Dear Friends,

Q1 was a strong start to 2026.

We continued scaling SuperAngel.Fund II, deploying capital into high-quality companies while increasing ownership in breakout performers.

We’re also beginning to see several Fund I companies reach meaningful inflection points.

🎙️Prefer to listen? Click here/below for the audio version.

🔥 Q1 2026 — At a Glance

• $2.45M deployed to date across 50 investments into 40 companies

• ~$1M deployed in Q1 across 9 new investments and 5 follow-ons

• $50K median check size

• $15M median entry (vs. $20M market)

• 14 companies already marked up

• Fund II now $10M+ committed from 100+ LPs

• New institutional LP: Schesto Ventures

📊 Fund II — Performance & Activity

We continued to deploy capital across both new and existing portfolio companies, with a mix of primary and secondary transactions.

We are increasingly accessing companies outside formal fundraising processes through secondaries and direct founder-led allocations.

We also proactively approach our highest conviction companies to participate in one-off primary rounds, often enabled by flexible SAFE structures.

Our entry pricing compares favorably to the broader market, reinforcing our ability to access high-quality companies at disciplined prices.

To date, 14 investments have been marked up, with several others showing strong traction not yet reflected in reported valuations.

The Fund II portfolio currently spans:

• Consumer: 18

• Commerce Tech: 14

• PropTech / Future of Work: 8

👉 Interested in learning more? Additional materials:

• AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds commitment letter

• SuperAngel.Fund II investor memo

🧠 Our Strategy

Our edge is designed — not random:

• Brand-driven inbound (35K+ Substack, 20K+ LinkedIn, 10K+ X)

• Proprietary network of founders, operators, and LPs

• Early access + disciplined entry pricing

• Selective concentration into breakout performers

This approach is supported by both internal results and external data.

A recent Carta study (20,000 simulated funds) showed that highly diversified portfolios (~100 investments) are significantly more likely to produce top-decile outcomes than concentrated portfolios.

Additionally, Fund II received backing from the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds (anchored by Sequoia Capital and Squarepoint). Based on their “markups over baseline” metric, SuperAngel ranks in the top 1% of GPs on the platform

👉 You can review our investment strategy here.

🚀 Fund II Portfolio Companies

We’ve built a highly diversified portfolio across consumer, commerce tech, and PropTech / Future of Work.

Many of these companies are already demonstrating strong early traction, with several scaling rapidly and multiple investments already marked up.

Below is a snapshot of companies we’ve backed in Fund II to date:

Consumer (18 companies)

• 📱 Freckle: The first phone kids love and parents trust

• 🍓 Feel Goods: All-natural supplements built for Gen Z

• 💦 Rorra: A modern water filtration company

• 🥣 Man Cereal: Creatine-infused, high-protein cereal

• 🪴 Arber: Modern lawn, garden, & plant care brand

• ⚡ Orka: Energy drink that tastes like water

• 👶 Freestyle: Babycare brand for the next generation

• 🧻 Fox Fold: Sustainable tissue solutions for hotels

• 🍝 Ripi: Premium frozen pasta brand

• 💪 Create: The first modern creatine brand

• ♻️ Biom: Sustainable wipes brand

• 🌿 Rose: The future of residential health & wellness

• 🧴 Cottonball: Personalized prescription skincare

• 🧃 NoBiggie: BFY kids food & beverage brand

• 🧴 Parivie: Paris Hilton skincare brand

• 🗄️ Branch: Office furniture that works

Commerce Tech (14 companies)

• 📺 Upscale AI: TV marketing platform for brands

• 📊 Marathon Data: Brand measurement & analytics platform

• 🛒 Hetal: Retail audit & execution platform

• 🛡️ Patrol: Security & compliance for eCommerce

• 💰 RetailPath: Retail chargebacks on autopilot

• 💼 Storetasker: Marketplace for eCommerce experts

• 📦 Two Boxes: Returns management for brands & 3PL

• ✨ Overjoy: AI-powered wholesale growth platform

• 💫 Hoop: Effortless resale platform

• ✨ OuterSignal: Customer intelligence for merchants

• 🌐 Bonsai: AI commerce infrastructure for brands

• 🔀 Jurni: AI-powered marketing funnels

• 🏬 SignalLift: AI operating system for multi-unit retailers

• ⚡Won.AI: AI-first commerce agency

• 💥YouPop: Creator commerce & infrastructure

• 🔬 Light Labs: Modern lab testing for cleaner, safer products

PropTech / Future of Work (8 companies)

• 🔑 Cosign: Helping landlords convert more renters

• ✨ Harmony: AI workflow automation for manufacturing

• 🧑‍💼 Stealth: Workforce planning & optimization

• 💻 candidate.fyi: Candidate experience platform

• 🏡 Doorvest: AI-first property management

• 📒 LDGR Systems: AI agents for property accounting

• 🏦 Dynasty: A trust company built for founders

We’re proud to partner with these founders and continue to support them as they scale.

📊 Fund I — Performance (2021-2024)

Fund I is now fully deployed and continues to show strong early performance.

• Top 10% of all 2021 vintage funds (AngelList benchmark data)

• $10.2M deployed across 201 investments into 130 companies

• ~$16.65M estimated current value

• 1.63x gross MOIC | 14.58% IRR

• 77% of investments active and/or marked up

Early-stage portfolios often see smaller outcomes early, with larger winners emerging over time. We remain confident in the long-term upside of the portfolio.

👉 View detailed performance

🌐 The Super Angel Network

The Super Angel Network is a core driver of our strategy — and a key reason we consistently see proprietary deal flow and differentiated access.

A private network of founders, operators, and LPs that:

• Drives proprietary deal flow

• Enables faster, higher-quality diligence

• Supports hiring, partnerships, and customer growth

• Compounds in value over time

We continue to see this become a meaningful competitive advantage.

🔗 SuperAngelNetwork.com

🤝 LP Momentum

During the quarter, we added Schesto Ventures as a new institutional LP.

The Schestowitz Group is a multi-generational global operator (founded 1954), with deep expertise across consumer distribution and brand building.

Fund II now exceeds $10M in commitments from 100+ LPs, including founders, operators, venture investors, and family offices.

🧾 QSBS Tailwinds

Recent changes to QSBS meaningfully improve the after-tax potential of early-stage investing:

• Higher exclusion caps

• Tiered holding periods

• Expanded eligibility

Combined with early entry and long holding periods, we believe this creates a strong structural tailwind for this fund vintage.

👉 Read more on QSBS updates.

🤖 AI’s Impact on Consumer

AI is disrupting software, but accelerating consumer.

While AI is increasing competition and compressing defensibility in parts of the software ecosystem, it is simultaneously improving the economics of building consumer and physical-world businesses.

These businesses:

• Cannot be easily unbundled

• Benefit from lower costs (production, marketing, ops)

• Retain more durable demand characteristics

We are beginning to see capital rotate toward businesses with tangible products, inelastic demand, and stronger structural defensibility, where AI acts as an enabler rather than a disruptor.

We expect this trend to continue — and believe it creates a particularly favorable backdrop for the types of companies we invest in.

🔭 Looking Ahead

We continue to see strong deal flow across Consumer, Commerce Tech, and PropTech / Future of Work — increasingly sourced directly through our network.

We expect:

• Continued steady deployment through 2026

• Ongoing focus on disciplined entry pricing

• Increased ownership in breakout performers

• Select secondary opportunities

If you come across exceptional founders in these areas, I’m always grateful for introductions.

Thank you for your continued trust and support.

Ben Zises

Founder & GP

SuperAngel.Fund

ben@superangel.vc

P.S. Prior quarterly updates are available here.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech, & Future of Work 😇.

Fund II is backed by the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds (anchored by Sequoia Capital and Squarepoint, a $100B asset manager). Based on their data, SuperAngel ranks in the top 1% on markups over baseline.

👉 Learn more about Fund II

Why am I receiving this email?

You’re receiving this because you’re part of the SuperAngel Network — a friend, founder, co-investor, or connection who has expressed interest in receiving updates.

If this isn’t relevant, you can unsubscribe below.

Dear Friends,

I’m pleased to share some exciting news with you: SuperAngel.Fund II is proud to welcome Schesto Ventures as a new LP. Schesto Ventures is the venture capital arm of The Schestowitz Group, a multi-generational operating company founded in 1954.

The Schestowitz Group is a leading global importer, marketer, and distributor of consumer brands across personal care, cosmetics, household goods, food, and health, supporting thousands of points of sale and employing 1,100+ people worldwide.

Schesto Ventures is led by Roy Gat, General Manager, and backed by Yoni Schestowitz, Owner and CEO.

“We are excited to add SuperAngel.Fund II to the Schesto Ventures portfolio. Ben brings over a decade of early-stage investing experience, a proven track record, and a strong fiduciary mindset. His disciplined approach combining speed, conviction, and diversification aligns with our focus on operational excellence and execution. We believe Fund II is well positioned to succeed.”

We are grateful to partner with a storied group that brings decades of operating experience and a principled mindset to venture investing. This partnership reflects the continued momentum behind Fund II as we approach our next close.

For those interested in learning more, you can review our latest Fund II materials here.

Thank you, as always, for your continued trust and support.

Ben Zises

SuperAngel.Fund

ben@superangel.vc

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work😇.

Fund II is backed by the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds, which ranks us in the top 1% based on markups over baseline, a leading indicator of future performance.

Click here to learn more about Fund II

Why am I receiving this email?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

Dear Friends,

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

I’m pleased to share SuperAngel.Fund’s Q4 2025 update, covering Fund I (our 2021-2024 rolling fund) as well as our newly active Fund II.

• Want to read the commitment letter from one of our largest LPs who rank us in the top 1% on AngelList? Click here.

• Want to learn more about investing in Fund II? Click here.

• Prefer to listen to this update instead? You can find the AI-generated podcast by clicking the play button below 🎙️

Introducing the Super Angel Network 🌐

While venture fundraising remains challenging by many measures, we’ve continued to grow SuperAngel.Fund II to over $9.5M from nearly 100 LPs, including both new and returning partners, with additional commitments in process.

Our LP base spans founders, operators, fellow fund managers, real estate investors, and agency owners — a community that has increasingly become a meaningful competitive advantage for both the fund and our portfolio companies.

We believe this network compounds over time, creating a durable edge across sourcing, diligence, hiring, partnerships, and founder support.

To deepen access, transparency, and collaboration, I’m excited to introduce the Super Angel Network — a private platform designed to bring together:

• Founders across our portfolio

• LPs who are invested across our funds & SPVs

The network has already proven valuable for introductions, deal flow, diligence, and operational support. Feel free to explore!

🔗 SuperAngelNetwork.com

🔐 Access: Request password or 👉 Click here to join

📊 Fund II — Performance Summary (2025- )

As of quarter-end, Fund II has deployed $1.62M across 36 investments into 33 companies, with a $50K median check size and a $15M median post-money entry valuation.

The portfolio spans our core focus areas:

• Consumer: 18

• Commerce Tech: 13

• PropTech/Future of Work: 5

Our entry valuations continue to compare favorably with current market data, where median seed valuations in 2025 were approximately $20M post-money, reinforcing our emphasis on early access and disciplined entry points.

To date, 10 investments have been marked up, with several others demonstrating meaningful traction that is not yet reflected in reported valuations.

Portfolio Overview

Consumer

• 📱 Freckle: The first phone kids love and parents trust

• 🍓 Feel Goods: All-natural supplements built for Gen Z

• 💦 Rorra: A modern water filtration company

• 🥣 Man Cereal: Creatine-infused, high-protein cereal for men

• 🪴 Arber: Modern lawn, garden, & plant care

• ⚡ Orka: The energy drink that tastes like water

• 👶 Freestyle: Babycare brand designed for the next generation

• 🧻 Fox Fold: Sustainable tissue solutions for hotels

• 🍝 Ripi: Premium frozen pasta

• 🍑 Create: The first modern creatine brand

• ♻️ Biom: Sustainable household wipes

• 🌿 Rosemary: The future of residential health & wellness

• 🧴 Cottonball: Personalized prescription skincare

Commerce Tech

• 📺 Upscale AI: TV marketing for modern brands

• 📊 Marathon Data: Brand measurement & marketing analytics

• 🛒 Hetal: Retail audit, analytics, and execution

• 🛡️ Patrol: Security & compliance for eCommerce

• 💰 RetailPath: Retail chargebacks on autopilot

• 💼 Storetasker: Marketplace for eCommerce experts

• 📦 Two Boxes: Returns management for brands & 3PLs

• ✨ Overjoy: AI-powered wholesale growth

• 💫 Hoop: Effortless resale infrastructure

• ✨ OuterSignal: Customer intelligence for merchants

• 🌐 Bonsai: AI commerce infrastructure

• 🔀 Jurni: AI-driven marketing funnels

• 🏬 SignalLift: AI operating system for multi-unit retailers

• ⚡Won.AI: AI-first commerce agency for brands

PropTech / Future of Work

• ✍️ Cosign: Helping landlords convert more renters

• ✨ Harmony: AI-powered workflow automation

• 🤐 Stealth: Agentic workforce planning & optimization

• 💻 Candidate.fyi: The candidate experience platform

• 🏡 Doorvest: AI-first property management

📝 Fund II — LP Terms

• Minimum Commitment: $100k - $250k+, with a limited number of smaller allocations available

• Capital Call Schedule: 10% per quarter over 10 quarters

• Target Fund Size: $15m

• Fees: 2% annual management fee, 20% carried interest

• Fund Administration: AngelList (Legal, tax & accounting, banking, and compliance)

📊 Fund I — Performance Summary (2021-2024)

Fund I, our 2021-2024 rolling fund, is now closed and fully deployed

• Capital Deployed: $10.2M across 201 investments into 130 companies

• Estimated Current Value: $16.18M

• Performance: 1.58x Gross MOIC | 14.65% Gross IRR

• Portfolio Health: 159 out of 201 investments (79%) remain active and/or have been marked up

• Click here to see the Fund I portfolio

Based on AngelList Fund Benchmark Data (H1 2025), Fund I ranks in the top 10% of all 2021 vintage funds.

