After the wire
A small check should come with a large amount of follow-through. What founders can expect from us in the first year.
Most of what gets written about angel investing stops at the decision. Here is what happens afterward, because the wire is where our work begins and because founders deserve to know what they are signing up for before they take a check from us.
The first week
Introductions begin the week the wire lands. We ask the founder for a short list of the people who would change the next six months for the company, and we start with the ones we can reach. Our network is deepest among the investors at the leading private banks and family offices, relationships built during years at Citi and Morgan Stanley. For a company that will raise again, or that sells to financial institutions, those are the right rooms to be introduced in.
Hiring help
The first operations hire and the first go-to-market hire are where small companies lose the most time. We help with both. We review the role, make introductions from our own network when the fit is real, sit in on interviews when asked, and say plainly when a candidate is wrong for the stage. We do not place people for a fee and we do not push candidates to meet a quota. The goal is the hire the founder would have made anyway, a few months sooner.
Monthly check-ins
We ask for a monthly call or a monthly written update, whichever the founder prefers. It takes thirty minutes and stays informal. We want to know what shipped, what the numbers say, what is worrying the founder and what we can do about it. The agenda belongs to the founder. If there is nothing to say, a two-line email is fine, and more often than monthly is welcome when something is moving.
When things go wrong
They will, at some point. Our behavior when they do is the thing we most want founders to be able to predict. We do not disappear, we do not lecture, and we do not demand a plan on the same call that delivers the bad news. We ask what the founder thinks, we offer what we can and we make the introductions that might help. A small investor has no leverage to exercise and no business pretending otherwise. What we have is a willingness to stay useful when staying useful is inconvenient. If a later round comes together, we take part when we can and give an honest answer when we cannot.
What we ask in return
One thing: an honest update. Not a polished one and not a frequent one, an honest one. Tell us what is working and what is not while there is still time to do something about it. Founders who do this get more from us, because we can only help with what we know. That is the entire contract beyond the paperwork, and we think it is a fair one.
