Hustle Fund

Angel Squad is an angel investing community run by Hustle Fund that was created to teach how to invest in startups and provide access to invest in the most promising ones. TechCrunch referred to Angel Squad as the "YC of Angel Investing."

Angel Squad Co-Founder

Multiple companies

The best place to learn more is @ my personal website: nicholsb.com

I lead an active syndicate with 3.5k members that's deployed $25M+, and have formally Advised 5 companies.

Angel Investor

On Deck

Created, launched, and ran the first two cohorts of the On Deck Angels program. The program pioneered On Deck's expansion into verticals outside of the founder fellowship. 

The success of the program led to On Deck developing the org structure to hire Program Directors to lead verticals that were complementary to the founder fellowship.

Program Director, On Deck Angel Fellowship

- Responsible for procuring sponsorships for On Deck Founder and Angel Fellowships.
- Built and manage program to introduce our founders to investor partners as founders begin fundraising process.

Head Of Partnerships

BlackBird

BlackBird was acquired by Surf Air in February, 2020

- Instrumental in Series A fundraise ($10M from NEA)
- Focused on strategic partnerships / the future of flight (electric aircraft)

Head Of Business Development

- Grew team from 5 to 40+ full-time employees and contractors.
- Recruited and hired leadership from Lyft, Postmates, Uber, Caviar to support the rapid growth of the business.

Head Of Operations

First Round Capital

Angel Track is a masterclass and community for angel investors whose full-time jobs are in leadership roles at tech companies.

1 of 16 selected out of 1k+ applicants.

Angel Track

Zoox Inc.

Zoox was acquired by Amazon in June, 2020.

- Responsible for standing up remote teleoperation unit to support fleet of autonomous vehicles during live operation.
- Represented Zoox’s operations organization when meeting potential investors during our Series B fundraise ($500M, $2.7B valuation).

Operations Manager

Lyft

- Responsible for building out Lyft's local presence in all top 25 Lyft markets.
- Hired local leadership, scaled repeatable playbooks, and provided analytics solutions for Lyft's highest growth markets across the country.

Market Operations Manager (National)

- First Market Manager on the West Coast, drove efficient growth for all of the CA Markets
- Accounted for 50%+ of all Lyft rides

Market Manager, California

RewardTag

RewardTag was bootstrapped and acquired by STM Goods (https://www.stmgoods.com/).

Main partners included Logitech, Seidio, STM Goods which lead to over 2.5M RewardTag units distributed globally.

Co-founder

Over the last decade, I’ve helped build Lyft, Zoox, On Deck, and BlackBird past a combined market cap of over $5B, and helped raise $500M.

In 2019, I decided to try something new.

I decided to shift my focus from building businesses to investing in them.

I teamed up with Ann Miura-Ko to start Uplyft (Lyft alumni syndicate). I was so lucky to have such a great VC guide me when I was brand new to investing. 

It started with 300+ of Lyft’s earliest employees who have invested over $30M+ together.

I soon found myself becoming the go-to "alumni syndicate guy."

I helped Airbnb, Stripe, Pinterest, DoorDash, and many others get their alumni syndicates off the ground.

After opening up the Lyft alumni syndicate to the public (any accredited investor can join, regardless of affiliation with Lyft), I started to notice a trend. There were folks from all over the world, all professional backgrounds, who were investing alongside us.

These folks didn't have access to a network, the knowledge, and the guidance that I was lucky to have.

So, in October 2020, less than a year into the pandemic, I quit my job and joined Hustle Fund – my favorite early-stage VC – to build Angel Squad.

The results were pretty phenomenal.

In 2.5 years, 1,400+ people joined Angel Squad, and as a group, we have invested $21M+ in 50+ startups.

We have reporters, scientists, founders, and students from all over the world in our community. Everyone is welcome.

My portfolio:
-> I run Angel Squad, Hustle Fund's Angel Investing Community
-> I run the Uplyft Syndicate (aka the Lyft Syndicate)
-> I invest in and advise marketplaces and consumer startups

My results:
-> 1,400+ angels are part of the Angel Squad community
-> 4,000+ angels are part of my Uplyft Syndicate
-> $50M+ deployed in startups through Syndicates
-> 100+ startups in my portfolio

ANGEL SQUAD

- Hustle Fund shares their approach to investing 
- LIVE PITCHES from top portfolio companies, and you can invest as little as $1k.
- Meet other members at IRL events as well as get matched 1:1 online.
- Not yet an accredited investor? We pay for your Series 65 exam fee.
- We have a strict no a-hole policy.
- This is a membership offering, with 10 team members who support the program.
- Join 1,400+ others!
- Learn. Invest. Network.