👉 Click here to view a detailed performance summary

Notably, early-stage venture portfolios often experience smaller liquidity events and wind-downs early in a fund’s life, with larger outcomes typically emerging later. I remain confident in Fund I’s overall positioning and long-term upside as the portfolio continues to mature.

🧭 Investment Strategy, Approach & QSBS Updates

Fund II is targeting a four-year deployment period from its initial close in March 2025, with a plan to make approximately 100 investments across ~60 companies.

We focus on the earliest stages of company formation — from Pre-Seed through Series A — where pricing inefficiencies are greatest and long-term ownership can be established early.

From there, we construct broadly diversified portfolios, stay close to founders, and selectively increase exposure as breakout growth and supporting data emerge.

Recent data continues to reinforce our portfolio construction approach:

• Early pricing discipline: Our entry valuations remain below market averages

• Broad diversification: Designed to capture outliers while managing early-stage risk

• Access advantage: A growing founder and LP network continues to improve both deal quality and volume

• After simulating 20,000 venture fund outcomes, a Carta study found that larger portfolios significantly improve the probability of strong returns: funds with ~100 investments are far more likely to achieve top decile multiples of 3-4x than those with only ~20.

👉 You can review our full investment strategy here.

QSBS & After-Tax Considerations

Importantly, recent regulatory changes further enhance the after-tax profile of early-stage investing.

In July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) significantly expanded the benefits of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS)—including:

• Higher exclusion caps

• Tiered holding periods

• Expanded eligibility for later-stage QSBS-qualifying companies

👉 Read more on recent QSBS updates here.

Taken together, disciplined early entry, diversified portfolio construction, and improved QSBS treatment make the current vintage particularly attractive for long-term early-stage deployment.

Closing

Our strategy remains consistent: invest early, diversify broadly, support founders deeply, and compound access over time.

We continue to see a strong pipeline of opportunities and remain active on follow-on and selective secondary investments. If you come across exceptional founders in our focus areas, I’m always grateful for introductions.

Thank you for your continued trust and support.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises

SuperAngel.Fund

ben@superangel.vc

P.S. You can access prior quarterly updates here.

📚 Recent Commentary (Optional Reading)

Throughout the quarter, I shared short posts expanding on market trends, early-stage investing, and portfolio construction. For those interested, a curated selection is linked below:

Market & Investing

• Consumer M&A is back

• Access and diversification wins

• The one question that actually predicts startup success

• Investing takes practice

• Two types of bets

• What hurts most in VC

Portfolio & Strategy

• PropTech trends worth paying attention to

• My deal flow strategy isn’t luck — it’s designed

• Our hybrid model

• Protecting founder time

• How to energize founders and win deals

Founder & Fund Community

• Advice on how to pitch a VC

• You only get one chance to make a first impression

• Pitching never stops

• Supporting the international founder community

Media & Milestones

• Appreciation for AngelList

• Featured in Entrepreneur Magazine

• Reaching 20k followers on LinkedIn

• Podcast with Slice Fund

• Podcast with StartupCPG

Why am I receiving this email?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. Click here to learn more about SuperAngel.Fund II.

Dear Friends,

I’m excited to share SuperAngel.Fund’s Q3 2025 update, covering Fund I, our 2021-2024 Rolling Fund, and the newly launched Fund II.

Prefer to listen to this as a podcast? Click the play button below 🎙️

📊 Fund I - Performance Summary (2021— 2024)

• $10.2m deployed across 201 investments into 130 companies

• Estimated current value: $15.9m

• 15.35% IRR | 1.56x gross multiple on invested capital

• 165 out of 201 investments (82%) are still active and/or have been marked up

• Fund I is closed and fully deployed

• Top 10% among all 2021 vintage funds (according to AngelList’s Fund Benchmark Data as of H1 2025)

Click here to view a detailed performance summary

📊 Fund II - Performance Summary (2025 — XX)

So far, we have deployed $1.125m across 24 investments into 22 companies, with a median check size of $50k at a $15m post-money valuation.

Our portfolio spans Consumer (12), Commerce Tech (8), and PropTech/Future of Work (4). As time passes, we will report more detailed performance metrics.

Summary of investments:

• 📱 Freckle: The first phone kids love and parents trust [Consumer]

• 📺 Upscale AI: TV marketing platform for brands [Commerce Tech]

• ✍️ Cosign: Helping landlords convert more renters [PropTech]

• ✨ Harmony: AI-powered workflow automation [Future of Work]

• 🍓 Feel Goods: All-natural supplements built for Gen Z [Consumer]

• 💦 Rorra: A modern water filtration company [Consumer]

• 🥣 Man Cereal: Creatine-infused, high-protein cereal for men [Consumer]

• 📊 Marathon Data: Brand measurement & marketing platform [Commerce Tech]

• 🛒 Hetal: Retail audit, analytics & execution platform [Commerce Tech]

• 🪴 Arber: Modern lawn, garden, & plant care brand [Consumer]

• 🛡️ Patrol: Security & compliance for eCommerce [Commerce Tech]

• 🤐 Steath: Agentic workforce planning & optimization [Future of Work]

• ⚡ Orka: The energy drink that tastes like water [Consumer]

• 💰 RetailPath: Retail chargebacks on autopilot [Commerce Tech]

• 👶 Freestyle: Babycare brand designed for the next gen [Consumer]

• 💼 Storetasker: Leading marketplace for eCommerce experts [Commerce Tech]

• 📦 Two Boxes: Returns processing solutions [Commerce Tech]

• 💻 Candidate.fyi: The candidate experience platform [Future of Work]

• ✨ Overjoy: AI-powered wholesale growth platform [Commerce Tech]

• 🧻 Fox Fold: Sustainable tissue solutions for hotels [Consumer / PropTech]

• 🍝 Ripi: A premium frozen pasta brand [Consumer]

• 🍑 Create: The first modern creatine brand [Consumer]

• 🍔 BiteSight: TikTok meets DoorDash [Consumer]

• 🏘️ Doorvest: Buy, manage & sell investment homes online [PropTech]

📝 Fund II - LP Terms

• Minimum Commitment: $100k - $250k+ with a few limited slots reserved for lower commitments

• Capital Call Schedule: 10% per quarter over 10 quarters

• Fund Size: $15m initial target

• Fees: 2% per year management fee, 20% carry

• Fund Admin: AngelList (Legal, tax/accounting, banking, compliance, etc.)

I want to highlight two other important updates below: (i) new data that reinforces our portfolio construction strategy, and (ii) recent tax law changes that further enhance the advantages of investing in startups.

🏗️ Portfolio Construction & Success Benchmarks

Our investment strategy centers on broad diversification across a large number of early-stage companies. We invest as early as possible, stay close to founders, and proactively double down when we see breakout growth. Like public market investors building a position over time, we increase exposure as positive data emerges.

The difference in private markets is that we’re often among the first—and sometimes the only—ones to see these signals. This allows us to follow on at valuations close to, or even the same as, our initial checks, capturing a favorable risk-reward dynamic that traditional VCs—who typically write fewer, larger checks—rarely achieve. And because the majority of pre-seed financings today are completed through SAFEs—enabling frequent transactions at virtually no cost—our speed and flexibility give us a structural edge.

This advantage is reinforced by a recent analysis from Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) based on data from Dan Gray (Equidam). After simulating 20,000 venture fund outcomes, the study found that larger portfolios significantly improve the probability of strong returns: funds with ~100 investments are far more likely to achieve top decile multiples of 3-4x than those with only ~20. In other words, diversification meaningfully tilts the odds in our favor.

Top-quartile venture funds (75th percentile and above) typically deliver 2–3x returns (15–20% IRR) over a 10-year horizon, while top-decile performers (90th percentile and above) reach 3–4x multiples (25%+ IRR). Our goal across all funds is to outperform these benchmarks by pairing broad diversification with disciplined follow-on investing. With Fund II, we are targeting ~100 investments across ~65 companies—an approach designed to maximize exposure to breakout companies and deliver above-average returns.

So far, the results are encouraging. Earlier this year, we received an investment in Fund II from the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds whose backers include Sequoia Capital, Squarepoint (a $100B+ quant manager), and Naval Ravikant. Their model applies proprietary data and predictive analytics across 25,000+ funds and 13,000 startups to identify top-performing managers. Based on their core metric—markups over baseline, a leading predictor of future success—SuperAngel.Fund ranked in the top 1% of hundreds of active GPs on the platform. As their commitment letter stated: “Our data strongly suggests that Ben’s next fund has an above average chance of being an above average venture fund.” [Read their commitment letter here].

⚖️ Regulatory Updates: QSBS

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025, greatly enhanced the tax benefits of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS)—the most significant update since 2016. These changes directly improve after-tax outcomes for LPs in venture funds like ours.

Originally introduced in 1993, QSBS was designed to encourage investment in early-stage U.S. companies by offering capital gains exclusions to investors who held equity for at least five years. Over time, the benefit expanded to a 100% exclusion (for investments after 2010), with a per-issuer, per-taxpayer gain limit of $10M (or 10x basis, whichever is higher).

The new law makes three major improvements:

• Tiered holding periods: 3 years = 50% exclusion; 4 years = 75%; 5+ years = 100%

• Higher gain exclusion cap: now $15M (or 10x basis)*

• Expanded issuer asset limit: raised to $75M*

These updates expand the universe of qualifying companies—now covering not only most Pre-Seed/Seed but also many Series A-stage or later businesses. For SuperAngel.Fund, this expands our opportunity set while enhancing the value of existing investments. Since LPs are pass-through beneficiaries, each U.S. taxpayer can now exclude up to $15M of capital gains per issuer in the portfolio.

QSBS Treatment: Before vs. After OBBBA

Important note: investments made before July 4, 2025 remain under prior QSBS rules. As always, please consult your tax advisor for specifics. For a deeper dive, I recommend this blog post.

⌛ Fund II - Deployment Period & Strategy

The fund is targeting a four-year deployment period. We plan to make approximately 100 investments across 60 companies, focusing on the very earliest stages–from Pre-Seed through Series A.

Our investment strategy is centered on the sectors we know best–where we have a clear competitive edge in sourcing, evaluating, and supporting high-potential opportunities. These consist of the following:

• Consumer: This includes brands, CPG, eCommerce SaaS, consumer tech, and commerce enablement companies. It also includes marketplaces and other businesses that rely on consumer spend or engagement.

• PropTech: This includes all types of software, technology or digital platforms that support, overlap or connect to the real estate industry.

• Future of Work: This includes technology companies that are building tools to support the modern workforce and evolving landscape around how people work, where people work, and what they work on.

🧭 Our Approach

Our strategy is grounded in disciplined, early-stage diversification. Rather than chasing “hot” categories or rushing to deploy capital, we invest with patience and consistency—as early as possible, across sectors where we hold a clear edge, and with a long-term view.

This approach gives LPs exposure across time, markets, and cycles—maximizing upside while mitigating inevitable losses from early-stage risk. Our edge comes from founder-first support: leveraging our network to drive capital, customers, and talent; championing portfolio companies with unmatched loyalty; and earning a reputation as the most helpful investor at the table.

By combining early access, broad diversification, and founder advocacy, we increase both the quality and volume of opportunities we see—and ensure we can double down when conviction is highest. This strategy has been consistent since Fund I and remains central to delivering strong long-term results. We continue to see a strong pipeline of opportunities and actively monitor follow-on and secondary investments into breakout companies. If you come across exceptional founders raising capital in our focus areas, I’d be grateful for any introductions or referrals.

Thank you for your continued support and confidence.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises

SuperAngel.Fund

ben@superangel.vc

P.S. You can access prior quarterly updates at the link here.

Why am I receiving this email?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. Click here to learn more about SuperAngel.Fund II.

Dear Friends,

I’m excited to share the Q2 2025 update for SuperAngel.Fund II.

While we initially opened the new fund to our existing LPs back in January, we announced it more broadly here in May. Raising a fund like ours typically takes 18-24 months—but I’m pleased to report we’re already halfway to our initial target, with more than $7m+ committed from 60+ LPs and growing weekly.

