An angel investor is an individual who puts their own money into early-stage companies, usually at pre-seed or seed, in exchange for equity or a convertible instrument like a SAFE.
Key takeaways
An angel investor is an individual who puts their own money into early-stage companies, usually at pre-seed or seed, in exchange for equity or a convertible instrument like a SAFE. Unlike a venture fund, they invest personal wealth, write smaller checks, and often bring hands-on operating advice along with the money.
A former founder writes you a $50K angel check on a SAFE and makes three warm customer introductions in the first month.
Angels move faster than funds and can fill out a round quickly, but a cap table crowded with tiny angel checks creates admin overhead and a lot of people to keep updated. Decide early whether you want a few larger angels or many small ones, it shapes your cap table and investor-relations workload for years.