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

There's this persistent myth that angel investing is only for people who've already built startups or worked at venture capital firms. You see the profiles of successful angels and they all seem to have perfect pedigrees: founder who exited, early employee at a unicorn, product leader at a FAANG company.

So what if your career has been in medicine, law, finance, operations, or any of the hundreds of other fields that have nothing to do with startups? Are you locked out of angel investing permanently?

The short answer: absolutely not. The longer answer: you probably bring perspectives and expertise that make you a better investor than someone who's only worked in tech.

Why Startup Experience Isn't Required

Let's start by understanding what makes someone a good angel investor. You need to evaluate opportunities, make decisions under uncertainty, and add value to founders beyond just money. None of those skills requires you to have started a company yourself.

In fact, having worked outside of startups can be an advantage. You might understand industries that most tech investors ignore. You might have operational experience that helps you spot when a business model will break at scale. You might have a professional network that founders need but can't easily access.

Angel Squad's 2,000+ members include doctors, lawyers, teachers, chefs, pilots, and people from dozens of other backgrounds. What they share isn't startup experience. It's curiosity about how technology is changing their industries and a willingness to learn how to evaluate early-stage opportunities.

What Angel Networks Actually Care About

When you apply to join an angel investing network, they're not checking whether you've raised venture capital or shipped a product. They're evaluating whether you'll be a good community member and whether you're serious about learning to invest.

Are you curious and willing to ask questions? Do you engage respectfully with people who have different backgrounds and perspectives? Can you commit time to learning the fundamentals of angel investing? Will you add value to the community beyond just taking from it?

Angel Squad has one explicit requirement: don't be an a-hole. This might sound flippant, but it's actually the most important filter. Angel investing works best in communities where people help each other, share deal flow, and provide honest feedback. One jerk can ruin the dynamic for everyone.

Beyond that, the bar for entry is low by design. You don't need to be accredited to join as a learning member. You can explore whether angel investing interests you through a 14-day free trial. If it's not for you, no harm done. If you love it, you can stick around and level up your knowledge.

The Learning Curve for Career Switchers

Fair question: if you've never worked in tech and know nothing about venture capital, how steep is the learning curve?

It depends on how much time you invest. Angel Squad's core curriculum covers market sizing, founder evaluation, cap table dynamics, portfolio construction, and legal basics. These topics are taught through live workshops and recorded sessions you can review on demand.

If you're coming from a non-tech background, some concepts will require more effort to grasp. Understanding SaaS metrics, for example, might take longer if you've never worked with software. Learning to evaluate technical teams might feel harder if you're not an engineer.

But other aspects will feel easier. If you're a lawyer, you'll pick up term sheet nuances faster than most. If you're an operator who's managed supply chains, you'll understand logistics startups better than someone who's only built consumer apps. If you're a doctor, you'll spot opportunities in healthcare that tech people miss entirely.

The learning curve also gets easier when you have community support. Angel Squad members help each other make sense of new concepts. You can ask questions during pitch events. You can request feedback on your investment thesis. You can learn from other people's mistakes and successes.

Building Knowledge Without Deals

One challenge for people new to angel investing: you want to practice evaluating opportunities, but you're not ready to write checks yet. How do you build expertise without risking capital?

This is where joining a community before you're ready to invest pays off. You can attend pitch events where founders present to the group. You can watch experienced investors ask questions and see which details they focus on. You can practice making investment recommendations even if you're not actually deploying capital.

Over time, you'll develop pattern recognition. After seeing 20 SaaS pitches, you'll start noticing what separates strong business models from weak ones. After hearing 50 founders talk about their go-to-market strategies, you'll develop intuition about which approaches actually work.

This passive learning compounds. By the time you write your first check, you won't be making a blind bet. You'll have context from dozens or hundreds of other opportunities you've seen. That context dramatically reduces the likelihood of rookie mistakes.

Adding Value Without Tech Expertise

Another concern people raise: if I don't have startup experience, how can I actually help founders beyond just writing checks?

The assumption here is that founders only need help with fundraising, product strategy, and go-to-market execution. But founders need help with everything. They need to hire people, set up legal structures, think about tax planning, manage mental health, and navigate hundreds of other challenges that have nothing to do with tech.

If you're a lawyer, you can help founders understand employment law or intellectual property protection. If you've managed teams, you can advise on org structure and hiring. If you've worked in sales, you can provide feedback on their pitch or introduce them to potential customers.

Your value as an investor isn't just about your ability to pick winners. It's about the full package of support you can provide to founders in your portfolio. Coming from outside tech often means you bring skills and networks that most angels don't have.

Making Your First Investment

Let's get practical. You've joined Angel Squad, attended workshops, watched pitch events, and built some knowledge. Now you're ready to write your first check. What happens next?

Angel Squad shares 2-3 vetted opportunities each month that members can invest in through AngelList SPVs. These are deals Hustle Fund is backing with their own capital, which means they've already gone through a rigorous evaluation process.

You can invest as little as $1,000. This low minimum is intentional because it lets you get started without risking huge amounts of capital. Your first few investments are about learning, not making money. You want to see how the process works, what it feels like to be a shareholder, and how your judgment holds up over time.

As you make more investments, you'll refine your thesis. Maybe you discover you have strong conviction about climate tech. Or you realize you're particularly good at evaluating marketplace businesses. Or you find that your network opens doors for fintech startups. These insights help you become a more focused, effective investor.

The Long Game

Angel investing is a long game. The companies you invest in today won't exit for 7-10 years on average. Your first few investments might fail completely. You'll make mistakes and learn from them.

But if you stick with it, build knowledge consistently, and stay engaged with your community, you'll get better. Five years from now, you'll look back at your first investments and see how much your judgment has improved. Ten years from now, you might be the experienced angel helping newcomers find their footing.

You don't need startup experience to start this journey. You just need curiosity, capital to deploy (even small amounts), and access to a community that will teach you the ropes.

Angel Squad provides that community. With 2,000+ members from 40+ countries and collective investments of $30+ million across 70+ startups, the program gives you everything you need to go from zero startup experience to confident angel investor.

The only requirement? Stop assuming you need a perfect background to get started. You don't. You just need to show up and commit to learning.