Brian Nichols’ Post

You don't need to be super rich to start angel investing - this is such a long game, and it actually makes more sense to start sooner rather than later. Hustle Fund’s very own GP Elizabeth Yin started when she was a bootstrapped founder: The fastest way to learn and excel is to get involved and start reviewing deals. Only then can you have the experience to pattern-match deals. Start your check sizes small - as little as $1k each. That’s what Elizabeth started with, and that’s what hundreds of Angel Squad members have started with.

Big spike on Captal.co from HNWI angels.. since reframing our ICP. Heres the problem... Their experience and sophistication ranges drastically! We NEEEDED to develop a LARGE amount of training and community to make it easier to invest in the best companies. Thats a MASSIVE lift. Except Brian Nichols has already done it! Why reinvent the wheel?? What Angel Squad is doing is amazing things for Angels everywhere! Peer to peer learning, events, training, etc. (also check out Hustle Fund)

The era of raising VC on an idea is over. But too many founders are stuck in the past. They want the title of "Founder." The glory of raising a big round... But they're not willing to grind it out and build a real business. Here's the truth: You need strong customer validation and real traction to raise money. Investors want PROOF, not promises. So if you're an aspiring founder: Fall in love with the problem you're solving, not the status you're chasing. - Work your ass off. - Do things that don't scale. - Be willing to build in obscurity. Trust that the accolades will follow the results.

Bonfire sessions are Camp Hustle’s favorite sessions. We previously teased a few that we’ll be having: 🚀 Differentiating your fund with Courtney Russell McCrea and I 🚀 Investing in consumer verticals with Todd Johnson 🚀 Running a syndicate with Brian Nichols Today, I’m sharing 3 more sessions that we’ll have. [SESSION: What to look for in a pitch deck] As an investor, you’re sifting through hundreds of pitch decks on a monthly basis. And being able to find the needle in the haystack is absolutely essential to picking your winners. Lisa Muccio and Peter Liu from The Pitch will discuss how to spot red flags, what successful founders have in common, questions you should be asking when reviewing a pitch deck, and more. [SESSION: Fundraising as an emerging manager] If the following questions are constantly running through your mind, you’re not alone: 🚀 What do LPs want to see in an emerging manager? 🚀 How do you craft an LP outreach strategy? 🚀 What should your investment strategy include? Join Charles Hudson, Virginie Raphael and Elizabeth Yin to dive into all of that. [SESSION: All about the secondaries market] As valuations for private companies came crashing back down in 2022, investors saw big opportunities to transact in the secondary markets. But if you have questions like… 🚀 How do you know who the key players are? 🚀 How do you value the asset class? 🚀 How do you successfully execute a secondary transaction? Join Jamie Melzer and Ryan Logue as they take you through all of it. *** TLDR: if you want a front row seat to these conversations alongside other brilliant GPs, LPs, and family offices, you should probably grab your ticket soon: camphustle.co Like, really soon. General Admission tickets are only good for 2+ more weeks!

Elizabeth Yin, Co-founder at Hustle Fund is sitting down with Ankur Nagpal tomorrow and it's going to be a good one. Ever wanted to start angel investing but wasn't sure about how your taxes would be impacted? Turns out, you're not alone. Tomorrow, Elizabeth and Ankur are going to walk through how angel investing works (including how to get great deal flow and how to construct your portfolio), plus tax-efficient strategies you can use during your angel investing journey. P.S. Did you know Peter Theil grew his Roth IRA to over $5B? RSVP at the link in the comments below and we'll see you there!

Got a s**t term sheet but you're running out of runway? Should you negotiate that fkd up deal? Background: I've raised $7M in angel and VC by pitching to over 150 investors. I've faced this exact situation. Answer: Yes. You MUST negotiate. But... you think... I'll lose the investor. You are equally likely to lose the investor if you don't negotiate good terms. He/she needs to see that you can protect the company's interests in future rounds. So negotiate... ...for things that really matter. - Liquidation preference - Warrants - Control & board structure - Veto rights - Anti-dilution provisions If you don't know these terms 👆 Hang tight... I’ll be sending a deep dive out this Sunday. To get that deep dive, use the link below to get my fundraising guide. TL;DR Always negotiate deal terms, you never know what you can get. I went through 167 investors pitches and raised $7M. I turned that experience into a scalable fundraising system. You can get my fundraising system ☝ for free and skip all the rejections, just click here: https://lnkd.in/e_Fm5zRs 500+ smart founders are using my fundraising guide to cut their fundraising time from years to months. +Follow me here for practical advice and frameworks to accelerate your startup from idea to $2M ARR. If you learned something useful from this post, be sure to give it a like and repost it to share it with your fellow founders!

