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

For most of modern history, angel investing belonged to a small group of wealthy individuals who knew each other from Stanford, worked together at Google, or golfed at the same country club. If you didn't have those connections, you couldn't access the deals. If you didn't have at least $50,000 to deploy per investment, you weren't taken seriously.

The result? A tiny fraction of the population controlled which startups got funded. The global angel investment market was valued at approximately $28 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to over $72 billion by 2033. That's real money flowing into early-stage companies, and until recently, most people couldn't participate.

But something fundamental has shifted. Organized angel investing communities have emerged that are democratizing access to this asset class.

The Old Model: Exclusive, Opaque, Inaccessible

Traditional angel investing required three things: serious wealth, insider connections, and knowledge you could only gain by doing deals. First, you needed to be an accredited investor ($1 million in investable assets or $200,000 annual income). Second, you needed deal flow from personal referrals. Third, you needed to know how to evaluate startups, which you could only learn by actually doing deals.

The inefficiency was staggering. Talented founders outside Silicon Valley struggled to raise capital because they didn't know the right people. Qualified investors who could add real value to startups never got the chance because they hadn't gone to Stanford or worked at a brand-name tech company.

How Angel Communities Changed Everything

Angel investing communities attacked all three barriers simultaneously. They created structured pathways for people to become accredited investors, built systems to generate consistent deal flow, and developed educational programs to transfer knowledge at scale.

Angel Squad's model shows how this works in practice. The program welcomes non-accredited members who want to learn about angel investing before writing checks. Once you're ready to invest, you can take the Series 65 exam, which Angel Squad reimburses. This securities license makes you an accredited investor through knowledge rather than wealth.

Deal flow comes from Hustle Fund's pipeline. The fund reviews 1,000+ startup applications monthly and shares 2-3 of the best opportunities with Angel Squad members. You don't need personal connections to access these deals. You just need to be a member who shows up and participates.

The education happens through weekly virtual events where founders pitch and Hustle Fund GPs explain their investment thinking in real time. You learn by watching experienced investors evaluate opportunities, ask questions, and make decisions. This is the same knowledge transfer that used to happen only through personal mentorship, now available to thousands of people simultaneously.

The Economics That Make It Work

Here's the part that traditional angel investors didn't understand: you don't need everyone writing $50,000 checks. When you aggregate smaller checks through SPVs (special purpose vehicles), you can build meaningful investment rounds from $1,000 contributions.

Angel Squad members have collectively invested $30+ million across 70+ startups. That capital came from 2,000+ investors writing checks that often start at $1,000. These aren't people with unlimited capital. They're operators, professionals, and aspiring investors who want exposure to startups without betting their entire net worth on a single company.

The SPV structure also solves administrative complexity for founders. Instead of managing 100 individual investors on their cap table, they have one line item representing the entire Angel Squad investment. This makes fundraising tractable even when the money comes from many small checks.

Elizabeth Yin has been vocal about the importance of this model. As she's noted when discussing Hustle Fund's philosophy, "Great founders can come from anywhere and look like anyone. The same should be true for angel investors."

Platform Infrastructure Enabled Scale

Technology made all of this possible. AngelList built the infrastructure to create SPVs, handle investor onboarding, and distribute tax forms. Without these platforms, coordinating thousands of small investors would have been administratively impossible.

Angel Squad runs entirely on digital infrastructure. The marginal cost of adding another member is nearly zero, which means the community can scale without raising prices. This is fundamentally different from traditional angel groups that required in-person meetings and topped out at 50-100 members.

Founders benefit from accessing a broader investor base with diverse expertise. When you pitch Angel Squad, you're reaching operators who understand specific industries, professionals with domain expertise, and people from geographic regions where VCs rarely look.

The Global Footprint

Angel Squad's 2,000+ members span 40+ countries. This geographic diversity wasn't possible under the old model where angel groups required physical proximity. A doctor in Australia, a lawyer in Singapore, and an operator in Toronto can now invest in the same Silicon Valley startup.

This matters because startup ecosystems are increasingly global. A founder in Buenos Aires building software for Latin American markets might get investment from Angel Squad members who understand regional nuances that Bay Area VCs would miss.

What This Means for the Next Decade

The democratization of angel investing is still early. Angel Squad has 2,000+ members, but Hustle Fund wants to help create 10,000 new angel investors, then 100,000.

More capital will flow to overlooked founders in underserved geographies. More people will build wealth through startup investing. More innovation will get funded because capital allocators have different perspectives than the traditional elite.

The $75 billion angel investing market isn't going back to the old exclusive model. The infrastructure exists, the playbook works, and community approaches deliver better results than country clubs for both returns and ecosystem health.

If you're an operator or professional who wants to participate in this asset class, the barriers are gone. Programs like Angel Squad provide the education, deal flow, and community support you need to become a confident angel investor.