Click here to learn more / apply to invest in SuperAngel.Fund II 🚀

As with Fund I, I expect we’ll have over 100 LPs by the time we reach our final close. Due to regulatory limits on the number of investors allowed, capacity is filling quickly. If you know someone who may be interested, feel free to share the fund memo or connect us directly: ben@superangel.vc. I’ll continue to prioritize introductions from within our trusted network.

As previously reported, we’re also proud to have secured an $800k commitment from Strawberry Tree Management, an institutional LP and investment advisor to the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds. Their strategy uses proprietary data, predictive modeling and quantitative analysis across 25,000 funds and 13,000 startups on AngelList. Based on their core performance metric—“markups over baseline,” a predictor of future investment success—we were ranked in the top 1% of active managers as of April 1, 2025.

The Fund-of-Funds is also backed by Sequoia Capital, Squarepoint (a $100B+ quantitative asset manager), Naval Ravikant, and others.

Here’s an excerpt from their signed commitment letter 📝:

"We are excited to add Ben Zises’s Fund II, a series of SuperAngel.vc, LP to the portfolio of our Systematic Fund-of-Funds. Ben has one of the highest scores (out of hundreds of active GPs on the AngelList platform) by our preferred predictor for future investment success…We estimate Ben’s markups over baseline score to be better than the 99th percentile of the hundreds of GPs on the AngelList platform…Our data strongly suggests that Ben’s next fund has an above average chance of being an above average venture fund."

— Abraham Othman PhD, Chief Investment Officer at Strawberry Tree Management Company LLC

SuperAngel.Fund II - Investments Summary

To date, Fund II has made 12 investments, with a median check size of $50k and post-money entry valuation of $12m. These investments were spread across Consumer (5), Commerce Tech (4), and PropTech/Future of Work (3).

• 📱 Freckle: The first phone kids love and parents trust

• 📺 Upscale AI: TV marketing platform for brands

• ✍️ Cosign: Helping landlords convert more renters

• ✨ Harmony: AI-powered workflow automation

• 🍓 Feel Goods: All-natural supplements built for Gen Z

• 💦 Rorra: A modern water filtration company

• 🥣 Man Cereal: Creatine-infused, high-protein cereal for men

• 📊 Marathon Data: AI marketing automation & brand measurement

• 🛒 Hetal: Retail audit, analytics & execution platform

• 🪴 Arber: Modern lawn, garden, & plant care brand

• 🛡️ Patrol: Security & compliance for eCommerce

• 🤐 Stealth: Agentic workforce planning & optimization

We’ve also had the opportunity to co-invest alongside some of the world's leading venture capital firms, including:

776 Ventures, a16z, Adapt Ventures, Air Venture Partners, Barrel Ventures, Breakpoint Capital, Brickyard VC, Cade Ventures, Constellation Capital, Creator Ventures, Eniac, Founder Collective, Ganas VC, Geek Ventures, Groove Capital, GTM Fund, Hawke Ventures, Hustle Fund, Ignite Ventures, Interface Capital, Ludlow Ventures, Mark Cuban, Marketplace Capital, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), MXV, Natureza, NextView Ventures, Nomad Ventures, NVP Capital, Ollin Ventures, OpenSky Ventures, Pari Passu Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, Recursive Ventures, Red Bike Capital, Red Swan Ventures, Ridge Ventures, SBXI, Seaside Ventures, Spacestation Investments, TopazProp Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Yonder VC & more.

And in several cases, we were the ones to introduce these firms to our portfolio companies.

💡 SuperAngel.Fund II - Investment Terms

• Minimum Commitment: $100k - $250k+ with limited space reserved for smaller checks

• Capital Call Schedule: 10% per quarter, new LPs are required to “catch up” by contributing the percentage called to date

• Fund Size: $15m initial target

• Fees: 2% annual management fee, 20% carry

• Fund Administration: AngelList (handles Legal, tax, banking, compliance, accounting, etc.)

🚀 SuperAngel.Fund II - Deployment Period & Strategy

The fund is targeting a four-year deployment period, with a one-year extension option, beginning from the initial close on March 17, 2025. We plan to make approximately 100 investments across 60 companies, focusing on the very earliest stages–from Pre-Seed through Series A.

Our investment strategy centers on sectors where we hold a clear competitive edge in sourcing, evaluating, and supporting high-potential companies. These focus areas include:

• Consumer: Brands, CPG, eCommerce SaaS, consumer tech, and commerce enablement companies, including marketplaces and businesses driven by consumer spend or engagement.

• PropTech: Software, technology or digital platforms that support, overlap or connect to the real estate industry.

• Future of Work: Technology companies building tools to support the evolving workforce—how, where and what people work on.

You can read more about our investment strategy on our website. I’ve also shared two recent LinkedIn posts highlighting our differentiated approach and the innovations in venture capital that enable us to execute it effectively.

📊 SuperAngel.Fund I & All-Time Performance Summary

Fund I (2021-2024):

• $10.2m deployed across 201 investments into 130 companies

• Estimated current value: $14.7m

• 13.8% IRR | 1.4x gross multiple on invested capital

• 171 out of 201 investments (85%) are still active and/or have been marked up

• Fund I is closed and fully deployed

Click here to view a more detailed performance summary

All-Time Portfolio (2014-2025):

• $21.8m deployed across 293 investments into 156 companies

• Estimated current value: $34.6m

• 15.3% IRR | 1.6x gross multiple on invested capital

• 245 out of 293 investments (84%) are still active and/or have been marked up

Click here to view a more detailed performance summary

🧭 Our Approach

A core principle of our strategy–and of successful investing more broadly–is diversification. While many funds rush to deploy capital or chase the latest “hot” category, we’ve taken a more disciplined, thoughtful, and consistent approach. Since launching Fund I in 2021, we’ve been intentionally conservative with our investable capital. This patience has allowed us to adapt to shifting market conditions and capitalize on opportunities over time.

As a result, our LPs benefit from diversification across time, sectors, and market cycles—broadening exposure to more companies and founders. In my view, that’s a key ingredient to maximizing returns over the long term.

I believe there are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere, building world-class companies. I spend much of my time trying to find them– and to buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I remain deeply confident in our strategy and in its ability to deliver strong results.

To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible—creating a unique personal bond that unlocks a strategic information advantage over time

2. Focus on sectors where we have an edge—through information, experience, insight, access or network

3. Leverage our network—to bring in strategic capital, resources, sales, operational support and talent

4. Champion our founders—to drive visibility, customer acquisition, and business development

5. Provide unmatched founder empathy and and loyalty—with the goal of being their favorite, most helpful investor

These attributes give us a strategic informational advantage, which we aim to capitalize on by securing follow-on access in our highest-conviction companies. They also lead to both higher-quality and higher-volume deal flow—arguably the most critical factor in long-term venture success.

We also believe that the earlier the stage, the more important diversification becomes (click here for recent data to support this). Since we invest very early, our strategy helps mitigate the inevitable zeros while maximizing upside from breakout winners.

The fund has a strong pipeline of new opportunities and will continue to monitor follow-on and secondary investments into portfolio companies showing outsized growth and traction.

If you know exceptional founders raising capital in any of our core focus areas, I’d be be grateful for any introductions or referrals.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises

Founder & GP, SuperAngel.Fund

ben@superangel.vc

P.S. You can access prior quarterly updates at the link here.

Why am I receiving this email?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. Click here to learn more about SuperAngel.Fund II.

Dear Friends,

After investing over $20 million into 100+ companies, we’ve been fortunate to build a highly regarded brand, strong network, and a growing reputation in the early-stage investing community.

And while it is still early in the lifecycle of our portfolio, I have never felt more excited about the performance of our investments and the differentiated strategy we’re executing.

Now, I am excited to publicly announce that we’ve opened SuperAngel.Fund II—our first traditional fund vehicle to capitalize on our strong market position. As part of this effort, we’ve also launched our new website: SuperAngel.vc 🚀

Fund II already has over $6 million committed and we’ve made our first few investments—stay tuned to our quarterly updates to learn more 👀.

I am also proud to share that Fund II is backed by Strawberry Tree Management Company LLC, an institutional LP and investment advisor to the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds. Their strategy leverages proprietary data, predictive modeling and quantitative analysis across 25,000 funds and 13,000 startups on AngelList. Based on their core performance metric—used as a predictor of future investment success—we are ranked in the top 1% of active managers as of April 1, 2025.

Here’s an excerpt from their signed commitment letter 📝:

"We are excited to add Ben Zises’s Fund II, a series of SuperAngel.vc, LP to the portfolio of our Systematic Fund-of-Funds. Ben has one of the highest scores (out of hundreds of active GPs on the AngelList platform) by our preferred predictor for future investment success…We estimate Ben’s markups over baseline score to be better than the 99th percentile of the hundreds of GPs on the AngelList platform.…Our data strongly suggests that Ben’s next fund has an above average chance of being an above average venture fund.”

— Abraham Othman PhD, Chief Investment Officer at Strawberry Tree Management Company LLC

Notably, this Fund-of-Funds is also backed by Sequoia Capital, Squarepoint (one of the world's largest quantitative asset managers), Naval Ravikant and others.

When I made my first angel investment in 2014 (read How I got here), I never imagined that 11 years later we’d have a fund backed by some of the best in the business.

👉 Click here to apply to invest in SuperAngel.Fund II

Investment Terms Summary 💡

• Target minimum: $100k - $250k, with limited space reserved for smaller checks*

• Capital call schedule: 10% of the commitment due upon signing with 10% called each subsequent quarter over a ~2 year period

• Target fund size: $15m - $25m range

*Due to regulatory constraints the fund has a limited number of slots. Space is filling quickly so we encourage early commitments. Thank you to those who have already committed to Fund II.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises

SuperAngel.Fund

From our Blog…

Why am I receiving this email?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. Click here to learn more about SuperAngel.Fund II.

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to share the Q1 2025 update for SuperAngel.Fund.

As mentioned in our last update, Fund I is now fully deployed. For those keeping track, Fund I consists of 14 quarterly vehicles structured as a rolling fund. Ours started in Q1 2021 and ended Q2 2024. LPs who participated had exposure to all investments made throughout the quarters in which they subscribed to, or which they gained exposure to as a result of rollover capital. You can view a list of Fund I companies by selecting the ‘Fund I’ filter on the portfolio section of our new website (H/T BX Studio!)

Stay tuned for details on Fund II next week 👀

Fund I Performance Summary

Fund I started in January 2021 and deployed $10.2m across 201 investments into 130 companies. I estimate the current value to be $14.36m which represents a 14.11% IRR and 1.41x gross multiple on invested capital. Of note, 171 out of 201 investments (85%) are still active and/or have been marked up.

Click here to view a more detailed performance summary 📊

As you probably know, it is often the unsuccessful companies that generally present themselves in the early years of a fund’s life, with the winners coming towards the end. And while it is still rather early in the life of Fund I, I feel confident that we will have a number of winners over time. Upon the receipt of distributions from liquidity events such as M&A, tender offers, secondary sales, IPOs, etc., capital will be returned to LPs.

Fund I Highlights & Strategy

You can read more about our investment strategy on our website. And, I recently published two LinkedIn posts which also describe our differentiated strategy and the innovations in VC that have allowed us to execute it.

Here are a few examples:

• Create: The first modern creatine brand

  • SuperAngel.Fund was one of the earliest investors in Create, a modern creatine brand, after the founder, Dan McCormick, reached out to me directly in June 2022 (six months before launch). Creatine has become one of the fastest growing products in the Vitamin, Minerals and Supplements (VMS) category and Create is well on its way to becoming the leading brand in the space. Click here to see a recent clip from the Joe Rogan Podcast where he talks about his creatine usage and gives an unpaid promotion of the brand. Fund I invested in Create several times over an 18-month period as the business started to show breakout performance and growth metrics. Most recently, the company announced their $5m Series A round led by Unilever Ventures.

• Motion: Creative analytics platform that enables brands to make more successful ads

  • Fund I first invested in Motion in 2022. Similar to what happened with Create, Reza Khadjavi, the founder, also reached out to me directly after noticing that I was an investor in several of his customers. Motion's platform helps brands determine which of their creative assets perform best across each of their respective marketing channels, enabling more data-centric decision making across the organization. After watching Reza and his team execute and grow the business over the months that followed our initial investment, we followed on with another investment in their Seed round. The business has grown dramatically from the early days and most recently announced their $30m Series B round led by Innovia, one of Canada’s largest venture capital firms.

Other Updates Across the Portfolio

Below is a selection of other public updates across the Fund I portfolio.

