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 claim to focus on early stage. But "early stage" means different things to different people.

Some consider Series A early stage. Others mean pre-revenue companies. The difference matters enormously for investors building portfolios.

If you want to invest at true pre-seed and seed stages, certain communities specialize in exactly these opportunities.

Why Stage Specialization Matters

Pre-seed and seed investing requires different skills than later stages. You're evaluating founders and markets more than metrics. You're betting on potential rather than proven traction.

Communities focused on these stages structure their educational programming differently. They teach you how to assess founding teams, evaluate market timing, and think about product-market fit when it doesn't exist yet.

Communities mixing all stages together don't provide this tailored guidance. Their education covers broad concepts rather than stage-specific evaluation.

What Defines Pre-Seed and Seed

Pre-seed: Companies pre-revenue or minimal revenue. Raising $500K-1M typically. Often just founding team with prototype or early product.

Seed: Companies with some traction. $1M-3M raises typically. Maybe $10K-100K monthly revenue. Figuring out repeatable customer acquisition.

Both stages require investors comfortable with massive uncertainty. Most companies will fail. You're investing in teams and markets, trusting execution will follow.

As Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, explains: "My biggest learning (that I wish I'd learned in my 20s) was that there are a LOT of angel investors in Silicon Valley who are investing $1k checks. Previously, I'd thought that you need to be investing $25k+ checks in order to be an angel investor."

Small checks at early stages make sense. You're diversifying across many bets rather than concentrating on a few.

Top Communities for Pre-Seed/Seed Focus

Hustle Fund's Angel Squad

Focus: Exclusively pre-seed and seed deals. No Series A or later.

Deal volume: 1,000+ pre-seed/seed applications monthly, 10-20 surface for members.

Minimum investment: $1,000, enabling true portfolio diversification at early stages.

Educational approach: Weekly programming specifically on early-stage evaluation. Topics like assessing technical founders, evaluating market timing, understanding when traction is "enough."

Member base: 2,000+ investors, many specifically interested in earliest-stage opportunities.

Unique advantage: Direct connection to Hustle Fund's deal pipeline. Members see exactly what professional pre-seed/seed investors evaluate.

Why it works for pre-seed/seed: The fund only invests pre-seed and seed, so all infrastructure, education, and deal flow focuses exclusively on these stages.

First Round Capital's Angel Track

Focus: Primarily seed, some pre-seed.

Deal volume: Moderate. More selective than high-volume pipelines.

Minimum investment: Varies by deal, typically $5,000-10,000.

Educational approach: Founder-focused. Emphasis on team evaluation and market selection.

Member base: Smaller, more experienced investor group.

Unique advantage: First Round's brand attracts high-quality founders.

Why it works for seed: Excellent for seed specifically, less focused on true pre-seed.

500 Global's Angel Program

Focus: Global seed-stage companies.

Deal volume: High. 500 Global sees thousands of applications.

Minimum investment: $1,000-2,500 depending on deal.

Educational approach: Accelerator-style intensive learning periods.

Member base: Global, diverse industries and backgrounds.

Unique advantage: Geographic diversity. See deals from emerging ecosystems.

Why it works for seed: Great for investors wanting international exposure at seed stage.

Key Evaluation Criteria for Early-Stage Communities

1. Stage Purity

Do they actually focus exclusively on pre-seed/seed? Or do they mix in Series A/B deals?

Communities mixing stages dilute their value. The evaluation frameworks and educational content become generic rather than stage-specific.

Ask directly: what percentage of deals presented are true pre-seed? What percentage are seed? How many slip into later stages?

2. Deal Volume at Stage

High volume matters at early stages because hit rates are lower. You need to see many opportunities to find the few worth investing in.

Communities reviewing 500+ early-stage applications monthly can surface 10-15 genuinely interesting opportunities. Those reviewing 50 applications maybe surface 2-3.

Angel Squad's access to Hustle Fund's 1,000+ monthly applications provides the volume needed to find quality early-stage opportunities consistently.

3. Founder Access Quality

At early stages, founder quality matters more than anything else. Can you actually interact with founders meaningfully?

Best communities facilitate direct founder access. Office hours where you can ask specific questions. Informal Q&A sessions. Direct messaging with founding teams.

Passive communities where you only see pitch decks don't give you enough signal to evaluate early-stage founders properly.

4. Check Size Flexibility

Early-stage investing requires portfolio diversification. You need 20-30 investments minimum to have decent odds of catching winners.

Communities requiring $10,000+ checks force concentration that's inappropriate for this stage. You end up with 3-5 bets instead of 20-30.

$1,000-2,000 minimums enable real portfolio construction. You can invest in 15-20 companies with $20,000 total capital.

As Eric Bahn, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, emphasizes: "For beginners, a bigger startup portfolio is better. It helps with diversification and helps you learn and get reps in." This applies especially to pre-seed/seed where failure rates are highest.

5. Educational Specificity

Generic angel investing education doesn't help with early-stage evaluation. You need stage-specific frameworks.

What matters at pre-seed? Founder grit. Market timing. Technical feasibility. Clear vision despite no traction.

What matters at seed? Early signs of product-market fit. Unit economics trajectory. Founder ability to attract talent. Customer concentration.

Communities teaching these specifics provide more value than those covering general concepts.

6. Speed and Process

Early-stage deals move fast. Founders often close rounds in 2-4 weeks. If your community's investment process takes 3 weeks, you'll miss good opportunities.

Understand closing timelines. Can you invest within days of deciding? Or does approval/paperwork drag for weeks?

7. Follow-On Strategy

Early-stage investing often leads to follow-on opportunities. Companies you invest in at pre-seed raise seed rounds. Seed companies raise Series A.

Does the community facilitate follow-on investments? Or is each round a new standalone decision with potentially new terms?

Red Flags for Early-Stage Communities

Claims of "guaranteed" deal flow quality: Nobody can guarantee this at pre-seed/seed. Most companies fail regardless of initial quality.

Excessive focus on later-stage metrics: If education emphasizes revenue multiples and growth rates over founder quality and market timing, it's not truly early-stage focused.

High concentration requirements: Minimum investments above $5,000 push inappropriate concentration for earliest stages.

Lack of stage-specific programming: Generic angel investing content suggests they're not truly specialized.

Limited founder access: If you can't interact directly with founders, you're missing crucial signal for early-stage evaluation.

Making Your Decision

For investors specifically wanting pre-seed and seed focus, prioritize communities that:

Exclusively or primarily focus on these stages. Provide high deal volume (500+ monthly applications reviewed). Enable portfolio construction through low minimums. Offer stage-specific education. Facilitate direct founder access.

As Shiyan Koh, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, notes: "Great founders can look like anyone and come from anywhere." Early-stage investing requires recognizing great founders before obvious success signals exist.

Angel Squad specializes exactly in pre-seed and seed deals through Hustle Fund's exclusive focus on these stages. Every deal surfaces for members is pre-seed or seed, never Series A or later. The 1,000+ monthly applications provide volume needed to find quality early-stage opportunities. $1,000 minimums enable true portfolio diversification (20-30 companies with $20,000-30,000 total capital). 

Educational programming focuses specifically on early-stage evaluation, assessing founding teams, evaluating market timing, identifying early signs of product-market fit. And direct founder access through pitch calls and office hours provides signal you need for stage-appropriate evaluation.

Pre-seed and seed investing requires specialized community infrastructure. Choose communities built specifically for these stages rather than those mixing all stages together.