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

Angel investing used to be intensely local. You invested in founders you met through your city's networks, learned from investors in your region, and built relationships at events you could drive to. That model worked for people in the right places. It excluded everyone else.

Global investor communities have changed this completely. When 2,000+ angels across 50+ countries participate in the same community, the dynamics shift in ways that benefit everyone involved.

What Global Scale Actually Provides

The number of members and countries isn't vanity metric. Global scale creates specific advantages that smaller or regionally-concentrated communities cannot replicate.

Deal flow diversity expands naturally with global membership. When community members span 50+ countries, the collective network touches founders everywhere. Institutional sourcing like Hustle Fund's pipeline already provides geographic diversity, but global membership amplifies reach further. Companies from unexpected regions surface through member networks and community awareness.

Peer perspectives multiply across different contexts. An investor in Singapore evaluates opportunities differently than an investor in Chicago. Both perspectives have value. Global communities create natural diversity of viewpoint that improves collective evaluation. When you discuss a deal with peers from different markets, you hear considerations that homogeneous local groups would miss.

Network effects compound across borders. Every member brings their own professional network to the community. With 2,000+ members globally, the aggregate network is massive. Portfolio companies gain access to potential customers, partners, and talent across markets. The value members provide to founders extends far beyond capital.

Time zone coverage enables continuous engagement. When members span the globe, community activity happens around the clock. Questions get answered at all hours. Discussions continue across time zones. The community never sleeps, which means engagement opportunities exist whenever you have time.

As Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, explains: "Getting deal flow & education have been the bigger blockers to date" for new investors.

Global communities solve these blockers at scale, providing deal flow and education that transcends any individual location.

The Community Experience at Global Scale

What does it actually feel like to participate in a community of 2,000+ angels across 50+ countries? The experience differs meaningfully from smaller or local communities.

You encounter genuine diversity of background and perspective. Members include tech executives and finance professionals, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders, investors from mature markets and emerging ones. This diversity enriches every discussion and evaluation. You learn from people whose experience differs substantially from your own.

You find peers at your level regardless of location. In a community of 2,000+, you'll find members at similar stages of their investing journey wherever they happen to live. First-time investors connect with other first-timers. Experienced angels find peers with comparable portfolios. The scale ensures relevant peer connections exist.

You access expertise across sectors and domains. Whatever industry interests you, members with relevant expertise exist in the community. Healthcare, fintech, enterprise software, consumer, climate tech, whatever your focus. Global scale means domain expertise is represented across categories.

You build relationships that transcend geography. Some of your most valuable investor relationships may form with people you've never met in person. Shared deal evaluation, ongoing discussion, and mutual support create genuine connection regardless of physical distance. Geography becomes irrelevant to relationship quality.

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."

Global community provides more diverse practice opportunities and more varied perspectives on each decision.

Why 50+ Countries Matters

The country count reflects something important about community design and accessibility. A community present in 50+ countries wasn't built for one market with international members as afterthought. It was designed for global participation from the beginning.

Infrastructure was built for distributed membership. Everything from deal presentation to educational programming to peer engagement works for members regardless of location. The systems don't assume you're in a particular time zone or can attend in-person events. Virtual-first design serves everyone equally.

Cultural context spans markets. Members understand their local markets deeply. When evaluating companies targeting specific regions, community members from those regions provide invaluable context. A company expanding to Southeast Asia benefits from Southeast Asian members' perspective on market dynamics.

Regulatory and structural knowledge distributes across membership. Investment structures, tax implications, and regulatory considerations vary by country. Global membership means someone in the community has likely navigated whatever you're facing. Peer knowledge supplements professional advice.

The community demonstrates genuine accessibility. If members successfully participate from 50+ countries, the infrastructure genuinely works for distributed engagement. This isn't theoretical claim about virtual access. It's demonstrated reality across diverse locations and contexts.

As Shiyan Koh, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, notes: "Great founders can look like anyone and come from anywhere."

The same applies to great investors, which is why global community design matters.

Angel Squad: Global Community in Practice

Angel Squad demonstrates what global investor community looks like at maturity. The 2,000+ members across 50+ countries aren't passive participants. They're actively building portfolios, engaging with education, and contributing to peer discussions.

Institutional deal flow serves everyone equally. Hustle Fund's review of 1,000+ monthly applications produces curated opportunities available to all members regardless of location. An investor in London sees the same deals as an investor in Los Angeles. Geographic location doesn't affect deal access.

Weekly education works across time zones. Programming from Hustle Fund GPs happens through virtual channels designed for global participation. Members engage live when schedules permit and through recordings when they don't. No member gets second-class educational access because of where they live.

Peer community functions globally by design. Discussion channels, deal conversations, and member networking happen through platforms that work everywhere. The community isn't centered in any city. It exists across all of them simultaneously.

$1,000 minimums enable participation everywhere. Currency differences and local economic contexts vary, but $1,000 investments are accessible to accredited investors globally. The minimum was set to enable broad participation, not to filter for wealth concentration.

Joining Global Community

If you're considering angel investing seriously, community membership should be part of your approach. And if community membership makes sense, global community provides advantages that regional communities cannot match.

Angel Squad offers what global startup community should provide: institutional deal flow from Hustle Fund's pipeline serving members across 50+ countries, education from active GPs designed for virtual engagement, peer community of 2,000+ angels bringing diverse perspectives, $1,000 minimums enabling portfolio construction regardless of location, and infrastructure built for distributed participation from the start.

The era of locally-limited angel investing has ended. Global community membership provides access, education, and peer support that transcends geography entirely. The opportunity to join 2,000+ angels building portfolios across 50+ countries exists now. The question is whether you'll participate.