Consumer

• Arber: Lawn, garden & plant care brand (Launched new Ready To Spray Collection)

• Bandit: Community driven running brand (Opened new LA store)

• Biom: The world’s first refillable, biodegradable wipe system (Launched in Target)

• Branch: Office furniture that works (Launched new Ergonomic Chair Pro)

• Brightland: Wholesome olive oils, vinegars & honey (Launched MacKenzie-Childs holiday collaboration)

• Cadence: Next generation travel products (Launched second major product line, The Parcel, as an innovative take on the toiletry bag)

• Caraway: Cookware without the chemicals (Named One of America’s Moved Loved Brands by Newsweek)

• Cleancult: All-natural household cleaning products (Expanded on their recent Walmart launch with other major mass retail launches coming later this year)

• Create: The first modern creatine brand (Raised $5m Series A from Unilever Ventures)

• EIGHT Brewing Co.: Light beer, made right (Troy Aikman led new funding round)

• Kanpai Foods: The next great candy brand (Expanded retail presence with Target launch)

• Kimai: Fine jewelry that doesn’t cost the earth (Opened new stores in London & LA)

• Lalo: A modern baby & toddler brand built for today’s families (Launched large assortment of products in Target with premier end cap displays)

• Otis: Accessible & affordable care for pets and owners (Stay tuned for updates 👀)

• Rorra: Tap into clean water (Launched their first product, the Countertop System, to tackle the tap water crisis in America)

• Sylvie: Marketplace for vintage & antique furnishings (Partnered with Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor to launch first celebrity collection)

• Windmill: Smart ‘air care’ products & technology (Expanded into new category with Air Purifier)

eCommerce SaaS / Consumer Tech

• Accelpay: Powering eCommerce for Alcohol brands (Expanded internationally across UK, European Union)

• Adgile: Tech-enabled out-of-home media company (Achieved record sales in 2024 and launched case studies with new advertising client partners)

• Archive: AI-first influencer marketing platform (Launched AI-powered campaign dashboards)

• Caspian: Trade advisory & tariff optimization platform (Raised Seed round led by Primary VC)

• Crstl: B2B commerce network powered by AI (Raised Series A led by Mosaic, Cohen Circle, & Shopify Ventures)

• Disco: AI-powered retail media network for brands (Reached $20m run rate and achieved 340% YoY growth in 2024)

• Grocers List: Growth platform for recipe creators (Announced Pre-Seed round led by Founder Collective and Impellent VC)

• Highbeam: Finance platform for eCommerce businesses (Launched the first AI finance agent for consumer brands)

• Intelligems: Profit optimization platform (Raised $9m Series A led by Stage 2 Capital)

• Minoan: Furnishing and monetization platform for short-term rental hosts (Launched new marketing website, onboarding experience, Shopify App and more)

• Motion: Creative analytics platform (Raised $30m Series B led by Innovia)

• Orita: AI / ML marketing optimization for brands (Launched their second product for direct mail in partnership with PostPilot, another Fund I portfolio company)

• PostPilot: Direct mail platform for eCommerce brands (Raised Series A led by Summit Partners and Klaviyo founders)

• Settle: Financial operating system for brands (Launched in the Shopify App Store)

• Siena: AI customer service platform for brands (Launched Siena Academy, first AI certification for CX leaders)

• Superfiliate: All-in-one influencer, affiliate, and creator platform (Launched Automations to enable brands to automate their entire influencer management program and processes)

• Two Boxes: eCommerce returns processing platform (Raised $5.4m funding round led by Peterson Ventures)

• With Coverage: All-in-one risk management platform for brands (Stay tuned for updates 👀)

PropTech

• Cosign: A better rental guarantor platform (Stay tuned for updates 👀)

• Flex Storage: Digital solutions for physical storage & moving (Expanded from Florida into Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona, North Carolina)

• Rove: Marketplace and property management for luxury rentals (Stay tuned for updates 👀)

• Olive: AI-powered booking engine for hotels (Announced major partnership with Stayntouch, a leading PMS for independent hotels)

• Minoan: Furnishing and monetization platform for short-term rental hosts (Launched new marketing website, onboarding experience, Shopify App & more)

• It’s electric: EV charging built for cities (Raised $6.5m Seed round led by Failup Ventures & Uber)

Future of Work

• Candidate.fyi: The candidate experience platform (Closed multiple public companies as customers, released multiple new product features including AI-powered scheduling)

• Flex: All-in-one finance platform for SMBs and their owners (Raised $25m Series B round led by Titanium Ventures)

• Home From College: Career home-base built for Gen Z (Raised $5.4m Seed round led by Google Ventures)

• Jolly: Workforce recruiting & retention platform (Raised $16.5m Series A led by former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn)

• Paiv: Field-sales platform built for the trades (Launched new website and rebranded to Paiv)

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence. I look forward to updating you again soon.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises

SuperAngel.Fund

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work.

Stay tuned for details on Fund II next week 👀

From our Blog…

Why am I receiving this email?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early-stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work 😇.

Dear Friends,

As always, I am excited to share the 14th(!) quarterly recap for SuperAngel.Fund. 

Note, this is the final quarterly series for the SuperAngel rolling fund (which will now be referred to as Fund I). Over the coming months, I will provide more details on the ways in which you can invest with me. In the meantime, if you are not already one of the 2,000+ members of my syndicate, click here to request an invitation. Once accepted, you can learn about new investments that I make and choose to participate deal-by-deal alongside me or pass at your discretion. There is no upfront commitment.

In this letter, instead of sharing general market trends which you can read about in plenty of industry reports, I would rather talk about the investments that we made in Q2, our differentiated strategy, and offer a more detailed analysis of the Fund I portfolio, including its overall performance since inception on January 1, 2021. 

Before we dig in, I want to reiterate our success criteria. In venture capital, the top performing managers deliver approximately 20% annualized returns (IRR) over a typical fund’s 10-year life. As such, this is the benchmark that we aim to exceed 🚀. 

Over the past 3.5 years, across SuperAngel.Fund & SuperAngelSyndicate.com we have invested more than $20m into 100+ companies on behalf of over 500 Limited Partners (LPs). And we have built one of the leading brands in early stage investing. In this relatively short period of time we have also developed one of the most powerful networks and strongest reputations in the industry.

While it is still very early in the lifecycle of our portfolio, I have never felt more excited about the promise of our investments and the strategy that we are executing (more on that below). 

Our goal now is simple: to capitalize on the market position that we have created as a top-tier angel fund and syndicate, in the eyes of both seasoned and aspiring founders, world-class operators, leading venture capital co-investors, and other key stakeholders. 

Attaining and maintaining this goal requires a level of focus, discipline and commitment that best matches that which is found in our strongest founders. This “obsession,” as some may describe it, to become the best at one's craft enables us to continue to be invited to invest in the best companies, at the earliest stages, alongside the most sought after capital allocators.

Ultimately, the only way to accomplish these goals is to deliver LPs consistent above-market returns over the long term.

And, as many of you know, I pursue these goals whilst offering an even greater level of transparency, accessibility and communication than LPs might otherwise be accustomed to.

As a solo General Partner (GP) responsible for all aspects of the fund, I relate much more closely to the founders that we invest in rather than other professional investors/VCs, or part time angels. This breeds an extremely unique connection with founders that is hard to quantify. There is a mutual appreciation for building a business from the ground up, having to do more with less, and wearing multiple hats at once. This connection creates trust, loyalty, empathy and friendship which is among our biggest differentiators. I care about the success of my business (e.g. the fund), in a way that only a founder can care about her or his business. Founders know that I live and breathe, win and lose, celebrate and in certain cases fail, right alongside them. It is what drives our deal flow, information advantage, ability to support our network, and more. 

While many of the companies in our portfolio are just getting started, several have already begun to show signs of breakout success and “fund returning” potential. And, while it may be a few years before we realize the value of these investments, it is encouraging to see many early data points trending in our favor.

As SuperAngel.Fund I is now fully deployed I will continue to issue investor updates on a regular basis, however, you can always follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter/X and my newsletter/blog, where I regularly share thoughts on our industry, highlight portfolio companies, publicize new financing events, share podcast interviews and promote founder meetups.

SuperAngel.Fund I - Q2 2024 Investments

During the second quarter, we made 23 investments with a median check size of $50k and post-money valuation of $10.8m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (11), eCommerce SaaS (9), and PropTech/Future of Work (3).

• Grocers List: Growth platform for recipe creators

• Gamify: All-in-one SaaS platform for field sales teams

• Candidate.fyi: Candidate experience platform

• Caspian: Global trade & duty optimization 

• AccelPay: Powering eCommerce for alcohol brands

• Big Company: Intelligent brand communications platform

• Fox Fold: Sustainable tissue solutions for hotels

• BinStar: Bargain store turning returns into treasures

• TVAds AI: Performance TV marketing for brands 

• Intelligems: Revenue optimization tools

• Sylvie: Marketplace for vintage & antique furnishings

• Wally: The future of dental care

• Create: The first modern creatine brand

• Jack: AI-powered house manager for homeowners

• Siena: AI customer service designed for commerce

• Magna: Magnesium powered hydration

• Quite Nice: Food-as-medicine gut health brand

• Cosign: Bridging the gap for renters and property managers

• Frate: Returns management & optimization

• Otis (Pending): A better way to get veterinary care 

• Happy Medium (Pending): Modern arts club for casual artists

• Confidential: Stealth 🤐

SuperAngel.Fund I - Performance Summary

Since the fund started in January 2021 we have deployed $10.2m across 198 investments into 127 companies. I estimate the current value to be $13.7m which represents a 15.56% unrealized IRR and 1.35x gross multiple. So far, 82 investments have seen a markup, 97 are active and 19 are no longer active.

Click here to view a detailed performance summary 📊

SuperAngel.Fund I - Portfolio Highlights, Insights & Analysis

Below are a number of charts that showcase more visually the fund’s composition and attributes. We will continue to share more data, insights and analysis from the portfolio as it matures. 

Also below [Redacted] is a partial list of companies in Fund I that have raised follow-on funding since our initial investment, and which have already started to showcase a high degree of upside potential. Additionally, there are a number of others that are similarly performing well but have not needed to raise more capital and therefore not yet considered a “marked up.”

One aspect to investing in venture capital funds is that oftentimes the most meaningful financial returns come from just a small number of investments. While I believe this has a reasonable likelihood of being true in our case, I also hold the belief that we will have more than a handful of sizable winners. Time will tell. 

Of a particular note, 48% of the Fund’s portfolio companies had at least one underrepresented founder, and 34% included at least one female founder. We believe that these attributes in particular will prove to be very positive drivers of the future success of our portfolio.

SuperAngelSyndicate.com - Performance Summary

In addition to the fund, SuperAngelSyndicate.com provides an opportunity for LPs to contribute more, from time to time, into individual companies via special purpose vehicles (SPVs). The syndicate has deployed $10.5m across 36 investments into 19 companies. I estimate the current value to be $16.2m which represents a 29.9% partially realized IRR and 1.5x gross multiple. So far, 20 investments have seen a markup or distribution event, 15 are active and one is no longer active.

Click here to view a detailed performance summary 📊

Across the entire SuperAngel portfolio combined, we have deployed $21.2m across 277 investments into 146 companies. I estimate the current value to be approximately $33.6m which represents a 19.48% IRR and 1.58x gross multiple.

Overall Investment Strategy

Our investment strategy is best summarized by a recent post written by Fred Wilson, Co-founder of Union Square Ventures and widely considered to be one of the greatest early stage VCs of all time:

“Early stage venture investing is like poker. You make a small initial investment, which is like the ante in poker, and you get a seat at the table. Then you watch the founder and team execute until they need more money. That is like the first set of cards you get. Then you get the chance to invest more money. That is like putting more chips on the table. This repeats a few more times and eventually the company succeeds or fails. That’s like the river and the reveal.” 

In short, we invest as close to the first check as possible, maintain particularly deep ties to our founders and their companies as they evolve, and look to double-down or more when the right opportunity presents itself. 

As the SuperAngel portfolio has developed, more of my time is spent meeting with our companies to support them in whatever ways they need. Since the vast majority continue to operate and thrive, I do this to help them grow even faster and more efficiently. Founders confide in me. They share the most nuanced details on what is working, what is not working, and how we can help. I am often the first to know when a new customer is signed, if a record sales quarter is underway, which new products are being launched, or when a game-changing distribution partnership is in the works. 

I leverage all my relationships, including those I have with you, and the wider network that we have built, to introduce founders to additional sources of capital, lighthouse customers and potential new hires. While many investors claim to offer similar levels of service and value, SuperAngel aspires to deliver even more. After all, our fund is named “SuperAngel” for a reason 😇. What excites me the most right now is staying close to these founders, continuing to share in their ups, downs, wins and losses, over what may be another decade or more of a journey that they are on. As we all know, the very best things (and returns) in life take time.

As a result of our strategy and the success that we have had executing on it so far, we are privy to private information about our companies far beyond what typical investors get access to. It would be difficult for others to replicate what we do at scale, let alone at all. Just like all investors hope to do, we are leaning into these competitive advantages that we have gained. In surveying the landscape between making net new investments and doubling down on some of our existing ones, it has become increasingly clear that many of our most promising opportunities are right in front of our eyes: Follow-ons into existing portfolio companies. 

As I wrote in the 2023 Year-End Update, “If I am doing my job right the first time in ‘picking winners’, at least for a few subsequent rounds, our best deal flow should come from our existing portfolio.”

While I continue to receive hundreds of new pitches on a weekly basis, evaluating each one on its own merits and continuing to make net new investments, there are tremendous advantages to reinvesting in the companies we already know. The key, of course, is to be extra discerning over which ones. This strategy requires me to monitor our portfolio closely, keep in constant contact with our founders, and understand which ones are meeting, exceeding or blowing away their performance targets.

