I now invest 100% via Inuka Capital. With very few exceptions, all my on-thesis investment activity is routed through the fund. If you’re a founder who thinks I can support you, reach out at [email protected].
That said, I’ve received feedback that this page has been useful to founders and angels, so I’m leaving it active.
Before Inuka, I spent about a decade as an operator-angel — investing small cheques out of my own pocket, mostly in Indian startups, alongside my day jobs at Quora, On Deck, and Skillshare. Founders enjoyed working with me because I’m brutally honest, ask difficult questions and offer sincere advice, and am always willing to give them the time to think through — and sometimes execute — whatever they’re struggling with.
Track Record
I started angel investing in 2010, took a break from 2014–2017.
2010–2014 cohort: Exotel, Hotelogix, Navya Network, Bevi — 2 exits returning >1x, 2 more targeting 8–10x total invested capital.
2018+ syndicates: Yulu, nPlex, Arpeggio Biosciences, SwayPay, Blue Tokai
2018+ direct: Animall, OSlash, Equi, ION Energy, On Deck, AbstractOps, Airtribe, Fincent, Glip
What I Looked For
- Founder with deep domain understanding of the problem space, or the ability to learn and empathize quickly
- Building products for consumers, developers, or SMBs
- Early competitive advantage is product-led — virality, network effects, product-driven growth mechanics
I got most excited when I could help with product, go-to-market, and growth. I also loved companies where I could apply my skills to a new industry.
How I Added Value
Typical cheque: $5k–$10k ($100k via syndicate). I was invited for operator expertise, not cheque size.
Founders described me as:
- “Smart, thoughtful, nimble”
- “Fast and decisive”
- “Brutally honest with feedback”
- “Asks the right questions”
- “Very specific and data driven”
AngelList Syndicate
I ran a syndicate on AngelList to create leverage on a small cheque — making it worth the time I spent with founders. I levered up my reputation, deal flow, and diligence in exchange for capital.
For founders: A syndicate costs you nothing (the AngelList setup fee is distributed among backers). The main advantage is a clean cap table — one entity, one counterparty.
Syndicate FAQs for Founders
There’s a fair amount of confusion among founders about how syndicates work. Here are the questions I hear most often, and my take on them.
What is a syndicate? A private fund to make a single investment. Investors pool their money into a single entity, and that entity invests in your company. The syndicate “lead” is your point of contact. AngelList is the most popular platform — they handle the legal setup and, if the lead chooses, the capital raise. There are others, like Assure, for leads who need more custom fee structures.
What does it cost? Nothing to the company. AngelList distributes its ~$8,000 setup fee proportionately among the syndicate’s backers.
Should I open my company up to raise via a syndicate? Two main reasons to do it: (1) you plan to raise from many small angels — this is a strategic call, and if you have bottoms-up, product-led growth it makes sense to have people (potentially customers) financially aligned with your success; or (2) you found an angel you like working with, they offer to syndicate your deal, and you’re happy to let them raise on your behalf because their network will follow them in — turning a $10k cheque into a $100k one with very little marginal effort on your part.
What is the advantage of a syndicate to me as a founder? Mostly a clean cap table — one entry, one counterparty to deal with when you need shareholder signatures, rather than a dozen small checks.
Can I have multiple syndicates back me? Yes — the real question is whether it makes sense to. Syndicate deals are private, both legally and by platform design: leads aren’t allowed to publicize deals, and backers of Syndicate A can’t see a deal shared with backers of Syndicate B. So as a founder, multiple syndicates work fine as long as there’s limited overlap between their backers — that lets each lead raise as much as possible without a negative signal. The nuance: if the same opportunity reaches a potential backer from two different syndicates at once, it can read as “everyone has access to this deal,” which can flip into a signal that the deal is substandard.
How can I collect multiple personal cheques from friends & family into one syndicate? A few options. If you’re confident you can raise the whole round yourself, you can run a company-led syndicate (an RUV) — though sophisticated investors sometimes hesitate here, since an RUV means each investor signs away their proxy rights to the founder. My advice in that case: have one of your larger or most-trusted angels set up the syndicate, and have the company eat the fee and waive the carry — no financial difference for the angels vs. investing directly, and the company just covers the cost. Another approach that works well for smaller syndicates like mine: I’ve offered a founder the option to collect all their friends & family cheques and pool them into my syndicate, waiving carry on anyone they brought in directly. The tradeoff is that the setup fee then gets spread across all the investors, including the ones the founder sourced themselves.
What’s in it for the syndicate lead? Motivations vary. Some leads run funds and use syndication to raise more capital for a deal than their fund’s allocation rules allow. Some want to build a track record toward running a fund of their own. Some — like me — want to spend more time investing than their personal capital-to-time ratio would otherwise justify. In every case there’s a financial upside: leads earn carry from their backers, which can create a perverse incentive to syndicate every credible deal with a token amount of personal capital, since carry is computed deal-by-deal rather than on a portfolio basis. The reputational cost of doing that in a small industry usually isn’t worth it to anyone serious.
OK, I’m sold — how do I raise money from a syndicate? Think of it as somewhere between raising from an angel and an early-stage VC. A syndicate lead carries a bit more moral responsibility to diligence for quality, since they’re putting their name behind the deal to their backers — so expect the process to take a little longer than an equivalent angel check. To find leads, you can go top-down (browse AngelList for syndicates in your space) or bottoms-up (engage angels as you normally would, and ask them to refer you to a syndicate — or, if they’re a lead themselves, to syndicate your deal once they commit).
Get in Touch
Reach out at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.