→ GO HERE: www.hustlefund.vc/squad

UPLYFT SYNDICATE

- See 2-3 of my personal deals/month
- There is no community, education, or opportunities to support founders
- It’s free (but nothing like Angel Squad).

→ GO HERE: https://angellist.com/s/team-uplyft/OXf89

Twitter: @b_nicks11
Website: nicholsb.com

Brian Nichols

This is what a $5k angel check turned into.

One investor wrote that first small check. Made 5 valuable introductions that converted into additional checks totaling $170k.  

Those 5 introductions converted into 16 more checks totaling $530k.

So $5k turned into $700k...

People think small checks don't matter. This founder would tell you otherwise.

That angel who wrote $5k became the most valuable investor in the entire round. 

Not because of the money but because they made it their personal mission to get this company funded. 

I've watched this happen so many times now. The $5k check that somehow brings in half your round. The $10k investor who three months later introduces you to your Series A lead. 

The small believer who becomes your loudest champion when things get hard.

Check size and impact aren't the same thing.  

Some of the most helpful portfolio support comes from angels who can only invest small amounts but have networks that would make a GP jealous.

Founders: don't write off the small checks. They're often connected to the big ones. Sometimes they ARE the reason the big ones come in.

Aspiring angels: if you're sitting there thinking your $2k or $5k check is too small to matter, you're wrong. What founders need isn't just capital. It's someone who believes in them enough to spend social capital getting other people to believe too.
--
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Founder of Angel Squad | I write about startups, investing, and hard-earned lessons | Small Bets newsletter

Databricks recently crossed $4 billion in revenue. Growing over 50% year-over-year. Yesterday they made headlines - they are raising at a $130B+ valuation.

Unbelievable company...and it's still private.

Snowflake did $3.6 billion in revenue last year. Growing 29%. You can buy it on the NYSE right now.

So Databricks has more revenue than Snowflake AND is growing almost twice as fast. But retail investors can only access the smaller, slower option.

This drives me crazy. 

The best companies - the ones with the most insane growth - are staying private longer than ever.

Snowflake is a great company. But if you're trying to catch the real rocket ships - the ones that haven't already reached max velocity - you need to be investing in the private markets. 

The gap between what's available in private markets versus public markets just keeps getting wider. And most people don't even realize it's happening.

$5K investment in Uber's seed = $25M at IPO
5,000x return over 9 years

$5K investment in S&P 500 = $13K-$16K after 10 years (depending on timing)
2.6x-3.2x return over 10 years

But obviously there is WAY more risk in early-stage investing...
- Angel investing failure rate: 50-60% 
- Public market failure rate: ~0%  → the S&P 500 has never produced a negative return over any 20-year period.

So if you make 1-2 angel investments you're basically gambling. Roughly 50-50 chance of losing money on each investment.

If you make 20-30+ angel investments you're building a portfolio. Math starts working in your favor. One 1,000x return can cover multiple losses and still generate exceptional returns.

Elizabeth Yin has hammered home the message to me that the key to this game is smart portfolio construction.

Angel investing is about accessing the power law.

In venture capital, about 5-10% of investments generate 60-75% of returns. If you only make 1-2 bets, you'll probably miss those outliers.

But if you make 20-50 small bets ($1K-5K each), your odds of catching at least one rocket ship improve dramatically.

Mina Fung joined Angel Squad almost 2 years ago now.

She jumped right in, got involved, and now, is off to the races starting her own company.

This is a trend we've seen time and time again - start with curiosity about startups (and potentially about startup investing), write a few small checks, and then get the itch and decide to start one yourself.

That's a hidden benefit of joining our community. 

The energy is contagious. 

You start to realize: "hey, I can do that."

Maybe you start a company.

Maybe you Advise (with a capital "A") companies.

Or maybe you just offer to help founders when you can.

In all cases, we feel SUPER lucky to have created the ecosystem that empowers this for almost 2500 members in 40+ countries.

Join us: angelsquad.co

Haley Bryant

Great founders look like anyone and come from anywhere. If you're building in b2b SaaS, fintech, web3 or digital consumer health, pitch us! 👉🏽 hustlefund.vc

Principal

Join our angel investor community! 👉🏽 https://www.hustlefund.vc/angelsquad

Hustle Fund is democratizing wealth through startups with the ethos that "great founders can look like anyone." 

