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Triangle Tweener Fund
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Subscription Amount
$7,500+ Quarterly
Subscription Period
4-16 Quarters
Management Fee
1% per year over 10 years
Carry
20%
Admin Fee
0.15% per year over 10 years
Starting Q1 2025, this fund will transition onto updated Rolling Fund admin fee pricing terms. See the Investment Details section for more.
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Note from Scot Wingo and Robbie Allen
The short version:
Hi, I’m Scot Wingo, a serial entrepreneur in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area, and I have created this Rolling Fund to invest in what I call Triangle Tweeners – high-tech companies with over $1m ARR based in the Triangle startup ecosystem. The fund is backed by some of the other top entrepreneurs in the area and our goal is to build a basket of investments in the area’s fastest-growing companies to both support and accelerate entrepreneurship in the area, but also, we believe this basket of companies will perform very well from an investment perspective compared to other options. We’d love to have you join us!
Details on the fund:
Our region/metro statistical area (MSA) is commonly referred to as the ‘Triangle’ (because of the three cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill). I grew up in a small town in South Carolina called Aiken, went to the University of South Carolina for computer engineering, then moved to the Triangle area to attend North Carolina State University for a Masters's in computer engineering.
After school, I got a job at a startup in Connecticut and realized: a) I love building companies from the ground up, b) I’m not a fan of cold weather, and c) The Triangle is the perfect place for me. So I moved back to the Triangle in 1995 and have been here ever since.
Since 1995, (26+ years in startups!) I’ve started four companies:
- Stingray Software - 1995-1998 - Developer tools for Microsoft Visual C++, ramped to $12m ARR and acquired by a public company.
- AuctionRover - 1998-2000 - An e-commerce company focused on online auction search and selling. Sold to a public company in 2000 (Goto.com/Overture)
- ChannelAdvisor - 2001-Present - A B2B SaaS company in the e-commerce enablement space, ChannelAdvisor provides software for selling across ‘e-commerce channels’ such as Amazon’s marketplace, eBay, Alibaba, Google Shopping, etc. After raising over $90m in venture capital, in 2013 we took ChannelAdvisor public (NYSE:ECOM). In 2015, I moved to the ChannelAdvisor board.
- GetSpiffy (Spiffy) - 2014 - current - After 20yrs in e-commerce I was intrigued by the idea of ‘services going digital’ and started Spiffy to explore opportunities in this space. I am currently the CEO of Spiffy.
Enough about me, by now you are probably wondering, “What the Heck is a Tweener?”
The Triangle Tweener List
About 6 years ago, I published the first Tweener List. You can find the latest version of the list here (https://scotwingo.medium.com/2021-triangle-tweener-list-544125ee87b4).
The idea here is to create a highly curated list of Triangle technology companies that are in their ‘goldilocks’ phase for hiring/investing and scaling. This list helps both investors and talent interested in the Triangle startup ecosystem. Most importantly, as a community it helps us focus on companies, we can scale up to exit. I call these companies Tweeners and they are between $1m ARR and $80m ARR.
Since I started, the list has expanded to over 200 companies. Most interestingly, the exits from the list have been robust (most companies don’t disclose exit valuations) and the fundings quite substantial. For example, here’s the trend over the last 4 years:
- 2018 – 143 total companies, 17 exits and $160m invested
- 2019 – 176 total companies, 5 exits and $436m invested
- 2020 – 227 companies, 6 exits and $101m invested
That’s 28 exits and over $600m invested in the Triangle Tweeners in the last three years. Because of these data points, I’m frequently asked: “Is there a way to invest in the Triangle Tweeners as a theme?”
Triangle Tweener Fund
The goal of the Triangle Tweener fund is to provide investors with a 'basket' of Triangle tweener companies. In the public stock market, there are electronically traded funds (ETFs) that allow investors to track everything from the price of gold to a basket of offline retailers, online retailers, and more and that’s what this fund will work to replicate. Of course, some companies may not raise capital, others may be too late stage, but over a period of years, I think we can get close to a ‘tracking fund’ for Triangle Tweeners.
The Triangle Tweener Fund will focus on the same type of a 'basket of stocks', but for private Triangle Tweener Companies.
Why Will Companies Choose the Triangle Tweener Fund?
I believe the Triangle Tweener Fund will be invited to be on the cap table for Tweeners for four reasons:
- Entrepreneur friendly. The Triangle Tweener Fund will be entrepreneur-friendly capital. We plan to invest beside lead investors and not change the pre-negotiated terms. We will require no board seat or board observer slots.
- Support from the Triangle's top entrepreneurs - My goal is to have all the top serial entrepreneurs in the Triangle as LPs in the fund. With this group, we will be able to help portfolio companies rapidly with a network of true operators at our disposal. Examples of leverage from our network include fundraising, scaling generally, scaling a sales team, technology issues, people issues, comp plans, office space issues, etc.
