Small checks, long horizons
Why I keep my angel checks small, my involvement steady, and my time horizon measured in years.
The first angel check I ever wrote was small. The second was smaller. By the time I had written ten, I had stopped pretending I was going to be the kind of investor who lets a number do the talking.
What the small check buys is not optionality. It buys the right to show up: to a board call, to a difficult Tuesday, to the moment a founder needs someone who knew them before the metrics turned around.
The thesis nobody puts on a deck
I back people I would want as colleagues. That is the entire thesis. Everything else — sectors, geographies, stages — is downstream of that one filter. If I cannot picture a Friday afternoon code review with this person and feel sharper for it, I am not the right check.
What I tell founders before they sign
I am not a full-time investor. I will reply within a week, sometimes within an hour. I will not introduce you to twenty funds; I will introduce you to the three I trust. I will read your board deck carefully and say something specific, or I will say I do not know.
If that is the help you need, take the check. If not, take a bigger check from someone who lives in this work.