As another benefit to follow ons, oftentimes startups are willing to maintain their previous round valuation when taking capital from existing investors. Part of the reason for this is the increased speed in ‘insider’ led financings. As each party is already familiar with the other, much of the due diligence has already been completed. This creates a favorable situation for all sides. And, while some of the best companies are not proactively taking more capital, insiders can preemptively create an opportunity that did not previously exist. For investors like us, founders are often willing to take our capital at any time since they consider our dollars as “strategic.” This is because of the signal of having SuperAngel on their cap table along with the support we lend and reputation we hold.  

When we invest in a company we are familiar with, we benefit from ‘insider’ information and a pre-existing relationship to the founders. In these cases, we have the luxury of watching teams execute through ups and downs over an extended period of time. These historical data points provide a meaningful advantage over outsiders who don’t have this context, and who may not even be aware that the investment opportunity exists! After all, a key ‘perk’ to investing in private companies is to capitalize on information that the general public may not know. That is the case with follow ons.

Below are a few posts written by other early stage investors that I admire and which concisely sum up our investment strategy:

Given the macroeconomic conditions which have caused a massive drop in venture dollars available, founders need to compete more than ever for limited investment dollars. This, in turn, creates a phenomenal “buying” opportunity which we seek to continue to capitalize on.

Our Approach

Over the past 14 quarters, SuperAngel.Fund has maintained a disciplined, thoughtful and consistent strategy. We have been intentionally conservative with our investable capital allowing us to benefit from, and take advantage of, the lower-entry-valuation environment that we have been in over recent quarters. This has enabled our LPs to benefit from even more diversification, which increases coverage over a wider timeframe and exposes you to a larger quantity of investments across market cycles. This is a recipe that I believe is crucial to achieving long term success and maximizing gains.

There are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies and I spend much of my time trying to find them and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor. To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible

2. Focus on the categories we know best

3. Leverage massive network

4. Ruthlessly champion the founders we support and their companies

5. Offer a deep level of empathy, trust, dedication and loyalty to founders with hopes of being their favorite and most helpful investor

These attributes result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm. We also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. 

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on or secondary opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I greatly appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence. I look forward to updating you again soon.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

PS. You can access all prior quarterly fund updates at the link here.

Want to invest with SuperAngel?

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share and can invest or pass at their discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come first-served basis, with no upfront commitment. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.

2. Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.

Why am I receiving this?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech & Future of Work.

Happy Friday!

As always, I am excited to share the quarterly recap for SuperAngel.Fund. 

During the quarter we made 13 investments with a median check size of $50k and post-money valuation of $11.9m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (6), eCommerce SaaS (5), and PropTech (2).

Click here to read the recap 📝

Since the fund started in January 2021, we have deployed $9.2m across 175 investments into 114 companies. I estimate the current value to be $11.5m which represents a 13.4% unrealized IRR and 1.25x gross multiple. So far, 61 investments have seen a markup, 100 are active and 14 are no longer active. Click here to view a detailed performance summary.

In addition to the fund, SuperAngelSyndicate.com provides an opportunity for LPs to contribute more, from time to time, into individual companies via special purpose vehicles (SPVs). The syndicate has deployed $8.8m across 29 investments into 18 companies. I estimate the current value to be $13.2m which represents a 15.8% partially realized IRR and 1.50x gross multiple. So far, 19 investments have seen a markup or distribution event, nine are active and one is no longer active.

Across my entire angel, fund and syndicate portfolio combined, I’ve deployed $18.4m across 247 investments into 133 companies. I estimate the current value to be approximately $27.2m which represents a 17.96% IRR and 1.48x gross multiple.

• Click here to view performance details [Angel, SPVs, Fund]

• Click here to view performance details [Fund Only]

• Click here to view performance details [SPVs Only]

Q1 2024 Investments

• Rorra: The future of water filtration

• Character: The most helpful home improvement brand on the planet

• Olive: Modern eCommerce stack for hotels

• Adgile: Tech-enabled OOH advertising

• Drivepoint: Strategic finance platform for consumer brands

• Create: The first modern creatine brand

• Orita: Machine learning automation for eCommerce

• Revenue Roll: Adtech platform to increase sales conversions

• Kanpai Foods: Freeze dried candy brand

• With Coverage: Risk management platform for brands

• Arber: All natural lawn, garden and plant care brand

• its electric: EV charging built for cities

• Provenance: Digital tools for life’s milestone moments

Market Commentary

This past quarter was characterized by cautious optimism, a sense of bottoming out with hope for a soft economic landing, regional shifts in where founders are deciding to build startups, peak investor friendliness, and other trends. See below for a few worthwhile takeaways.

• VC Activity  ⬇️

  • The first quarter of 2024 was relatively slow from a deal count, fundraising and exit perspective. $36.6B was invested across 3,925 deals according to Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). This was in line with the same period last year but far below the peak of $97.5B invested in Q4 2021 and 5,466 deals closed in Q1 2022. There were 300 exits this quarter with a total value of $18.4B as compared to the 543 exits peak in Q4 2021 and $269B of exit value peak in Q2 2021.

  • According to the report, Q1 2024 reflected the lowest fundraising volume in the past decade for VC with a total of $9.3B in newly committed capital to funds, representing just 5% of the 2022 annual high. With little capital to recycle into the market from a dearth of liquidity, LPs have come under further pressure in navigating their exposure to venture. The report categorizes the current climate as defensive, evidenced by the reduction in activity and investor’s “focus on their existing portfolio companies in the face of relative abundance of demand and opportunities for new investments.” It continues “insider-led rounds are currently more common than they have been in years, and first-time financings are at multi year lows…Investors seem to be circling their wagons and making sure their most promising companies are positioned for success before they make new bets.” 

  • At SuperAngel.Fund our experience and activities mirror these findings. We are investing heavily into our most promising companies and spending significant time making sure they are well-positioned to succeed. And, we are doing so at extremely attractive valuation levels relative to what we would have paid in prior periods or during different market cycles. As I wrote in my last quarterly report, we continue to receive hundreds of new pitches on a weekly basis, evaluating each one on its own merits and continuing to make net new investments. However, there are tremendous advantages to reinvesting in the companies we already know. The key, of course, is to be extra discerning over which ones. This strategy requires me to monitor our portfolio closely, keep in constant contact with our founders, and understand which ones are meeting, exceeding or blowing away their performance targets. We are often privy to private information about our companies far beyond what typical investors get access to. This includes unique insights and a perspective that is, quite frankly, unmatched. In surveying the landscape between making net new investments and doubling down on some of our existing companies, it has become increasingly clear that many of our most promising opportunities are right in front of our eyes. After all, a key ‘perk’ to private market investing is to capitalize on ‘private’ information that the general public may not know. That is the case with follow ons. With less capital accessible compared to prior years, founders need to compete more than ever for investor dollars. This, in turn, creates a phenomenal buying opportunity which we seek to capitalize on. 

  • This past quarter was also regarded as one of peak “investor friendliness”. After an extended period of founder leverage, Q1 hit an all time high in the other direction. From the Pitchbook and NVCA report, “We have noted the increase in down rounds during recent quarters, but share price has not been the only compromise by founders. Investors have increasingly added downside protective terms, such as cumulative dividends and liquidity multiples into term sheets, enabled by the lower investor competition and the increased competition on the company demand side. In contrast to the manic market of 2021, investors now have more choice. Benchmarks for deals have increased, and stronger companies are able to compel investment, while struggling companies are likely facing final judgment…In line with what we saw across the venture lifecycle, investors have become cautious and selective when doing deals, and the bar has gone up. Regardless of the ways in which VCs diligence deals, the criteria has become more stringent, and investors prefer to either double down on the best performing portfolio companies or invest in the highest-quality companies that have demonstrated traction and product-market fit. This wariness has also translated into an increase in extension rounds.”

  • During the quarter there was a slight increase in valuations across several stages, however, investors still remain cautious to deploy capital largely due to a perceived lack of exit opportunities and an overwhelming “wait and see” approach from many funds. However, there is plenty of capital in the market with investors sitting on over $300B of dry powder as a result of years of strong fundraising combined with low levels of investment in recent quarters. Despite a slow start to the VC market in 2024, the quantity and quality of founders building companies does not seem to be slowing down. 

• More Founders in NYC 🗽

  • The San Francisco Bay Area has historically been known as THE global technology hub, attracting the world's best founders that have fostered an unparalleled ecosystem. However, the tides may be shifting East. According to a survey of 7,500 founders from Live Data Technologies, New York City saw the most new founders in Q1 2024 (chart below). Recently, there has been major growth in venture allocation to startups based in NYC, so the reality that more founders want to move here is no surprise. AlleyWatch also reported $2.4B in funding to NYC startups in March 2024 representing a 213% increase YoY and accounting for 27% of startup funding nationally. Per Pitchbook’s Regional Spotlight (page 17), NYC closed 75% of the number of deals that the Bay Area did in the first quarter (427 vs. 570), and NYC is the only ecosystem other than the Bay Area with funds that closed more than $1B so far in 2024. In a post-COVID world, one trend we do not see changing is that great companies can start and operate anywhere. While we don’t expect the Bay Area to lose the top position, NYC has established itself as a very close second.

• Consumer Startups Are a Better Bet Than Enterprise 🛒 

  • One particularly insightful article that I read this quarter was published in The Information by my friends at Forerunner Ventures. Their analysis found that, contrary to popular belief, consumer companies are more likely to go public at higher valuations than enterprise-focused companies and offer better margins and growth rates. The authors define consumer companies as businesses “where either an individual consumer pays for the service or product or the company’s revenue relies on consumer spend or engagement.” This includes companies ranging from eCommerce and digital brands to service and commerce enablement. In their study of more than 7,800 startups, they found that “compared with enterprise software companies, consumer companies are more likely to go public after raising a Series B, more likely to drive efficient growth at the time of an initial public offering and just as likely to trade at 10 times revenue at the time of IPO.” Of the 3,129 venture-backed consumer companies studied, 1.69% went public compared with 1.50% of the 4,739 enterprise companies (excluding SPACs). And, consumer companies go public at a 13% higher rate and at higher valuations. 18.8% of the consumer companies who went public did so at greater than a $10B valuation and at a median 76 months from founding. This compared to just 9.6% of enterprise companies that went public above a $10B valuation, and a median of 78 months from founding, with consumer companies achieving a 51% higher valuation. For investors, these are notable data points and reflect that consumer companies often have a much larger market share at IPO than their enterprise counterparts. 

  • The article also mentions how AI applications for consumer companies can help reduce both churn and increase revenue. We are investing in brands that utilize a modern tech stack, which includes AI tools, and software businesses that leverage AI and are purpose built for consumer companies. While prominent VCs such as Andreessen Horowitz and Lerer Hippeau have downsized their consumer investing teams, I am extremely bullish on the sector and believe massive gains will be had by those with patience, access to the best deal flow, and an eye for talent. As consumer spending accounts for two thirds of the U.S GDP, we will continue to double down on the sector and enjoy the benefits of more favorable valuations brought on by other players leaving the market. 

• Seed Valuations & Round Sizes Increase ⬆️

  • After 2021 saw a record amount of investment into startups with sky high valuations, many in the industry thought it would be long before we saw valuation figures increase again at any stage. However, according to Carta’s First Cut - State of Private Markets Report, the median cash raised by seed stage startups increased from $3m in Q3 2023 to $4m in Q1 2024, surpassing the 2021 highs of $3.8m. In addition, seed stage pre-money valuations increased from $12.8m in Q4 2023 to $13.3m in Q1 2024. As startups are forced to build more value earlier in their life cycle due to a more challenging fundraising environment, for the companies that are able to raise, I believe we will see valuations at the earliest stages start to increase slightly.

• Smaller Funds Outperform Larger Funds 📈

  • A recent article from Axios based on a study from Sante Ventures found that smaller venture funds are more likely to generate a 2.5x return than larger funds. Chart 1 below shows that funds between $0-50M make up a significant percentage (27%) of all funds that return at least 2.5x to their LPs. It is a common misconception that the larger funds see higher returns. In reality, it is much more difficult to generate outsized returns with a large fund than with a small fund because you must have far more winners. From the report, “Venture is a power law business; one winner can return a fund many times over. Ideally you have two, three, four big winners. The better investment strategy is to accept the historical average as a fixed constraint and limit portfolio companies to only the subset of high-quality projects whose capital requirements are relatively low yet generate attractive multiples on average exit values.” Overall, smaller funds present a unique opportunity to generate higher returns as partners and associates of these funds pay a high level of attention to each portfolio company and maintain strong relationships with founders to help grow the business together. This quote from an RBCx blog post puts it extremely well: “Small or micro-VC funds are often lauded for their operational efficiencies. Their nimbleness facilitates swift investment decisions, enabling them to seize market opportunities that might elude their larger counterparts. As a VC fund scales, there’s a risk that overexpansion could potentially dilute the brand’s essence, compromising the quality of investments and partnerships, and thereby diminishing its competitive prowess. This gives rise to an intriguing proposition: might specialized, niche-focused managers, armed with in-depth sectoral insights, trump their more generalized peers in delivering value? In a market cycle (such as today’s), whereby capital is concentrated in only the best and brightest founders, VCs must ensure their thesis is one that not only resonates with their LPs, but also with startup founders who ultimately choose them.” These are precisely the attributes that define us at SuperAngel.Fund.

