Angel Catalyst

In Brief

Angel Catalyst believes strongly in democratizing early-stage investing.  Closing a financing round with a startup requires large amounts of social capital and luck.  Angel Catalyst is pioneering the use of technologies and processes to dramatically lower these costs while maintaining the quality of the results.  

Our proof-of-concept prototype facilitated the judging of the Angel Capital Association’s Silvertip Awards, the premier competition recognizing North America’s leading angel-backed companies.  Our next prototype will be used by a coalition of Greater New England angel groups and colleges to evaluate startups on a monthly basis.

Problem

There are a lot of startups seeking funding.

It takes significant time to properly evaluate a startup.    

Investors don't have a lot of time.

So what do they do?  They rely on their social networks to identify which handful of startups should get their attention.  The process isn't terrible, but it certainly is expensive.  Quality startups, and investors, that are unable to amass enough of the right social capital are far less likely to succeed.  This dead-weight loss on early stage investing keeps many potential investors, and entrepreneurs, out of the game.  

Meanwhile, there are large crowds of people outside the traditional deal-review process who would enjoy helping evaluate opportunities... if only their was a practical way for them to get compensated for doing so.