Quality deal flow from all over the country for our members everywhere.
Evaluation of potential investments by teams of experienced MBA* angel investors:
- Rating and commenting on startup applications by any member (on Gust)
- Screening to invite for pitching to all members
- Contributing insight during post-pitch discussions
- Executing due diligence by volunteers with interest and relevant expertise
This results in better investment opportunities among which individual members can decide whether they want to invest.
We leverage a wide variety of MBA networks to generate quality deal flow and to find expertise to evaluate potential angel investments.
Upon exit from an investment sourced by Virtual Angels Network, members will reap the full proceeds without paying a 20% carry to anyone (nor past annual management fees on that investment).
Members can choose to have a voice in building the community of Virtual Angels Network.
* “MBA” represents “MBAs or holders of any advanced degree: e.g. JD, MD, Masters, PhD, etc.”
How we do angel investing
Some members choose to attend virtual pitch events of other angel investor groups or virtual demo/graduation days of accelerators around the country and encourage the best startups to apply to Virtual Angels Network.
Entrepreneurs apply on the Gust platform, uploading their presentation deck, executive summary, and other documents for all our Virtual Angels Network members to look at whenever they want to.
Gust serves as a communication platform among all Virtual Angels Network members (and with the entrepreneurs when members choose to include them) throughout the process.
The Virtual Angels Network screening committee chooses 3 or 4 of the best applicants to invite to a virtual pitch event.
Pitch events are held totally virtually on Zoom. Each invited founder pitches, followed by a Q&A session with the members who are attending. After each founder’s time, after all the founders have left, the members have a discussion of each company, drawing on the expertise of the experienced MBA angel investor members. For each company a decision is made whether to move forward into due diligence, depending on the number of members who are interested. One or two of the interested members are chosen as deal lead or co-leads. Pitch events are recorded, so that members who did not attend in real time can view the recording later.
Everyone who is interested in a given deal indicates their interest on Gust. The deal lead(s) schedule a two hour virtual meeting with the founder and invites all interested members. It is recorded so that members who did not attend in real time can view the recording later. The deal lead confirms with the interested members that they want to continue due diligence.
The deal lead continues to manage due diligence, which is executed by interested members. Results, documents and comments are posted on Gust for all interested members to see. The due diligence team leverages the expertise of the experienced MBA angel investor members. Due diligence is executed as expeditiously as possible.
Each member makes their independent decision whether to invest in that deal. If a member chooses to, they invest directly with the company. Virtual Angels Network is not involved in nor responsible in any way for any investment.
From the Virtual Angels Network members who invest in a company, a lead investor is chosen (often the deal lead) to serve as a point of contact on a long term basis between the CEO and all Virtual Angels Network investors in that company. This is in addition to the expected communication from the CEO to all investors.
Virtual Angels Network Fee
Virtual Angels Network’s membership fee is $900 annually. Recognizing that we are forming a new organization that still needs to generate deal flow through its members, for a limited time you can join as a charter member for $500 for one year. By virtue of being early, charter members also have particular opportunities if they choose: founding members and/or leadership positions.
There are no fees, expenses or carry associated with the investments that each individual member chooses to make.
There is no initial investment nor minimum annual investment amount set by Virtual Angels Network.
Startups pay Virtual Angels Network no or a nominal fee to apply, avoiding the adverse selection problem of groups who charge startups significant fees to present to their members.
Membership Requirements
MBA or other advanced degree
At least a decade of experience
Accredited Investor status (self certification)
A LinkedIn profile (allows Virtual Angels Network to identify experience that may be relevant)