It’s that time of the year for me to write my annual 10,000 word shareholder letter! We raised $1.75m from 1,500 crowdfunding investors and this is how we keep them up to date. Of course, we do small updates each month and quarter. But our main reporting tool is a lengthy annual shareholder letter. We stole the idea from the greats like Warren Buffett. There’s something powerful about thinking deeply about your business and its strategy once a year and explaining it publicly to a group of strangers. It requires simplicity, since you have a wide audience of different backgrounds. And simplicity requires clarity. And clarity requires distilling down to what’s most important. When I graduated from college I thought my long essay days were behind me… little did I know the skill would be important for me for the rest of my life. Correct me if I’m wrong… but the ability to think deeply and clearly almost requires the ability to write. It’s a muscle that must be practiced and maintained. And it has to be done away from the chaos of the day-to-day at the office. As Jeff Bezos argues—“writing = thinking”: “There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.”

A key learning for Founders 👇 How and when to use stress as your ally in fundraising 🦸 All too often – I see Founders go out with an unrealistically short deadline, promising too much, and acting like they'll close TOMORROW when they have no traction By doing this, you give the stress-advantage away to the investors, who in 99% of cases will stall the conversation, starve you out, and use the fact that you TRIED to stress them to your disadvantage when it becomes clear that you had no chance of closing the round in your said timeline 😵💫 However, the elite Founders use stress as their ally, they start by slowly and informally building up relationships and traction with investors, and when they know they have one or a few who are impressed and ready to move – that's when they add the stress of an imminent close, causing those on the line to move, and those who weren't prepared to freak out, because they can tell others are moving This, my friends, is how to do it 🥷 But remember who you are dealing with You are just merely adopting stress as your ally VCs were born in it Molded by it

👼🏽 investing is the best way to make the jump from operator to VC. But what specific steps can you take to make the transition? On Wednesday June 12, I'm sitting down with Angel Squad founder Brian Nichols to share tactical advice on my journey from operator -> angel -> fractional Hustle Fund team member -> FT investor. We'll also talk about what we're building for angel investors with the Hustle Fund venture fellowship. In addition to reviewing 100s of companies, fellows are building the fellowship and path from operator -> angel investor -> VC alongside us: 🌱 Dee Zheng helped us source and track a climate tech company that we committed to last week 🌍 Benjamin Bimanywaruhanga supports our diligence process for companies in Africa, and has started supporting another VC on the continent 💸 Shankarsun Sahu and Leon Jon have reviewed 100s of fintech deals and are helping us map the market 🌎 Tony Cueva Bravo has helped us go deeper on LatAm 🧠 Aaisha Bhuiyan now leads deal reviews to share investment team perspective with our 2,000 member strong angel community 🚀 Sandy Naidu is working on something very exciting... And that's just a small preview of the amazing work that fellows including Dimple Kochikar, Francisco Guerrero, Jonathan Kennell, Alice Qinhua Zhou, Chloe Liu, Peter Liu, Alexa Murray, Xaviera Ho, CFA, Kyle Sonlin 🌴 are doing. Join us: https://lu.ma/ts5yq31k

The reality of fundraising is that you won’t close a deal with every VC you meet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get value. When I met Brian Sugar, his first question was “what's your superhero story?" Rather than give a boring answer, I went deep into our story - all of our setbacks, the wisdom we gained, and our hard-fought victories. After I wrapped up, Brian shared his own operator-first perspective and unpacked their investment thesis, instantly putting me at ease. Although we didn’t end up raising from Sugar Capital, they’ve maintained a close connection and proven to be trustworthy allies. This showed me just how important it is to truly vet a VC firm before making any commitments, especially as a first-time founder. As founders, it’s important to not just sit there and take questions like a lame duck. You have to be confident enough to listen, learn, and ask back. And for someone to see you as a superhero? To me, that’s a clear sign of respect.