Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups

Most angel investing communities are terrible at both education and deal flow.

They'll give you access to 50 mediocre deals and call it "deal flow." They'll host a panel with a famous VC who shares nothing actionable and call it "education." You pay your membership fee, make some investments, and three years later realize you would have been better off putting that money in index funds.

The question isn't whether a community offers both. It's whether they're actually good at the thing that matters most for where you are right now.

Education First, Deal Flow Second

If you're new to angel investing, prioritizing deal flow over education is like buying a sports car before learning to drive. You'll go fast in the wrong direction.

Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund who previously ran the Mountain View accelerator at 500 Startups, sees this pattern constantly. "VCs are wrong most of the time. And that is ok!" she notes. "In most professions, this would not be ok."

The implication? You need to learn how to be wrong productively. That requires real education, not generic startup advice you could find on Twitter.

Good education in an angel investing community looks like:

• Monthly deep dives with investors who actually write checks, not just talk about it
• Access to real diligence materials from past investments
• Frameworks for evaluating different business models
• Honest conversations about what didn't work and why

Angel Squad runs their "10 Minute Blitz" sessions where members hear directly from investors like Turner Novak and Ann Miura-Ko about how they evaluate startups. This isn't theory. These are people deploying real capital sharing their actual process.

The education should make you more selective, not less. If you're investing in more deals after joining the community, something's wrong.

When Deal Flow Becomes Your Priority

Once you've made 10-15 investments and you understand what you're looking for, deal flow quality matters more than quantity.

You need to see opportunities early. You want to invest alongside investors who have strong track records. You're looking for specific sectors or business models that fit your thesis.

This is where most communities fall apart. They show you deals that have already made the rounds. The best terms are gone. The cap table is crowded with people you've never heard of. The founders are desperate, not selective.

Quality deal flow means seeing opportunities where:

• The company is actively fundraising (not cleaning up a failed round)
• You're getting the same terms as lead investors
• The founders are choosing their investor group, not just taking anyone's money
• Other smart investors you respect are participating

Angel Squad members get access to Hustle Fund's pipeline of 1,000+ deals monthly. The fund has backed over 600 companies, so the pattern recognition is built in. Members aren't just seeing random startups; they're seeing deals that made it through a serious filter.

The Hybrid Model That Actually Works

Eric Bahn, co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund who previously worked as a Product Manager at Instagram, helped structure Angel Squad around a specific insight: education and deal flow should reinforce each other.

You don't learn in a classroom then go invest. You learn by evaluating real deals with experienced investors, making decisions, and seeing how those decisions play out over time.

The weekly virtual events at Angel Squad (10 AM and 5 PM Pacific) mix founder pitches with investor education. You hear a pitch, you see how experienced GPs react, you understand what questions matter. Then you decide whether to invest.

This model compresses years of learning into months. You're not waiting to accumulate wisdom before deploying capital. You're getting reps with guidance.

Red Flags in Community Structures

Watch out for communities that:

• Show you 100+ deals per year but none of them raise their full round
• Feature educational content from people who don't actively invest
• Charge high fees but provide no transparent track record
• Make deal access contingent on expensive membership tiers

The best communities are built around aligned incentives. If the community succeeds when you succeed, the structure works. If the community makes money regardless of your outcomes, you're just paying for access.

Making the Choice

Early in your angel investing journey (0-10 deals), choose education-focused communities even if the deal flow is modest. You need to build your frameworks and understand what you're looking for.

Mid-journey (10-30 deals), you want both. You have enough pattern recognition to evaluate opportunities, but you still need exposure to new ideas and approaches.

Later stage (30+ deals), deal flow quality matters most. You know what you're doing. You need access to specific types of companies or earlier-stage opportunities than you can find on your own.

No community excels at everything. The question is whether they're excellent at what you need right now. Be honest about your experience level, be realistic about what you need to learn, and choose accordingly.