Even your allergist is now investing in start-ups

In London, Ivy Mukherjee, 28, product designer, and Shashwat Shukla, 30, private equity investor, also started investing in start-ups together this year to learn new skills and network with others. sector players. They said they were proceeding with caution, with checks for $ 2,000 to $ 5,000, knowing they could lose everything.

“If we happen to get our money back, that’s good enough for us,” Shukla said.

New angel investors have the potential to transform a venture capital industry that has been stubbornly clubby. They could also put pressure on bad industry players who get away with things ranging from rudeness to sexual harassment, said Elizabeth Yin, general partner at Hustle Fund, a venture capital firm. The company has also created Angel Squad and shares deals with its members.

“More competition leads to better behavior,” Ms. Yin said. (In addition to investing in start-ups, Hustle Fund sells mugs that say “Be Nice, Make Billions.”)

The boom in angel investors has, in turn, created a mini-boom of companies that aim to streamline the investment process. Allocations, the start-up led by Mr. Advani, offers bundled deals. Assure, another start-up, helps with administrative work. Others, like Party Round and Sign and Wire, help angel investors make money transfers or work with start-ups to raise funds from large groups of investors.

AngelList, which has enabled such transactions for over a decade, has gradually expanded its menu of options, including working capital (for people to buy into transactions from an angel investor) and roll-out vehicles. up (for start-ups to consolidate many small checks). Mr Kohli said his company runs a “fund factory” that squeezes a month of legal paperwork and wire transfers at the push of a button.

Yet accessing the next tech startup as a total outsider takes time.

Ashley Flucas, 35, a real estate lawyer in Palm Beach County, Florida, began investing in start-ups three years ago. She said it was a chance to build generational wealth, something that underrepresented people usually don’t have access to.

“These are the same people who do business with each other and share the wealth, and I wonder, how do I get into that?” said Ms Flucas, who is black.