#Angels

What #Angels does

#ANGELS is a San Francisco-based angel investment collective founded in 2015 by six former Twitter executives — Jana Messerschmidt, Jessica Verrilli, Chloe Sladden, Katie Jacobs Stanton, April Underwood, and Vijaya Gadde. The collective backs early-stage technology startups from the personal capital of its co-founders, with each member making individual investment decisions and occasionally co-investing alongside the others. Over its first six years the group reported backing more than 100 startups, including Airtable, Anchorage, Cameo, Carta, Clubhouse, Coinbase, Color, Forward, Gusto, Instacart, Vanta, and others, positioning the collective as a curated, operator-led investor in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

The collective's core product is the investment vehicle itself, supplemented by two community and brand-building assets: The #ANGELS Podcast, a weekly series of conversations with founders, operators, and investors, and The Gap Table, a research and advocacy initiative launched in partnership with Carta in 2018 to quantify gender disparities in startup equity ownership (finding women own just 9% of startup equity). Distribution is entirely direct and relationship-driven, with no formal application process; deal flow is sourced through the co-founders' personal networks. The collective has no external fund, charges no management fees, and does not earn traditional revenue — returns flow individually to co-founders in proportion to their personal contributions, many of whom have concurrently taken institutional roles at firms such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), and Moxxie Ventures.

Name

#Angels

Legal name

#ANGELS

Website

https://hashtagangels.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

#ANGELS is a San Francisco-based angel investment collective founded in 2015 by six former Twitter executives who back early-stage technology startups from their personal capital. The collective has supported 100+ companies including Coinbase, Instacart, and Airtable, and runs The Gap Table research initiative.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Angel Investing / Early-Stage Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Micro-VC & Angel Funds (FSANAAAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B) (FSANAAAB)

Keywords

• Angel investment collective
• Early-stage venture capital
• Seed-stage startup funding
• Operator-led angel investing
• Founder mentorship network

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Investment Returns: The collective generates returns through equity investments in early-stage startups. Each co-founder invests from their own personal capital sources, making individual investment decisions while sometimes co-investing.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

#ANGELS is an angel investment collective co-founded by six former Twitter executives (Jana Messerschmidt, Jessica Verrilli, Chloe Sladden, Katie Stanton, April Underwood, and Vijaya Gadde) that invests personal capital into early-stage technology startups. Each co-founder makes individual investment decisions, with a handful of companies backed by all six and most backed by subsets, while the collective collectively provides operator mentorship, networks, and strategic support to portfolio founders. Over six years the collective has backed more than 100 startups including Coinbase, Clubhouse, Instacart, Airtable, Carta, Gusto, Cameo, and Vanta.

Product overview

#ANGELS is a single unified investment collective founded by six former Twitter executives, rather than a multi-module product platform. The collective operates as a coordinated investment vehicle where each member makes individual investment decisions from their own capital, with some companies backed by all six founders and others by subsets. Supporting their investment activities, they produce The #ANGELS Podcast (conversations with tech founders and operators) and The Gap Table (a research initiative documenting gender equity disparities in startup cap tables, including a 2018 study with Carta showing women own just 9% of startup equity). The portfolio spans over 100 companies including Airtable, Anchorage, Cameo, Carta, Clubhouse, Coinbase, and Gusto.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Backed over 100 companies including multiple unicorns such as Coinbase, Clubhouse, and Instacart

Named customers10 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• CartacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2018#ANGELS partnered with Carta to release the first known study measuring the gender equity gap in Silicon Valley. The partnership combined #ANGELS' operational experience and unique insight into cap tables with Carta's data platform to quantify that women own just 9% of startup equity.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Backstage Capital: Arlan Hamilton's fund focused on underrepresented founders (women, people of color, LGBTQ+); competes directly with #ANGELS for the same diverse-founder deal flow.
• Female Founders Fund: Early-stage venture fund investing in female-founded companies; structurally the closest analogue to #ANGELS given shared mission, founder-led model, and concentration on Silicon Valley seed-stage tech deals.
• BBG Ventures: Susan Lyne-led seed fund backing female-led startups; competes for the same diverse founder pipeline and similar early-stage check sizes as #ANGELS.
• SoGal Ventures: Global female-led venture firm investing in diverse founders across seed and Series A; comparable mission and stage, with a more institutionalized fund structure.
• Hustle Fund: Community-led pre-seed/seed fund run by operators (Elizabeth Yin, Eric Bahn); comparable in check size, operator-investor positioning, and Silicon Valley seed deal flow.
• Coalition Operators: Angel collective of consumer-tech operators pooling personal capital for seed deals; near-identical structure to #ANGELS as a syndicate of high-profile operator angels.
• Pipeline Angels: Angel network focused on training and deploying women and non-binary investors; competes for the same female-investor brand positioning and diversity thesis.

Emerging players

• Moxxie Ventures: Katie Stanton (a #ANGELS co-founder) founded Moxxie Ventures as a dedicated fund vehicle for similar thesis investing; sister-entity that institutionalizes part of the #ANGELS model.

Broad incumbents

• GV (Google Ventures): Tier-1 multi-stage fund where #ANGELS co-founder Jessica Verrilli is a General Partner; broader incumbent that overlaps on early-stage consumer and enterprise deals and competes for follow-on capacity.
• Lightspeed Venture Partners: Multi-stage venture firm where #ANGELS co-founder Jana Messerschmidt is a Partner; incumbent that overlaps on early-stage enterprise and consumer deals and competes on follow-on participation.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/HelloAngels

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments44 records

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Frequently asked questions about #Angels