Blog Updates

During the quarter we featured two portfolio companies in our ‘Founder Friday’ newsletter. And, towards the end of last year I decided to write more frequently to share timely thoughts and interesting things that I see and hear in my daily role investing in, working with, supporting and advising founders. Below you can find link to my latest posts. Feel free to like, comment or share if anything resonates with you!

• Investors dropping out

• Investor updates

• Setting expectations when fundraising

• Why you should raise a F&F round

• Following through

• Make it easier for your investors

• Don’t raise a F&F round

• Reversion to the mean

• It’s all about execution

• Founders find a way

• Make a great pitch deck

• “Turning Inside” during a downturn

• The prosperity delta

• Venture economics

• The long game

• Lean and mean

• Brevity in your pitch

• The most important skill sets of a CPG/brand founder

• Some thoughts & trends on eCommerce for 2024

• It’s about access

• 2023 trends & 2024 predictions

• Do you invest to get rich or to avoid being poor?

• Networking vs Building Relationships

• Advice to other investors

• Fundraising red flags

• Getting screwed

• Go for the no

• Home field advantage

• Investor updates

• Team > idea

• Ask for the financials

• How to write an investor update

• Get started investing with syndicates

• Deals falling through

• Reference calls

• AI’s impact on early stage investing

• Talking to all the co-founders

• Start with the people

• Consumer startups are a better bet than enterprise startups

• What isn’t going well

• Valuation is important

• Advisor equity

• What it means to be fully utilized

• Read the damn deck

• Meet in person

• Business is the ultimate sport

• No conflict, no interest

• The power of social capital

• How do you make noise?

• Freeze dried distribution

• Attest like the best

• Advice to aspiring investors

• Avoiding “brain-pickers”

• Help me, help you

Our Approach

Over the past 13 quarters, SuperAngel.Fund has maintained a disciplined, thoughtful and consistent strategy. We have been intentionally conservative with our investable capital and held reserves that are allowing us to benefit from, and take advantage of, this lower-entry-valuation environment that we are in right now. This has enabled you, our LPs (Limited Partners), to benefit from even more diversification, which increases coverage over a wider timeframe and exposes you to a larger quantity of investments across market cycles. This is a recipe that I believe is crucial to achieving long term success and maximizing gains.

As a solo General Partner (GP) that is responsible for all aspects of our fund’s operations, marketing, deal flow pipeline, decision-making, due diligence, investment performance, and portfolio support, I relate much more closely to the founders that we invest in than my peer group of professional investors/VCs, or part time angels. As you might imagine, this breeds an extremely unique connection with founders that is hard to quantify. There is a mutual appreciation for building a business from the ground up, having to do more with less, and wearing multiple hats at once. This connection creates a deep trust, loyalty, empathy and friendship which is among our biggest differentiators compared to other capital allocators. I care about the success of my business (e.g. our fund), in a way that only a founder can care about her or his business. Founders feel that I live and breathe, win and lose, celebrate and in certain cases fail, right alongside them. It is what drives our deal flow, information advantage, ability to support our network, and more. 

There are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies and I spend much of my time trying to find them and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor as we sit on a healthy cash position, ready to take advantage of opportunities. To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible with deep conviction

2. Focus on the categories we know best and where we have an informational, educational, access or network advantage

3. Leverage massive network to bring in other strategic capital, operational, sales and team building support

4. Champion founders and their companies religiously to drive incremental exposure, customers, and business opportunities

5. Maintain founder empathy, dedication and loyalty to become their favorite and most helpful investor

These attributes result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm. We also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. 

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on or secondary opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I greatly appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence. I look forward to updating you again after Q2.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

PS. You can access all prior quarterly fund updates at the link here.

Want to invest with SuperAngel?

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share and can invest or pass at their discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come first-served basis, with no upfront commitment. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.

2. Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.

Why am I receiving this?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech & Future of Work.

Happy Friday!

As always, I am excited to share the quarterly recap for SuperAngel.Fund. 

During the quarter we made 13 investments with a median check size of $25k and post-money valuation of $16m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (8), eCommerce SaaS (4), and Future of Work (1).

Click here to read the recap 📝

Since the fund started in January 2021 we have deployed $8.6m across 159 investments into 107 companies. I estimate the current value to be $10.3m which represents a 11.8% unrealized IRR and 1.2x gross multiple. So far, 54 investments have seen a markup, 91 are active without yet a change in price, and 14 are no longer active. Click here to view a detailed performance summary and see below for a quarterly overview. 

In addition to the fund, Super Angel Syndicate provides an opportunity to contribute more, from time to time, into individual companies via special purpose vehicles (SPVs). Since 2017, the syndicate has deployed $8.4m across 25 investments into 16 companies. I estimate the current value to be $15.5m which represents a 24.6% partially realized IRR and 1.84x gross multiple. So far, 15 investments have seen a markup or distribution, nine are active without yet a change in price and one is no longer active. Click here to view a detailed performance summary. 

Across my angel, fund and syndicate portfolio, I’ve invested $17.5m into 126 companies since 2014. I estimate the current value to be approximately $30m, which represents a 26% IRR.

Q4 2023 Investments

• Cadence: Sustainable travel containers for everyday personal care & beauty items

• Windmill: Smart ‘air-care’ products & technology

• Perry: Workforce recruiting & retention

• Bandit: Community-driven brand for runners

• STAND: The best shoes for standing

• Rorra: The future of water filtration

• Hoop: Resale technology platform

• Lalo: Baby & toddler products you are proud to own

• Create: Modern creatine brand

• Freestyle: Babycare brand starting with diapers

• Hetal: Retail audit & analytics platform

• Mantle: Revenue & Ops platform for SaaS companies

• Confidential: Stealth

Read the 'Q4 2023' Recap

Market Commentary

While most industry-leading data sources are still putting the finishing touches on their Q4 market reports, below are a few early trends worth sharing:

• Bridge Rounds ⬆️

  • 2023 was the year of the bridge round. Per Carta, 2023 saw the highest number of bridge rounds compared to the prior four years, by a wide margin. During the year, at least 4 out of every 10 funding rounds were categorized as a bridge or extension round. This means that early stage companies which raised money did so primarily with backing from their existing investors as opposed to new ones. Given the macroeconomic environment that we find ourselves in, this statistic is no surprise. More often, it is easier for a company to gain additional support from its existing investor base as compared to net new investors. In doing so, startups are often willing to maintain their previous valuation creating a favorable situation for both parties. For one, these investors are already familiar with the company/team which leads to a quicker process. And secondly, existing investors already have a financial interest in the company’s success and are therefore most incented to keep it going. While no investor attempts to “throw good money after bad” by incurring further loss in an attempt to recoup a previous loss, there are many examples of these investments turning into winners (see ‘How investing in bridge rounds landed us multiple 10x returns’). The key, of course, is to be extra discerning over which of your existing companies make sense to help “bridge” the gap for until their next funding round, or, the point at which they reach cash flow breakeven or better yet, profitability.

  • I expect this trend will continue into 2024. As it relates to us at SuperAngel.Fund, we leaned into this strategy pretty heavily. In 2023, we made 21 investments into net new companies (42%) and participated in 29 follow ons (58%). That compares to 2022 where we invested in 36 net new companies (66%) and only 18 follow ons (33%). I often say that follow ons are my favorite type of investment. As mentioned above, when investing into a company we are familiar with, we benefit from ‘insider’ information and a pre-existing relationship or connection to the founders. In these cases, we have the benefit of watching teams execute through ups and downs over an extended period of time. These historical data points provide a meaningful advantage over outsiders who don’t have this context, and who may not even be aware that the investment opportunity exists! After all, a key ‘perk’ to private market investing is to capitalize on ‘private’ information that the general public may not know. That is the case with follow ons. For founders too, when possible, many also prefer to raise from their existing investor base so as to maintain consistency and optimize for speed in due diligence and closing. If I am doing my job right the first time in “picking winners”, at least for a few subsequent rounds, our best deal flow should come from our existing portfolio.

  

• VC Activity ⬇️

  • According to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association, 2023 saw the lowest level of venture investment activity in the U.S. since 2019. There were approximately 15k total deals completed representing $170 billion invested (see chart 1 below). This is roughly half of the amount invested in 2021 and highlights the reduced risk appetite for early stage private companies. Additionally, exits returned just $62 billion last year, the lowest amount since 2010, and less than 10% of the $797 billion during the 2021 peak! (chart 2). This lack of liquidity drove a corresponding drop in capital committed to venture funds who rely heavily on LPs recycling money back into the system (chart 3). 

  • Looking back at last year’s year-end update, I correctly identified that these trends, which started in 2022, would continue through 2023 just as they have done. Moreover, I predicted these trends would likely continue through 2024, and, looking at the world as it stands today I reaffirm that prediction. See excerpt below from my 2022 update:

“...The amount of capital invested, and number of financings, have decreased substantially in the last quarter…That said, these figures do not yet incorporate deals closed in Q4 2022, which, I believe will show a much more substantial decline in valuations for pre-seed and seed rounds than the preceding quarters of the year. If my inclination is correct, the next few years may be some of the best to invest in early stage companies…I believe the trends above will continue over the next 12-24 months. We are likely to see further downward pressure on valuations, particularly for first time or otherwise overlooked founders, within our sectors of focus. Our own data over the past two quarters has also shown new deals priced more reasonably, both for follow-on investments in our top performers, and for new companies as well. While there are historic amounts of venture capital dollars on the sidelines, much of it waiting for the market to feel more “stable”, we continue to invest, seeking founders and opportunities that go against the herd. As Warren Buffett famously said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

Record Shutdowns ⬆️

• With fewer venture dollars at play it is no surprise that a record number of startups shut down in 2023. According to Carta, through November 2023, nearly 700 startups that use their platform shut down compared to a total of 467 in 2022, and 263 in 2021. See below excerpt from a recent blog post from Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta, titled “Why this year is different for startups going bankrupt”:

  “This data is the bad echo of the over-exuberance of startup boom times (roughly late 2020-early 2022). Everyone is familiar with that stat "9 out of 10 startups go bankrupt". This remains roughly true - if you're looking at all startups from idea stage to pre-IPO. However, there should be some decline in that failure rate as a startup moves through the fundraising cycle. Hopefully they are de-risking the business with each successive round, making an eventual IPO or solid acquisition much more likely. So - why is 2023 different? Because even startups that have raised significant VC cash are closing down.”

Many investors, myself included, believe this “correction” will continue through 2024. According to Pilot, an outsourced bookkeeping, CFO and tax services firm that works with thousands of startups, 57% of VC-backed startups have less than 18 months of runway. With the average financing process taking up to six months from start to finish, most will need to fundraise in 2024. While maintaining a short runway may seem uncomfortable to many people or small business owners, it is a very common practice that is, in part, by design in venture finance. However, with less capital expected to be accessible this year compared to prior years, founders will need to compete more than ever for investor dollars. This, in turn, creates a phenomenal “buying” opportunity. As I wrote last quarter:

“However harsh these macroeconomic shifts are for startups seeking capital, for investors like us with a long term approach, patience and dry powder, it presents the opportunity to capitalize on extremely favorable valuations. And, as a result of these lower prices, we are able to buy more ownership in the companies that we choose to invest in for the same dollars that we would have been able to previously. For companies that prove successful, these dynamics will greatly enhance our distributions and return profile.”

• Small Checks ⬆️

  • Over the years I have noticed that there is a misconception amongst many that angel investing is reserved for wealthy individuals who have the capacity to invest $50k - $100k or more per deal. Personally, I’ve spent a good amount of time, when presented with the opportunity, to educate my friends, family, extended network and aspiring angel investors, that this is simply not true. 

  • Across the 52 angel investments that I made prior to starting SuperAngel.Fund, my average check size was $13k and median check size was $10k. Oftentimes, new angel investors feel embarrassed to ask a founder or tell a friend that they would prefer to invest a smaller amount into a company. This unfortunately causes them to flex above their comfort zone and invest far more than they otherwise would. And, the reality is far different. In fact, the majority of early stage founders will gladly accept a smaller check than what they publicize. Far too many times I have heard this same story and it really upsets me. After all, one of the biggest mistakes that I see first time angel investors make is to invest too much money into too few companies. The best advice I have is to start small, make more investments than you originally planned for, and put less money into each one than you initially thought to. Over time you will learn and experience so much as there is a very steep learning curve. Each investment will educate, guide and inform you as to what strategies, stages, categories, geographies and industries are best suited for you to invest in, and which approach is aligned with your interests such that you will have a competitive advantage. While the responsibility certainly falls on the individual, I also think that more fund managers and syndicate leaders should do a better job of educating their limited partners (LPs) around this topic. 

