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

"Join our exclusive local angel group. We meet monthly at the country club. Everyone knows everyone. White tablecloths, firm handshakes, the whole deal."

Sounds legit, right? Maybe it was in 2005. But in 2025, angel investing is going global, and the data suggests that might be exactly where the best returns are hiding.

What Local Angel Groups Actually Offer

Local groups aren't terrible. They have real advantages. You meet founders face-to-face. You can drive to their office. You get that gut feeling about whether someone's legit.

Plus, there's something to be said for accountability. When you're writing checks alongside people you see at your kid's soccer game, you probably do better diligence. Maybe.

But, most local angel groups suffer from groupthink. Everyone has similar backgrounds, similar investing theses, similar blind spots. You're all looking at the same 30 deals per year, mostly from founders who look and sound like you.

The deal flow is limited by geography. If you're in Austin, you're seeing Austin deals. If you're in Miami, you're seeing Miami deals. And unless you're in the Bay Area or New York, you're probably not seeing the best deals, period.

The Global Community Advantage

Angel Squad hit 2,000+ members this summer, spanning 40 countries. That's not a flex, it's a data point. Because when you have that many people from that many places, something interesting happens.

Deal flow explodes. Hustle Fund sees 1,000+ companies per month and shares the best 2-3 with Angel Squad members. Compare that to your local group's 2-3 deals per month, and you're getting 12x more shots on goal.

Pattern recognition accelerates. Instead of seeing one fintech deal per quarter, you might see five per month. You start noticing what works and what doesn't way faster. Ten $1K investments teach you more than one $10K swing.

The network effects are wild. A medical device founder in Singapore gets introduced to a regulatory expert in London who worked with a Squad member in Boston. These connections don't happen in your local group because everyone already knows everyone.

The Dirty Secret About "Local Expertise"

Local knowledge matters way less than it used to.

Twenty years ago, being local meant you could verify references, visit the office, check if they were really working nights. Now? You can do all that on a Zoom call. You can check their GitHub commits. You can see their customer reviews online.

The idea that you need to "look them in the eye" to invest is outdated. Some of the best investors I know have never met founders in person before wiring six figures. They just got really good at asking the right questions.

What Actually Drives Returns

After looking at data from thousands of angel investments, three things predict returns better than anything else:

Volume of quality deals seen. You need reps. Lots of them. One awesome local deal per quarter won't cut it.

Speed of learning. The faster you can build pattern recognition, the faster you spot winners. That requires seeing diverse companies across different stages and sectors.

Co-investor quality. Your returns correlate strongly with who else is in the deal. Global communities give you access to investors you'd never meet locally.

The Hybrid Approach

The smart money isn't picking local versus global, it's doing both. Use global communities for deal flow, education, and building your pattern engine. Use local groups for the relationships and the quarterly dinners.

Several Angel Squad members told us they're still active in their local groups, but 80% of their deployed capital now comes from deals they found through the global community. That ratio tells you something.

The Bottom Line

If you're optimizing for feeling important and having a fancy title in a local group, stick with the country club. But if you're optimizing for actual returns, you need exposure to way more deals than any single geography can provide.

The best part about global angel investing communities? You don't have to choose. Join Angel Squad, get access to vetted deal flow from Hustle Fund's pipeline, learn from investors who've backed 600+ companies, and if you still want to do your local group thing, go for it. But at least you'll have something to compare against.