How do you get angel investors?

“The best angels come from your own network first, because they are betting on you before they bet on the idea. Dharmesh and I raised HubSpot's early rounds largely through people we had taught, worked with, or impressed long before we asked for a check.”

“I got my first angels by cold emailing people like David Tisch and Chris Dixon, then showing up to every demo day and event in New York until I knew everyone.”

“The best way to get angel investors is to stop needing them: build something that works and get early customers paying, because nothing attracts capital like traction. Once you have that, angels find you through warm introductions, your online content, or the small world of people already betting on your market.”

“I watched RentJuice's David Vivero pull in his first $100,000 from StubHub founder Colin Evans, who then made introductions to Tim Draper and others; that warm intro, plus a working prototype, did more than any cold pitch could.”

“Warm intros work best, but most founders don't have one, so I've funded plenty of cold emails. The ones that land do the homework: they know why me, why now, and they show progress instead of asking for a coffee to pick my brain.”

“The best angels usually come through people who already trust you, so I tell founders to start with operators and founders they've worked with, not cold emails to famous names. When I raised for Worthy, the first checks came from people who had seen me ship things, and those people became the ones who vouched for me to their own networks.”

“The best angels rarely come from cold outreach; they come through founders they've already backed or operators who know your space. I found my earliest angels by asking other founders for three names and making the ask small, specific, and fast to say yes to.”

“I did a lot of cold outreach myself when I was starting out, and I respect the hustle, but the most effective path is a warm intro through someone the angel already trusts. Do your homework first, know who actually writes checks in your space, and make your pitch pithy enough to land in 30 seconds.”

“I found angels through warm introductions from founders they had already backed, not cold emails, because trust transfers faster than a deck ever will.”

“The best angels almost always come through people who already know your work, so I tell founders to spend more time earning a warm intro than polishing the deck. Once you're in the room, lead with the problem and why you are the one to solve it, because at this stage we are betting on you more than the model.”

“You don't get angels by chasing them. Build something real, then email them directly and tell them exactly what you're building. Good angels respond to signal, not noise, and they'll help before they invest if the idea is sharp enough.”