  • That being the case, I was really glad to see a recent study from Carta that tracked the distribution of check sizes into early stage rounds based on data from ~19,000 financings. While the results were not particularly surprising to me, I believe they were very surprising to most. In financing rounds under $250k, the median check size was $12.5k. In rounds that raised up to $1m, 18% of the checks were under $10k and 42% were under $25k. Even in rounds that raised up to $5m, 25% of the checks were under $25k.

  • As the early stage venture market has matured in recent years, more and more people are becoming aware that small checks matter. A lot. And, that they are extremely valuable, more often so than larger checks. The network, introductions, advice and support that smaller investors provide is increasingly appreciated by founders. Additionally, smaller checks often end up leading to much larger checks. These are some of the reasons I have always tried to make SuperAngel.Fund and Super Angel Syndicate as accessible as possible. The value I receive from my network, no matter what their commitment level is, far exceeds the dollars invested.

Blog Updates

During the quarter we featured four of our portfolio companies in the ‘Founder Friday’ newsletter series. Zaid Rahman from Flex, Ben Wunderman from Packsmith, Dipti Desai from Crstl and Will Gahagan from Biom. You can read each of these and prior issues by clicking here.

Towards the end of last year I decided to write more frequently in order to share more timely thoughts and interesting things that I see and hear in my daily role investing in, working with, supporting and advising founders. I plan to keep posting 2-3x per week on LinkedIn and Twitter. Below you can find the latest posts. Feel free to like, comment or share if anything resonates with you, and reach out with any feedback! 

• Investors dropping out

• Investor updates

• Setting expectations when fundraising

• Why you should raise a F&F round

• Following through

• Make it easier for your investors

• Don’t raise a F&F round

• Reversion to the mean

• It’s all about execution

• Founders find a way

• Make a great pitch deck

• “Turning Inside” during a downturn

• The prosperity delta

• Venture economics

• The long game

• Lean and mean

• Brevity in your pitch

• The most important skill sets of a CPG/brand founder

• Some thoughts & trends on eCommerce for 2024

• It’s about access

• 2023 trends & 2024 predictions

Our Approach

Over the past 12 quarters, SuperAngel.Fund has maintained a disciplined, thoughtful and consistent strategy. We have been intentionally conservative with our investable capital and held reserves that are allowing us to benefit from, and take advantage of, this lower-entry-valuation environment that we are in right now. This has enabled our LPs (Limited Partners), to benefit from even more diversification, which increases coverage over a wider timeframe and exposes them to a larger quantity of investments across market cycles. This is a recipe I believe is crucial to achieving long term success and maximizing gains.

As a solo General Partner (GP) that is responsible for all aspects of my fund’s operations, marketing, deal flow pipeline, decision-making, due diligence, investment performance, and portfolio support, I relate much more closely to the founders that we invest in rather than my peer group of professional investors/VCs, or part time angels. As you might imagine, this breeds an extremely unique connection with founders that is hard to quantify. There is a mutual appreciation for building a business from the ground up, having to do more with less, and wearing multiple hats at once. This connection creates a deep trust, loyalty, empathy and friendship which is among our biggest differentiators compared to other capital allocators. I care about the success of my business (e.g. my fund), in a way that only a founder can care about her or his business. Founders know that I live and breathe, win and lose, celebrate and in certain cases fail, right alongside them. It is what drives our deal flow, information advantage, ability to support our network, and more. 

There are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies and I spend much of my time trying to find them and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor as we sit on a healthy cash position, ready to take advantage of opportunities. To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible 

2. Focus on the categories we know best 

3. Leverage massive network on behalf of portfolio companies to deliver unfair competitive advantage

4. Champion founders and their companies religiously to drive incremental exposure, customers, and business opportunities

5. Position ourselves as each founder's favorite and most helpful investor 

These attributes result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm. I also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. 

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on or secondary opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I greatly appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence. I look forward to updating you again after Q1.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

PS. You can access all prior quarterly updates at the link here.

Want to invest with SuperAngel?

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.

2. Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.

Why am I receiving this?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error, please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech, & Future of Work. Click here to view our deck.

Happy Friday!

As always, I am excited to share the quarterly update for SuperAngel.Fund. 

In Q3 we made 12 investments with a median check size of $50k and post-money valuation of $13m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (5), eCommerce SaaS (6), and Future of Work (1).

Click here to read the recap 📝

Since the fund started in January 2021 we have deployed $8.1m across 146 investments into 101 companies. I estimate the current value to be $10.0m, which represents a 15.1% unrealized IRR and 1.23x gross multiple. So far, 55 investments have seen a markup, 82 are active without yet a change in price, and 9 are no longer active. Click here to view a detailed performance summary and see below for a quarterly overview.

In addition to the fund which is my primary vehicle, Super Angel Syndicate provides an opportunity for investors to contribute more, from time to time, into individual companies via special purpose vehicles (SPVs). Since 2017, the syndicate has deployed $8.4m across 25 investments into 16 companies. I estimate the current value to be $16.1m which represents a 29% partially realized IRR and 1.92x gross multiple. So far, 14 investments have seen a markup or distribution event and 11 are active without yet a change in price. All are still operating. Click here to view a detailed performance summary. 

Q3 2023 Investments

• Mandrel: Operations data platform for consumer brands

• Minoan: Shop the world around you

• Create: The first modern creatine brand

• Flagship: Creator shops made easy

• DayZero: AI financial operating system for eCommerce brands

• Biom: Sustainable wipes brand

• Mayple: Global commerce infrastructure for eCommerce brands

• candidate.fyi: The missing candidate experience layer

• Grocers List: Social commerce tools

• Rorra: Tap into clean water

• Confidential: Secondary share purchase 

Click here to read the Q3 2023 Recap

Market Commentary

As I wrote in the last quarterly update, valuations for early stage companies have felt like they were at or near decade lows and continue to remain attractive. This is a direct result of major changes to the capital markets which have reduced the supply of ‘risk capital’ and appetite for early stage ventures. These changes have been driven by higher interest rates that offer the ability for investors to earn greater yields today than at any other time over the past 15 years via “risk-free” assets like U.S. Treasury Bills. 

However harsh these macroeconomic shifts are for startups seeking capital, for investors like us with a long term approach, patience and dry powder, it presents the opportunity to capitalize on extremely favorable valuations. And, as a result of these lower prices, we are able to buy more ownership in the companies that we choose to invest in for the same dollars that we would have been able to previously. For companies that prove successful, these dynamics will greatly enhance our distributions and return profile.

See chart below showing global VC deal activity since 2015 (Source: Pitchbook & National Venture Capital Association Q3 2023 Venture Monitor First Look Report)

Over the past 11 quarters SuperAngel.Fund has maintained a disciplined, thoughtful and consistent strategy. We have been intentionally conservative with our investable capital and held reserves that are allowing us to benefit from, and take advantage of, the lower-entry-valuation environment that we are in right now. This has enabled our Limited Partners (LPs) to benefit from even more diversification, which increases coverage over a wider timeframe and exposes them to a larger quantity of investments across market cycles. This is a recipe that I believe is crucial to achieving long term success and maximizing gains.

In addition, over the past few quarters we have invested in some of our most promising companies at nearly the same or discounted prices to their last rounds of funding via Secondary transactions (i.e. buying shares from an employee or another investor instead of from the company directly). These transactions can be harder to pull off given their complexity and oftentimes involve a distressed seller in need of short term liquidity willing to forgo longer term upside. If executed properly, Secondaries can be an extremely effective and lucrative way to acquire stakes in high-growth companies that are not actively raising capital. We will continue pursuing this strategy.

Also as shared last quarter, in Venture Capital, funds are often characterized by their “Vintage Year” which refers to the period in which fund capital is invested. Given the state of the market there are many investors that believe the next year is set to produce some of the strongest vintages of the decade. Below is an excerpt from one such investor who wrote “2023 and 2024 are set to become strong vintage venture years: here is why”:

“There is strong evidence to support the view that both 2023 and 2024 will be years remembered for exciting startups and landmark VC deals…Is this surprising? It shouldn’t be, understanding two simple axioms. Firstly, buy low. Investors seek out lower prices. Secondly, as noted above, innovation is driven by challenging environments. The need for genuinely inventive solutions only increases during a downturn. The Dot Com boom created the internet. The sharing economy was born from the global financial crisis of 2008. In 2023 and 2024 we’re likely to see opportunities arrive at the right time and at the right price, meaning both this year and next are set to become very strong vintage years.” 

Below is another excerpt from VC Lab, a venture capital accelerator, referencing the importance of market timing and vintage years:

“The vintage year is often the single most vital factor affecting the success rate of a venture capital fund. As an example, a favorable vintage year can yield up to a 5x return for a top performing fund, whereas an unfavorable one might deliver only a 2x return. 

The year 2023 is predicted to be a top vintage year for venture capital firms because many of the ideal market conditions are met. This prediction stems from a unique confluence of factors:

• Pandemic Aftermath: The world is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, giving rise to new opportunities across various sectors. In addition, humanity is coming back to work with higher productivity levels.

• Market Downturn: Historically, market corrections have coincided with substantial vintage years. The recent correction in the market is creating a favorable environment for venture capitalists.

• Lower Valuations: Accompanying the market correction, lower valuations of startups present an opportunity to invest at reduced costs. Lower investment costs increase the potential for higher returns.

• The Great Resignation: An influx of skilled professionals, due to pandemic-related job disruptions, has created a talent-rich environment. This situation enhances the chances of venture firm success.

• Remote Work: The surge in remote work has broadened the geographical reach for venture capitalists. With this, they can tap into startups and talent worldwide, thus increasing investment prospects.

• Artificial Intelligence: The steady rise of Artificial Intelligence presents a new frontier for investment. High returns are likely for venture capitalists investing in this transformative technology.

  It is well known that venture capital is countercyclical, as of Q3, 2023, the recovery in the wider economy and in venture capital are well underway.”

Also worth reading: “Why Should You Invest In All Vintages?” and “Why 2023 Could Be a Good Vintage for Private Equity”.

Our Approach

As a solo General Partner (GP) that is responsible for all aspects of SuperAngel.Fund’s operations, marketing, deal flow pipeline, decision-making, due diligence, investment performance, and portfolio support, I relate much more closely to the founders that we invest in rather than my peer group of professional investors/VCs, or part time angels. As you might imagine, this breeds an extremely unique connection with founders that is hard to quantify. There is a mutual appreciation for building a business from the ground up, having to do more with less, and wearing multiple hats at once. This connection creates a deep trust, loyalty, empathy and friendship which is among our biggest differentiators compared to other capital allocators. I care about the success of my business (e.g. our fund), in a way that only a founder can care about her or his business. Founders feel that I live and breathe, win and lose, celebrate and in certain cases fail, right alongside them. It is what drives our deal flow, information advantage, ability to support our network, and more. 

There are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies and I spend much of my time trying to find them and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor as we sit on a healthy cash position, ready to take advantage of opportunities. To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible 

2. Focus on the categories we know best

3. Leverage massive network to provide an unfair competitive advantage

4. Champion our founders and their companies religiously to drive incremental exposure, customers, and business opportunities

5. Position ourselves as each founder's favorite and most helpful investor 

These dynamics result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm. We also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. 

Blog & Other Updates

• Featured portfolio company, Settle, in our ‘Founder Friday’ newsletter

• Celebrated 3 portfolio companies listed in the Inc. 5000 (Branch, Confetti, & PostPilot) 

• Went to the US Open and watched eventual winner Coco Gauff

• Participated in a VC/Founders Office Hours live spaces on Twitter/X

• Attended a launch event for portfolio company, Cadence, at The Container Store in NYC to support Steph Hon, Founder & CEO. Also met TCS execs since they also work with more than FIVE other SuperAngel portfolio companies including Character, Cleancult, Caraway, Biom

• Attended an investor Demo Day hosted by Jason Calacanis in Chinatown, NYC

• Had lunch with Austin Gardner-Smith, Founder & CEO of portfolio company Drivepoint

• Met up with Otis and Lalo founders for lunch, walking meetings and coffee

• Closed our first B2B SaaS Syndicate for candidate.fyi

• Attended the Lalo Toy Launch event in Soho

• Celebrated 39th birthday with my beautiful wife, Ashley, and two daughters Sarina (3) and Scarlett (11 months)

Twitter Highlights (Click here to follow me on Twitter)

-Lessons of venture - https://twitter.com/bzises/status/1702078298279330264

-Investing strategy - https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/1701738386997063690

-Deal flow - https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings/status/1711001397833973889

-Capital efficiency - https://twitter.com/KivaDickinson/status/1709636886971687335

-Pitch decks - https://twitter.com/homerfolmer/status/1709612344781717665

-Still early days of eCommerce - https://twitter.com/bzises/status/1706388547027054974

-Scott Belsky on investing - https://twitter.com/bzises/status/1704226816490188861

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on or secondary opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I greatly appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence. I look forward to updating you again after Q4.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

PS. You can access all prior quarterly updates at the link here.

Want to invest with SuperAngel?

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.

2. Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.

Why am I receiving this?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error, please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech, & Future of Work. Click here to view our deck.

