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 people interested in angel investing never make first investment. They read articles, follow startup news, think about investing, but never actually commit capital.

The gap between interest and action isn't knowledge. It's having clear path forward.

The exact steps from zero experience to completed first investment.

Week 1: Understanding What You're Getting Into

Days 1-2: The Reality Check

Start by understanding what angel investing actually involves. You're buying equity in very early-stage companies that will likely fail. 60-70% of investments return zero. Time horizon is 7-10 years minimum. Capital is illiquid until exits (if they happen). This isn't stock market investing with daily liquidity. It's patient, high-risk capital with no guaranteed returns.

Read content from actual angel investors and VCs, not motivational entrepreneurs or finance gurus. Focus on realistic expectations and honest discussions of failure rates. If these realities seem unacceptable, angel investing isn't right for you. Better to recognize this in day two than after losing money.

Days 3-4: Portfolio Theory Basics

Learn why diversification matters at early stages. You can't reliably predict which companies succeed, so you build portfolio where some massive winners offset many failures. This requires 15-20+ investments minimum. Concentrated bets on 2-3 companies is gambling, not investing.

As Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, explains: "Don't try to pick a company. Select a portfolio. One of the biggest mistakes new investors make is thinking they can really pick well and putting a big chunk of cash on one company." Understanding this principle before investing prevents expensive concentration mistakes.

Study power law returns in venture capital. Why do VCs need outliers to return funds? How does this shape their decision-making? This context is foundational to everything else.

Days 5-7: Learning the Language

Spend final days of week one learning angel investing terminology. What's a SAFE? How do convertible notes work? What's difference between pre-money and post-money valuation? What are cap tables and how does dilution work? What are liquidation preferences and pro-rata rights?

You don't need expertise yet, just basic literacy. You should be able to follow conversations about deals without being lost by terminology. This vocabulary foundation makes everything else easier.

Week 2: Finding the Right Community

Days 8-10: Community Research

Identify 5-7 angel investing communities worth evaluating. Look for communities with high deal volume (100+ opportunities reviewed monthly), structured educational programming (weekly sessions from experienced investors), reasonable investment minimums ($1,000-2,000), transparent cost structures, and active member engagement.

Angel Squad provides access to Hustle Fund's curated pipeline of 1,000+ monthly applications, weekly educational programming from experienced VCs, and community of 2,000+ investors with $1,000 minimums, checking all critical boxes for quality community.

Don't just read websites and marketing materials. These tell you what communities claim to provide, not what they actually deliver. Dig deeper to understand real member experience.

Days 11-12: Talking to Current Members

Request conversations with current members of 2-3 most promising communities. Ask specific questions: How much time do you actually spend weekly? What's the quality of deal flow really like? Is educational programming genuinely helpful or generic? Would you recommend this community? What frustrations or limitations exist?

Current members provide unfiltered perspective you won't get from official sources. They'll tell you if deal volume is overstated, if educational content is superficial, or if hidden costs exist.

Days 13-14: Decision and Onboarding

Select community that best matches your goals, constraints, and budget. Join and complete onboarding process. Set up account, review any getting-started materials, and schedule recurring calendar blocks for participation. Commit to 3-5 hours weekly distributed across the week—make this commitment explicit in your calendar.

This formal scheduling matters. Without dedicated time blocks, participation becomes sporadic and you don't build momentum needed for success.

Week 3-4: Observation and Framework Building

Week 3: Pure Observation

Spend your entire third week just watching without pressure to invest. Review 5-7 new investment opportunities. Read pitch decks thoroughly. Watch founder presentations if available. Follow community discussions about opportunities. You're starting to absorb what experienced investors focus on and how they think about opportunities.

Attend at least one educational session. Take notes on frameworks discussed. Ask questions about anything confusing. You're not expected to understand everything immediately, but engagement accelerates learning.

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. Investing requires practice like everything else." This observation week provides foundational practice without financial risk.

Week 4: Active Evaluation

Continue reviewing opportunities but now develop your own opinions before seeing others' reactions. For each company, ask yourself: Would I invest in this? Why or why not? What excites me? What concerns me? What additional information would I want before deciding?

Write down your thinking. You're building evaluation frameworks even though you're not investing yet. Document your initial reactions, then compare them to how experienced investors evaluate same companies. What are they seeing that you missed? What concerns them that didn't worry you? These gaps reveal what you need to learn.

Week 5: Developing Your Thesis

Understanding Your Preferences

Start forming loose investment thesis. What types of companies interest you most? Consider industries you understand from professional experience or personal interest. Think about business models that make intuitive sense to you (B2B SaaS, marketplaces, consumer products, infrastructure). Consider founding team profiles you can evaluate well (technical founders, operators, repeat entrepreneurs).

Your thesis doesn't need to be restrictive. You're not limiting yourself to one narrow niche. You're just developing some initial focus areas to prevent completely random decision-making. This framework will evolve as you see more companies and learn what resonates with you.

The First Investment Candidate

Begin actively looking for first investment opportunity. Don't wait for perfect company. Look for company where you understand market at basic level, believe founders are capable, think business model makes sense, and terms are standard. Good enough is sufficient for first investment.

