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

Ten years ago, if you wanted to angel invest, you needed two things: serious money and serious connections. Most people assumed you had to write checks of $25k or more to get taken seriously. That world is fading fast.

At Hustle Fund, we've watched this transformation firsthand. Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund who previously ran the 500 Startups accelerator, noticed over a decade ago that friends were writing $1k checks into startups. 

Not because they were trying to lowball founders, but because they were operators themselves. They had equity in their companies but limited liquidity. And founders wanted them anyway because they brought value beyond the check.

The numbers show where this is headed. When Hustle Fund raised their first fund, they took $25k checks to start. By design, not necessity. As Elizabeth points out in her writing, starting small helps build momentum. Same strategy founders use when fundraising.

Three Shifts Reshaping the Landscape

What changed? Three things are reshaping the landscape. First, the SEC increased the number of investors funds can take on for smaller funds. Second, they modified what counts as an accredited investor. Third, new crowdfunding rules opened alternative paths. Platforms like AngelList, Republic, and Wefunder built infrastructure on top of these changes.

Eric Bahn, co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund who previously founded Beat the GMAT and worked at Instagram, sees another shift coming from Asia. At a recent Angel Squad event in Singapore, he noted growing appetite from wealthy families there for venture capital. Not just passive LP checks. Active participation in American startups. That appetite creates new deal flow channels and fresh capital sources for founders everywhere.

The tech also makes relationship building scalable. At Hustle Fund, they track everything like a product company would. How many deals come from blog posts versus conferences? What's the cost per qualified deal by geography? Elizabeth wrote that Toronto and Waterloo deliver their best ROI on deal sourcing. That kind of data-driven approach used to be uncommon in VC. Now it's becoming table stakes.

SPVs and Secondary Markets Change the Game

SPVs deserve their own mention. They let people participate in later-stage deals with smaller checks. Some purists argue investing in a Series B SpaceX SPV doesn't count as "real" angel investing. Elizabeth pushes back on that. You invested personal money in a private company. You get the tax benefits if it works. That's angel investing.

The shift goes beyond just access. It's changing who gets to build wealth. Hustle Fund's entire thesis centers on democratizing startup wealth. Not because it sounds nice, but because talent distributes more evenly than capital. The best founders can come from anywhere. The old gatekeeping model left too much talent on the sidelines.

New Problems Emerge

But technology creates new problems too. More access means more noise. Deal flow quality varies wildly on platforms. Scams proliferate. Due diligence becomes harder when you're evaluating opportunities across time zones and industries you don't know well. The democratization cuts both ways.

What Actually Works Now

What works now? Small checks into strong founders early. Building relationships before you need something. Helping portfolio companies find their first ten customers like Eric Bahn does. Being useful beyond the wire transfer.

The platforms will keep improving. Expect better data, more transparency, and AI tools that help match investors with relevant deals. But the fundamentals stay the same. Back people you believe in. Help where you can. Play long-term games.

Looking ahead, the barriers keep falling. Geography matters less. Check sizes flex more. The industry becomes less about who you know and more about what you can contribute.

Angel Squad exists because of this shift. A community where people learn together, invest together, and grow their skills together. That model scales in ways the old country club approach never could.

The future of angel investing looks more inclusive, more global, and more accessible. Technology makes that possible. But it still requires the same judgment, patience, and willingness to help that always separated good investors from the rest.