- Future fundraising - One unforeseen benefit from creating the Triangle Tweener list has been that I am frequently contacted by investors that discover the list as they research the area for potential investment. This has allowed me to create a robust database of Triangle-hungry Series A/B/C investors.
- First look at inbound Triangle Talent - Another unforeseen benefit of the Triangle Tweener list is that I am frequently contacted by C-level, VP-level, director level, and top engineering talent that is relocating to the Triangle. Triangle Tweener fund companies will get a first look at this flood of talent coming to the Triangle.
Summary
The Triangle Tweener Fund is focused on investing in Triangle-based, high-tech businesses that are at the key point in their scale. In addition to capital, we’ll be supporting our portfolio companies with a deep and wide bench of operating experience married with connections to talent and investors. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and I appreciate you considering investing in the fund.
Scot Wingo & Robbie Allen
Investment Details
Subscription Start Date
October 1, 2024
Minimum Quarterly Subscription
$7,500
Minimum Subscription Period
4 Quarters
Management Fee
Investors pay management fees of 1% per year for the first 10 years.
Management fees are taken as a percentage of the total committed capital. The total management fee is paid out quarterly over the first
four years of the fund's life.
Carry
Twenty percent (20%)
Admin Fee
0.15% per year over 10 years
Starting Q1 2025, this Rolling Fund will transition onto updated Rolling Fund pricing terms. Under these new pricing terms, each new quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will pay an annualized rate of $2.5k + 0.2% of contributed capital over 10 years.
Fees for each quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will vary based on each quarterly fund’s capital contributions since the fee includes a flat fee component. The last quarterly fund in this Rolling Fund Program closed $759.5k in contributed capital. Learn more about how to estimate your commitment’s fees at our help center.
Fees for each quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will vary based on each quarterly fund’s capital contributions since the fee includes a flat fee component. The last quarterly fund in this Rolling Fund Program closed $759.5k in contributed capital. Learn more about how to estimate your commitment’s fees at our help center.
Fund Lead Commitment
Scot Wingo and Robbie Allen's personal subscription per quarter will be at least $25,000 in total.
Special Disclosure
AngelList Funds can potentially invest in portfolio companies when a GP has disclosed to us a potential conflict of interest. Where a Fund Lead may make the investment recommendation for their fund that involves a potential conflict of interest, AngelList Advisors (ALA) will exercise its own, independent judgment to approve the recommendation.
Investor FAQ
How is this program different from venture fund investing?
How do subscriptions work?
How do management and admin fees work?
How does carried interest work?
How do distributions work?
Will a Limited Partner (LP) participate in all investments made by the funds offered through this Program?
Will an LP's percentage ownership of quarterly funds always be the same?
Are LPs guaranteed access to Triangle Tweener Fund's future funds?
How are subscriptions funded?
How does changing or canceling a subscription work?
Who manages these funds?
Do funds in this Program have minimum or maximum investment sizes?
What happens if funds in this Program do not invest their total capital each quarter?
When will LPs learn about companies the funds invested in?
Can LPs opt out of specific deals?
Can LPs sell their investment in the fund?
Can LPs redeem their interests in the fund?
When will funds launched under this Program begin deploying capital?
How do I receive tax documents from this Program?
Unanswered questions? Contact AngelList
The performance of past deals or a lead investors' track record is not a guarantee of future returns. Venture capital fund investments are inherently risky and illiquid. Such investments involve a high degree of risk and are suitable only for sophisticated and accredited investors.
AngelList and its affiliates do not provide investment advice to investors. The information on this page should not be relied upon as research, investment advice or a recommendation of any kind. Information on this page is qualified in its entirety by the fund's Limited Partnership Agreement, Private Placement Memorandum and Subscription Agreement, which should be reviewed carefully prior to making an investment decision. Please see these documents for full details regarding risks, minimum investment, fees and expenses. The Fund Lead and the fund's investment advisor have the right to waive or charge additional carry to certain investors. The fund's legal name may be different from the name used above.
This fund may accept new investors after the fund undergoes a valuation update. Certain potential investors in the fund may then have access to materially different information concerning fund value at the time of their investment.
Current or future portfolio companies in this fund may use AngelList's recruiting platform and may pay an affiliate of the fund's investment adviser for premium recruiting tools and services. This may create a potential conflict of interest for the investment adviser, which you will consent to by subscribing to the fund.
Please read the disclosures in full here.
Apply To Subscribe
Subscription Amount
$7,500+ Quarterly
Subscription Period
4-16 Quarters
Management Fee
1% per year over 10 years
Carry
20%
Admin Fee
0.15% per year over 10 years
Starting Q1 2025, this fund will transition onto updated Rolling Fund admin fee pricing terms. See the Investment Details section for more.
Invest Account
Select invest account