Warm paths, the first email, and what an angel is actually deciding in the twenty minutes they give you.
6 min readAn angel is investing their own money, usually on a part-time basis, usually in something adjacent to what they know. That shapes everything: they decide faster than a fund, they care more about the people, and they are far more responsive to a credible introduction than to a good cold email.
Six sentences at most. What you do, in plain language. The one number that makes it interesting. Why you are writing to this person specifically — their portfolio, their operating background, something they have said. The ask: a 20-minute call. Attach the deck; do not make them request it. No attachments-as-teasers, no "let me know if you would like to see more".
Whether you are unusually good at something that matters here, and whether they would be embarrassed to introduce you to a fund later. Angels take reputational risk when they pass a company on, and that is the real currency of the relationship — an angel cheque is worth far less than the introductions that follow it.
Ask for advice and you will often get money. Ask for money and you will usually get advice. This is a cliché because it keeps being true — but only when the advice you ask for is specific and you actually want it.
General information for founders, not legal, tax or financial advice. Fundraising documents are binding in ways that are not obvious from reading them — take professional advice on anything you are about to sign.