Building a 1000+ Global Investor Syndicate with $0 Marketing
Building a 1000+ Global Investor Syndicate with $0 Marketing
Plus, how syndicates may be more profitable to run and organize than micro-funds.
Jed Ng is an operator who builds tech businesses from the ground up. He built & ran the world's largest API marketplace in partnership with a16z-backed, RapidAPI. As an angel, he has backed 2 startups from seed to unicorn, including Turing. Since 2020, he has built his own syndicate and is backed by a super network of 1000+ LPs globally.
He founded AngelSchool.vc with the mission of helping angel investors build their own investor networks and invest at $100k+ scale.
Catch Jed on our latest podcast episode to learn about:
His personal background and how he came to be an angel investor
Initial vision and evolving operating model of AS
How to build an investment thesis, how to conduct due diligence, how to structure a syndicate, zero cost acquisition of LPs
Vision for expansion into Asia
How BAN members and the community can be involved
Snippets from the episode:
Everybody who gets introduced to me now is what you might call an MQL in sales. They know me. They know what I do. This was a kind of lightbulb moment for me when I was around 200 LPs and I completely took my foot off the gas around trying to find new LPs. And this referral pattern has taken us from 200 to over 1000 today.
I think it’s a fallacy that somehow funds are automatically better than syndicates. It entices more angels to say, “Hey, I want to go start a fund” and it’s a very big undertaking. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, but it’s not as easy as it seems. And if you really are successful, realistically in most cases you start off with a micro fund which is a very small one whose opex you have to subsidize.
The nice thing about syndicates is that a syndicate can effectively invest in any company they like, which gives us a lot of latitude in experimenting and trying out different deals. You’re not fixed into one particular geography or domain or stage like a typical fund would.
The effort of finding companies, doing due diligence and packing this all up for investors is not costless. You don’t snap your fingers and capital appears. The upside for you is proportional to how much capital you bring. My view is that if you’re raising anything less than $100,000 it’s hard to justify all the effort. This is what I call the “Minimum Viable Syndicate.”
About SCALE: In this podcast series, we talk to entrepreneurs and investors who built and invested in businesses that have gone on to raise or generate revenues of millions of dollars, employ hundreds or more employees and serve millions of users in order to unlock the secrets of scaling a company.
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