Hustle Fund is building the next generation of angel investors through angel squad, a community that is:

- 46% female
- 9% underrepresented minorities
- 32% not in tech
- 67% live outside of Silicon Valley

Venture Partner

Flow Club

Virtual coworking to drop you into flow state

https://in.flow.club/host/haley

(DM to skip the waitlist)

Host

Golden Wok

Golden Wok starts and invests in early-stage companies and helps them grow. 

Golden Wok was founded by Walter Chen, founder of Animalz, Superpath, Sacra and I Done This.

goldenwok.com

General Manager

Animalz

Chief Operating Officer

Oversee the team and day to day operations of our growing content marketing agency.

VP of Operations

Animalz provides high-end content marketing solutions to SaaS, tech and crypto companies. We're a hard-working group of writers, editors and strategists based in New York, but spread across the world.

At Animalz, I manage client services and help run our day to day business. I love our team and our customers - I'm pretty sure that I have the best job in the world :)

As the first dedicated customer ops hire, I spent my first year building out a foundational customer success program including:

- a new customer journey (onboarding, retention & expansion)
- tracking and reducing revenue churn
- increasing upsells
- developing a new org structure + new roles to support a better customer and employee experience
- creating a new financial model
- systematizing communication externally and internally

I'm always curious to connect with and learn from other client services and ops leaders at startups and agencies. Feel free to drop me a line.

Director of Customer Operations

Brazen Technologies, Inc.

Acquired 2023

- Responsible for individual and team account renewal and expansion across 300 enterprise, university and membership association accounts
- Developed onboarding, retention and expansion plans for strategic accounts including product usage, marketing and measurement of ROI
- Oversaw a team of Customer Success and Customer Support Managers 
Started an NPS program
- Devised and launched 2 team restructures to scale faster without compromising customer experience
- Worked as a product manager to prioritize new feature development, brainstorm new product concepts, conduct market research, run experiments and interviews, write technical stories implemented in the product and manage the product roadmap

Director of Customer Success

Team Lead, Support and Implementation

iDoneThis

Acquired 2015

Manager of one proactively managing relationships to create continual build of B2B customer value. Overseeing onboarding, training and support, and ongoing utilization of iDoneThis. Leading conversion/expansion efforts by building strong relationships and working with product and dev to integrate customer feedback into our product roadmap.

Customer Success Manager

Apple

Managed operations and results of multiple key business areas with focus on technical  and training services and support by developing store and leadership team.

Senior Manager

Promoted to higher volume store to oversee technical and training services. Focused intently on team building and the roll out of a new initiative to increase team productivity at the Genius Bar and improve the customer experience.

Manager

Oversee sales productivity, operations, and scheduling for the company that continues to redefine what retail can be. Promoted within store through energetic, self motivated approach to leadership.

2 year rotational program in Apple Retail allowing exploration of the gamut of in store positions in locations throughout the DC/Maryland area. Based primarily in Bethesda, Maryland.

Associate

Investor at Hustle Fund

mom.

pre-seed VC in b2b SaaS, digital consumer health, fintech and web3 at Hustle Fund.

I 💛 customer & community centric founders who look like anyone & come from anywhere. Distance traveled > pedigree.

🌊 cowork with me on flow.club
👼🏽 invest with me through Angel Squad
🚲 ride with me at SoulCycle


10yo: “Does passing on people’s ideas get easier? I bet you break a lot of hearts. If I was them, I’d be like, screw you, I’m going to build this anyways.”

Reminder: it only takes one yes to build momentum in the fundraise. And despite the looming holidays, a lot of rounds will close between now and mid December.

Keep going.

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Silicon Valley can feel like an echo chamber sometimes.

I was so inspired by my friend David Tswamuno today, an investor focused on addressing progress gaps and mission driven founders. Founders with hustle and high opportunity cost, who walk away from big jobs/job offers to build the future.

He talked openly about the highs and the lows, and about his values first approach to investing.

So much of what he shared will stick with me, but one idea was especially resonant as the parent of a 10yo:

“If you have a kid with good values and send them out into the world, maybe one day they’ll remember what you taught them.”

While consumer debt keeps climbing, Debbie is reversing the cycle.

Instead of pushing people deeper into debt, founders Frida Leibowitz and Rachel Lauren are helping users get out of debt, with over $65m net paid down so far.

At the same time, they’re helping banks and credit unions better serve their customers and align incentives around long-term financial health.

We were lucky to meet the team a couple of years ago through Angel Squad, and have been so impressed with their vision and execution. Fan girl moment getting to meet Frida irl at Zeal Capital Partners Annual Summit and 5 year celebration, where they have the support and expertise of Susannah Burrage and Emily Zhen.

Rewards come to those who hustle.

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The Battle

Brian Nichols

Haley Bryant

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