I've finally decided to start syndicating deals. Why? I think my experience at Facebook, Reddit, and now Amazon has given me unique deal flow that I would love to share with awesome folks (that's you!).
I'm consistently seeing top tier startups in my role at Amazon where I basically fly around and mentor top startups. My network spans from Silicon Valley, Austin, Atlanta, and NYC.
I've personally angel invested in 16 companies since 2013:
* Balanced Payments (acquired by Stripe)
* Freshplum (acquired be TellApart)
* Able Lending (acquired by Fundation)
* Respondly (acquired by Buffer)
* Teachable (currently $140M valuation, return to date 22X)
* YoDerm (raised $5M Series A - May, 2018, my return to date 8X)
* Percy.io (raised $2M Seed - March, 2018, return to date 5X)
A large part of being a successful investor is having the ability to sort through the hundreds of meetings with entrepreneurs and being able to invest in the ones who are going to be successful. To do this successfully and consistently, in my opinion, takes a knowledge that few have. That knowledge can be acquired through years of pattern matching (see Associate > Principal > Partner > General Partner career path), or through being in the arena and founding a startup yourself, raising capital, and exiting it -- successfully. I bring the latter to the table.
I have founded and exited 2 startups. I was an early employee at Facebook and was only the Platform team that was responsible for Facebook Connect (now Login). Joined Reddit to help them turn the site into a cash generator without degrading user experience and respecting user privacy, and now I work at Amazon AWS. At AWS I am responsible for meeting and mentoring startups at the top accelerators in the world, including Y Combinator, Techstars, 500 Startups, and numerous other accelerators in the Bay Area. I attend the Demo Days, and personally meet many of the founders, as part of my day job.
I feel I have a unique advantage in the unique deal flow I get from my day job, the alumni network at my previous companies, and my own experience exiting 2 companies.
Back me. Let's win, together.
I will syndicate all deals I come across that wish to tap into Angel List for funding.