The goal of first investment is learning the process, not picking a unicorn. Your first check is educational capital, not retirement planning. Choose something reasonable and move forward.

Week 6: Due Diligence and Decision

Lightweight Due Diligence Process

Once you've identified candidate, spend 2-3 hours on basic due diligence. Google the founders thoroughly—look for any concerning patterns or history. Check LinkedIn backgrounds against what they claim in pitch. Does experience match their story? Research the market briefly. Read industry reports or news. Understand if market is growing and who major competitors are.

Talk to founders if possible. Attend office hours or pitch Q&A sessions. Ask about current traction, burn rate, and specific plans for capital. You're assessing whether they're thoughtful, honest, and coachable. These qualities matter more than specific answers to technical questions.

Writing Your Investment Thesis

Before committing, write down your investment thesis. Why are you investing in this company? What do you expect to happen over next 2-3 years? What are the main risks or concerns? What would success look like? This documentation serves two purposes: it clarifies your thinking before investing, and it creates record for future learning when you can compare initial thesis to actual outcomes.

Take this seriously even for $1,000 investment. The discipline of articulating your reasoning is valuable practice that becomes habit for all future investments.

Week 7: Making Your First Investment

The Commitment

Make the decision. You're investing $1,000 in this company. Don't agonize further. Early-stage investing requires making decisions with incomplete information. You've done appropriate due diligence for check size. Now execute.

If you're investing through community like Angel Squad, the process is straightforward. You indicate your investment amount through platform. Community handles all paperwork via SPV structure. You receive confirmation and instructions for payment. Total time commitment: 15-30 minutes.

Setting Up Tracking

Immediately create detailed record of your investment. Use spreadsheet or portfolio management software. Record: company name, investment date and amount, terms (SAFE cap, discount, etc.), your documented thesis, founder contact information, and space for quarterly updates.

Update this quarterly with company progress. You're building record that enables learning from outcomes over time.

The Psychological Milestone

Recognize that you've crossed important threshold. You're no longer someone thinking about angel investing. You're an angel investor. You've made your first commitment. Everything else builds from this foundation.

Many people never make this leap. They study indefinitely without acting. You took action. That matters more than whether this specific investment succeeds.

Week 8: Planning Next Steps

The Portfolio Path Forward

With first investment complete, plan your portfolio building strategy. Over next 12 months, aim to make 6-10 more investments. This builds toward 15-20 investment minimum for proper diversification. At $1,000 per investment, this requires $6,000-10,000 additional capital over the year, achievable for most successful professionals.

Maintain consistent pace of 1-2 investments per quarter. Don't rush to invest in everything immediately. Don't wait months between investments. Steady, consistent deployment builds portfolio systematically while allowing learning between decisions.

Continuing Education

Continue attending educational programming weekly. Your comprehension will deepen dramatically over coming months as you accumulate both knowledge and practical experience. Topics that seemed abstract in week two will make perfect sense by week twenty.

Participate actively in community discussions. Ask questions. Share your perspective when you have something valuable to contribute. You're building relationships with other investors that compound over time.

Helping Your Portfolio Company

Think about how you can provide value to your first portfolio company beyond capital. Can you make relevant introductions? Share industry insights? Provide feedback on product or go-to-market approach? Even small contributions build your reputation as helpful investor.

As Shiyan Koh, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, notes: "Great founders can look like anyone and come from anywhere." Being helpful to founders you've invested in increases likelihood they'll refer other great founders to you in future.

The Seven-Week Reality

Seven weeks from starting with zero knowledge to completing first investment is aggressive but achievable timeline. It requires disciplined focus and consistent time commitment (3-5 hours weekly), but it's realistic for motivated individuals.

Many people take 12-18 months to make first investment because they don't follow structured approach. They read randomly, research sporadically, and never commit to timeline. The seven-week framework forces action while ensuring you've learned fundamentals before investing.

What Comes After

Your first investment is beginning, not conclusion. Over next 2-3 years, you'll make 15-20 more investments, developing pattern recognition and evaluation frameworks. You'll help portfolio companies and build relationships with founders and other investors. You'll see some investments fail and hopefully some succeed.

The journey from curious beginner to experienced angel investor takes years. But the journey from curious beginner to active angel investor with first check written takes seven weeks if you approach it systematically.

Angel Squad enables this seven-week timeline through infrastructure that didn't exist previously: immediate access to curated deal flow from Hustle Fund's professional pipeline of 1,000+ monthly applications means you're evaluating real opportunities from week one, weekly educational programming from experienced VCs builds frameworks systematically, community of 2,000+ investors provides examples of others making first investments, and $1,000 minimums mean first investment is meaningful but not frightening.

The structured approach transforms "I'm interested in angel investing" into "I'm an angel investor with first deal closed" in seven weeks rather than 18 months of wandering.

The gap between interest and action is smaller than you think. It's seven weeks of focused effort. The question is whether you'll commit to the timeline or continue thinking about angel investing indefinitely without acting.