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

Recent data from angel investor surveys reveals something interesting: 73% of successful new angel investors joined a community or network before making their first investment.

That's a striking number. Why do the majority of people who succeed at angel investing start with communities? And what happens to those who don't?

What the data actually shows.

The Solo Investor Struggle

Among investors who started solo without joining communities, the data shows predictable patterns. They make their first investment much later (average 18 months versus 3 months for community members). They invest in fewer companies overall (average 3 investments versus 12). And they're more likely to stop angel investing entirely within two years.

Why? Solo investors face three major challenges that communities solve.

First is deal flow. Solo investors see maybe 10-20 opportunities per year through their personal networks. Community members see 100-200 opportunities annually through structured deal flow.

Second is education. Solo investors learn through trial and error, making expensive mistakes. Community members learn from structured programming and peer experiences.

Third is persistence. Solo investors often lose motivation when early investments struggle. Communities provide peer support that keeps people engaged through the difficult learning phase.

What Community Members Actually Do Differently

The data shows community members behave differently from solo investors in predictable ways. They invest more frequently, build more diversified portfolios, and stay engaged longer.

The average community member makes 10-12 investments in their first two years versus 3-4 for solo investors. This higher volume is partly because of better deal access, but also because communities push proper portfolio construction.

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."

Communities teach this principle and create structures (like low investment minimums) that make it easy to actually build diversified portfolios rather than making concentrated bets.

Learning Curve Differences

Perhaps the most striking finding is how much faster community members develop investment judgment. When asked to evaluate sample pitches, community members who'd been investing for 12 months performed similarly to solo investors who'd been investing for 3-4 years.

The accelerated learning comes from higher volume of opportunities evaluated plus structured education plus peer feedback. Community members see more deals, learn frameworks for evaluation, and get feedback on their thinking from experienced investors.

Angel Squad members, for instance, evaluate opportunities from Hustle Fund's pipeline of 1,000+ monthly applications, seeing far more deals than they could source independently.

Solo investors develop the same skills eventually, but it takes 3-4x longer because they're learning everything through personal trial and error.

Portfolio Construction Patterns

The data reveals major differences in how community versus solo investors build portfolios. Community members average $1,200 per investment across 10-12 companies. Solo investors average $4,500 per investment across 3-4 companies.

Same total capital deployed, but completely different portfolio structures. Community members are building real diversification. Solo investors are making concentrated bets.

Which approach works better? The data on outcomes isn't complete yet since angel investments take 7-10 years to mature. But based on portfolio theory, the diversified approach should dramatically outperform concentrated portfolios when accounting for risk.

Time to First Investment

Community members make their first investment an average of 3.2 months after joining. Solo investors make their first investment an average of 18 months after deciding to angel invest.

This massive difference reflects the confidence that comes from education and structure. Community members don't need to feel like experts before investing. They have frameworks for evaluation and peer support to validate their thinking.

Solo investors often over-research and under-execute. They spend months or years trying to find the "perfect" first investment instead of accepting that their first few investments are learning experiences.

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."

Persistence and Continuation Rates

After two years, 78% of community members are still actively angel investing. Only 34% of solo investors remain active.

What causes this difference? Community members have peer support that keeps them engaged even when early investments struggle. They're part of something larger than just their individual portfolio.

Solo investors often lose motivation when companies shut down or fundraising becomes difficult. Without community support and perspective, it's easy to get discouraged and quit.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Critics of communities point to costs as the reason to invest solo. Why pay membership fees and carry when you could keep all the upside?

But the data shows community members deploy more capital, make more investments, and learn faster than solo investors. Even accounting for fees, the improved decision-making and higher activity levels likely result in better financial outcomes.

You're not comparing "same investments minus fees" versus "same investments without fees." You're comparing "better decisions, more activity, faster learning minus fees" versus "slower learning, fewer investments, more mistakes."

The value of avoiding just one or two bad investments easily exceeds typical annual membership fees.

Network Effects and Deal Flow Quality

Community members report higher satisfaction with deal quality than solo investors. They're seeing opportunities they wouldn't access independently, often from more experienced investors who've done initial screening.

Solo investors mostly evaluate companies from their personal networks or cold inbound. These deals are often lower quality because the best founders raise from experienced investors first.

The network effect also helps with future deal flow. Community members build relationships with other investors and founders that lead to proprietary deal flow over time.

Communities like Angel Squad provide access to pre-screened opportunities from established VC pipelines that solo investors simply can't match.

What About Experienced Investors?

Interestingly, the data shows even experienced investors often join communities after initial solo investing success. They recognize the value of structured deal flow, peer community, and systematic learning even when they already know the basics.

The transition pattern is typically: initial curiosity → solo investing → frustration with deal flow or learning curve → joining community → wishing they'd joined earlier.

Very few investors go the opposite direction (community → solo) unless they're raising their own funds or have developed strong independent deal flow.

Success Metrics Beyond Returns

When measuring success beyond just financial returns, community members outperform on multiple dimensions. They have larger portfolios, more diverse investments, better relationships with founders, stronger connections with other investors, and more sophisticated frameworks for evaluation.

These outcomes matter even before accounting for actual investment returns because they set up better long-term success as an angel investor.

As Shiyan Koh, co-founder and GP of Hustle Fund, notes: "Great founders can look like anyone and come from anywhere." Communities help you recognize great founders beyond obvious patterns.

Why Communities Work for Beginners

The survey data suggests communities work particularly well for beginners because they solve the cold start problem. New investors don't have deal flow, don't understand evaluation frameworks, and don't have peer groups for support.

Communities provide all three immediately. You don't need to spend years building these resources independently. You can jump straight to practicing angel investing in a supported environment.

The Self-Selection Question

One potential criticism of this data: maybe community members would have been more successful anyway, regardless of joining communities. Perhaps more serious investors naturally gravitate toward communities while casual investors go solo.

There's probably some truth to this. People willing to invest in community membership are demonstrating commitment to actually doing angel investing seriously.

But the mechanism differences (higher deal volume, better education, peer support) also clearly matter. Even controlling for initial seriousness, structured communities should produce better outcomes than solo learning.

Making the Decision

If you're deciding whether to join a community or invest solo, the data suggests communities provide significant advantages for most beginners:

Faster time to first investment (3 months vs 18 months). Higher portfolio size (10-12 investments vs 3-4). Better diversification ($1,200 avg check vs $4,500). Accelerated learning curve (12 months = 3-4 years solo). Higher persistence rates (78% vs 34% after 2 years).

The trade-off is paying membership fees and potentially carry. But the improved outcomes likely justify these costs for most investors.

Angel Squad exemplifies what the data shows works for new investors. Structured weekly deal flow from Hustle Fund's pipeline provides consistent exposure to quality opportunities. Educational programming from experienced VCs and successful founders accelerates learning. A community of 2,000+ active investors creates peer support and networking. 

And $1,000 investment minimums enable proper portfolio diversification from day one. The combination of these factors is why community members succeed at rates far higher than solo investors attempting to figure everything out independently.

The question isn't whether communities provide advantages. The data clearly shows they do. The question is whether those advantages justify the costs for your specific situation and goals.