Last week, as I have done for the past ten quarters, I sent the limited partners (LPs) in my fund a quarterly update. It should not come as a surprise that when I invest in a company, even if I am already in constant communications with founders via other channels/formats, I expect them to send written updates. Similarly, for General Partners (GPs) like me who manage venture capital funds, we are no different and I believe in practicing what you preach.

Some founders prefer to send monthly updates, others quarterly, with a rare few sending them weekly, oftentimes only for a short while coinciding with a fundraising cycle or until they settle into a more manageable monthly/quarterly schedule. (I generally suggest quarterly FWIW). In any case, the benefits of sending regularly timed stakeholder communications are vast and hard to dispute.

For one, they are an extremely efficient and effective way to manage information flow with your most incentivized constituents. These are the people that stand to benefit most from your success. While many folks will not respond, you can be sure that nearly everyone reads it and you never know when a circumstance might present itself that enables an investor to be extraordinarily helpful. The best way to summarize what investors want founders to know regarding updates is: “help us, help you!”

If done properly, investor updates should provide sufficient information for 90% of your cap table. In addition to keeping investors up-to-speed, writing is one of the most valuable ways to organize your thoughts, and gives you the chance to step back from the day-to-day grind, revisit your strategy, think through successes, failures, challenges, wins, and losses, and hopefully uncover learnings to avoid or lean into in the future. They also act as a fantastic marketing tool for prospective new investors (whether you are a founder or fund manager), and as a matter of fact, are the #1 diligence item I seek when considering a new investment.

If you decide to take money from other people to fund your business, sending consistent investor updates is the very least that you can do and one thing that you have 100% control over.

See below for the SuperAngel.Fund quarterly investor update (with minor redactions to respect confidentiality requirements).

Dear Partners,

I am pleased to share the Q2 2023 update for SuperAngel.Fund. 

During the quarter we made 16 investments with a median check size of $50k and post-money valuation of $11.75m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (4), eCommerce SaaS (9), and PropTech (3).

Read the Q2 2023 Recap here 📝

As I wrote in a LinkedIn post last week, valuations over the past quarter have felt like they were at near decade lows which prompted us to capitalize on the opportunity and place a few more ‘bets’ than typical. Eight investments were at or below an $11m post-money valuation, five of which were at or below a $7m valuation. 

As the amount of venture capital deployed into early stage companies has dropped by ~50% over the same period last year, and with many investors forced to sit on the sidelines due to insufficient capital or fear/uncertainty caused by macroeconomic conditions, we have maintained a disciplined, thoughtful, and consistent strategy.

Over the past ten quarters, we have been intentionally conservative with our investable capital and maintained reserves that are allowing us to benefit from, and take advantage of, the lower-entry-valuation environment that we are in right now. This approach has enabled LPs to benefit from even more diversification. One that increases coverage over a wider timeframe and exposes you to a larger quantity of investments across market cycles. This is a recipe I believe is crucial to achieving long term success and maximizing gains.

Since SuperAngel.Fund started in January 2021 we have deployed $7.6m across 134 investments into 97 companies. I estimate the current value to be $9.5 million which represents a 18.6% unrealized IRR and 1.25x gross multiple. So far, 47 investments have seen a markup, 82 are active without yet a change in price, and 6 are no longer active. Click here to view a detailed performance summary.

In addition to the fund, which is our primary investment vehicle, Super Angel Syndicate has deployed $7.9m across 22 investments. I estimate the current value to be $19.6m which represents a 42.4% IRR and 2.49x gross multiple. So far, 14 investments have seen a markup or distribution event, and eight are active without yet a change in price. All are still operating. Click here to view a detailed performance summary.

Read the Q2 2023 Recap

Q2 2023 Investments

• Create: The first modern creatine brand

• Otis: Pet care products and televet services

• Krava: Modular backyard spaces

• Siena AI: Empathetic AI customer service platform

• CoLife: Peer-to-peer co-living marketplace

• Lalo: Modern baby & toddler brand

• Brij: QR code experience platform

• Split: Affiliate link-sharing & optimization

• Closing Theory: Video game studio integrating real world data 

  into hyper-casual play

• Big Sur AI: Democratizing access to AI for commerce

• Factored Quality: Quality control & analytics for brands

• Inveterate: Premium loyalty & membership platform

• Big Company AI: Intelligent communications for brands

• Showday: All-in-one video commerce solution

• Confidential: Secondary transaction (x 2)

Market Commentary

As I wrote in my Q4 2022 Year-End Update, I expected entry valuations to decline throughout this year. Unsurprisingly, this has come to pass and allows us - and other investors with similar mental fortitude - to benefit from extremely favorable valuations relative to the past few years. As a result of these lower prices/valuations, we are buying more ownership in the companies that we choose to invest in, for the same dollars than we would have been able to previously. 

In addition, there are a few cases where we have been able to invest in our top performing, or most promising companies, at the nearly the same or discounted prices to their last rounds of funding via Secondary transactions (e.g. buying shares from a company employee or another investor instead of from the company directly). These transactions can be harder to pull off given their complexity and oftentimes involve a distressed seller in need of short term liquidity willing to forgo longer term upside. If executed properly, Secondaries can be an extremely effective and lucrative way to acquire stakes in high-growth companies that are not actively raising capital. Based on my experience and prior success with these types of transactions, we will continue pursuing this strategy.

In Venture Capital, funds are often characterized by their “Vintage Year” which refers to the year in which fund capital is invested. Given the state of today’s valuations, there are many PE and VC investors that believe investments made in the next year or two are set to produce some of the strongest vintages of the decade. Below is an excerpt from one such investor who explains this rationale via a post titled “2023 and 2024 are set to become strong vintage venture years: here is why”:

“There is strong evidence to support the view that both 2023 and 2024 will be years remembered for exciting startups and landmark VC deals…Is this surprising? It shouldn’t be, understanding two simple axioms. Firstly, buy low. Investors seek out lower prices. Secondly, as noted above, innovation is driven by challenging environments. The need for genuinely inventive solutions only increases during a downturn. The Dot Com boom created the internet. The sharing economy was born from the global financial crisis of 2008. What will 2023 and 2024 bring?...In 2023 and 2024 we’re likely to see opportunities arrive at the right time and at the right price, meaning both this year and next are set to become very strong vintage years.” 

I also encourage reading these two supporting materials: “Why Should You Invest In All Vintages?” and “Why 2023 Could Be a Good Vintage for Private Equity”.

Performance

See chart below for an overview of SuperAngel.Fund’s performance to date.

Below are links to more performance details across our (i) primary fund vehicle which started in 2021, (ii) SPVs I have led since 2017, and (iii) a summary that incorporates both along with the angel investments I made prior to launching the fund.

• Click here to view performance details [Fund Only]

• Click here to view performance details [SPVs Only]

• Click here to view performance details [Angel, SPVs, Fund]

*Note, if you would like specific updates on one or more individual portfolio companies please reach out to me directly.

Our Approach

As I have said before, there are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies, and I spend much of my time trying to find them, and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor as we sit on a healthy cash position, ready to take advantage of opportunities.  To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible 

2. Focus on categories we know best 

3. Leverage our massive network on behalf of portfolio companies

4. Provide operational, sales & team support to deliver unfair competitive advantage

5. Champion our companies religiously to drive incremental exposure, customers, and business opportunities

6. Position ourselves as each founder's favorite and most helpful investor 

Many of these attributes result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm. We also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. As you know, it is a tremendous amount of work to source, diligence, evaluate and support these businesses. This is work I love, and what I feel is needed to deliver above market returns over an extended period of time.

Blog & Other Updates

Please see below for other personal and professional updates that occurred throughout the second quarter:

• Featured 3 companies in our ‘Founder Friday’ newsletter series

• Went on an awesome family vacation

• Attended Jason Calacanis’s Angel Summit in Napa

• Had breakfast with Ben Wunderman, Founder of Packsmith, in Petaluma, CA

• Had IRL meetings with other founders from our portfolio, VCs & co-investors

• Had breakfast with Alek Koenig, Founder of Settle, one of our best performing companies

• Attended industry events hosted by Bain Capital Ventures, Headline, Vanterra & others

• Went to the Brightland Pizza Oil Launch Party with Nik Sharma in Brooklyn and a private dinner hosted by leading consumer investors and founders

• Attended my 20-year year high school reunion

• Walked along the Hudson River with Raymond Qin, Founder of Toppings & Dylan Whitman, Founder of Inveterate

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on or secondary opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I greatly appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence. I look forward to updating you again after Q3.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

PS. You can access all prior quarterly fund updates at the link here.

Want to invest with SuperAngel?

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.

2. Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.

Why am I receiving this?

You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error, please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech, & Future of Work. Click here to view our deck.

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to share the Q1 2023 recap for SuperAngel.Fund. 

During the quarter we made 9 investments (6 follow-ons), with a median check size of $75k and post-money valuation of $10m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (4), eCommerce SaaS (4), and Future of Work (1).

Read the Q1 2023 Recap here 📝

Since the fund started in January 2021, we have deployed $6.9 million across 119 investments into 91 companies. I estimate the current value to be $8.5 million, representing a 20% unrealized IRR and 1.24x gross multiple. So far, 36 have seen a markup valuation, 79 are active without yet a change in price, and 4 are no longer active. You can view a detailed performance summary here.

• candidate.fyi: The missing candidate experience layer

• Hurry: Commerce AI helping retailers compete with Amazon

• Create: The first modern creatine brand

• Superfiliate: Transforming affiliate links into co-branded storefronts

• Frank: B2B subscription billing & collections platform

• Showroom: AI driven search engine for fashion

• Character: The most helpful home improvement brand

• Arber: Modern lawn, garden and plant care brand

• Stealth / Confidential: Secondary share purchase

Read the Q1 2023 Recap

Silicon Valley Bank Update

On March 10th I sent a letter to all SuperAngel LPs regarding the SVB banking crisis. I am thankful this situation has been resolved and you can view a copy of the letter I wrote here. On March 14th, AngelList’s CEO also sent a formal update to managers regarding their new banking process for funds, GPs and LPs, which they are calling Networked Banking. You can see a copy of that letter here.

Blog Update

During the quarter we featured several founders in our ‘Founder Friday’ series. I did a 60-minute podcast interview, and wrote a detailed blog post on my career journey over the past 13 years titled “How I got here.” Finally, on April 1st (AKA April Fool’s Day), I shared a video promo featuring four special Founder Testimonials.

The State of the Market

Last week AngelList released their quarterly report titled “The State of U.S. Early-Stage Venture: 1Q23”. Looking back at the Q4 & 2022 Year-End Update that I wrote in January, I feel that the same message and conditions are applicable today: 

We are likely to see further downward pressure on valuations, particularly for first time or otherwise overlooked founders, within our sectors of focus. Our own data over the past two quarters has also shown new deals priced more reasonably, both for follow-on investments in our top performers, and for new companies as well.  While there are historic amounts of venture capital dollars on the sidelines, much of it waiting for the market to feel more “stable”, we continue to invest, seeking founders and opportunities that go against the herd. As Warren Buffett famously said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

Per a Wall Street Journal article from November 2, 2022: “Venture has outperformed other asset classes in prior down cycles. About 75% of venture-capital funds raised from 2007 to 2016 beat the Russell 2000 during that time, and roughly 60% beat the S&P 500, according to a 2021 research paper published in the Harvard Business Review. According to research from the University of Miami, venture-capital returns during the dot-com crash and the 2007-09 recession averaged a 16% gain, while the S&P 500 lost 12% and the Nasdaq declined 18%.”

Aside from more attractive entry points, a larger number of higher quality deals are coming our way because of the reputation, credibility and network we have established as a leading fund at the pre-seed/seed stage. We are also benefiting from deals moving a bit slower, providing more time to diligence and build a deeper relationship with founding teams. The companies we are investing in today are being shaped during more disciplined times, creating a higher degree of resilience more commonly held by the most successful, enduring companies. 

There are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies, and we spend most of our time trying to find them, and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor as we sit on a healthy cash position, ready to take advantage of opportunities. To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible 

2. Focus on the categories we know best 

3. Leverage our massive network on behalf of portfolio companies

4. Provide operational, sales & team support to deliver unfair competitive advantage

5. Champion our companies religiously to drive incremental exposure, customers, and business opportunities

6. Position ourselves as each founder's favorite and most helpful investor 

Many of these attributes result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm. We also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. As you know, it is a tremendous amount of work to source, diligence, and assess these businesses. This is work I love, and what I feel is needed to deliver above market returns over an extended period of time.

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on or secondary opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence and I look forward to updating you again after Q2.

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

If you are interested in participating with SuperAngel there are two options:

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share, and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.

2. Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.

Why am I receiving this?

You’re receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of mine who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech, & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.

As you know, SuperAngel is proud to invest in world-class founders from all types of backgrounds and across industries. Many of these founders are overlooked by other top tier funds and VCs.

Here I am proud to highlight four of our most promising companies that I believe will have a lasting impact on our generation and ones to follow. Please enjoy this short video of our founder testimonials.

~Happy April 1st!

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech, & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.

I recently passed the two-year mark since becoming a full-time “professional” angel investor, and I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by sharing more details with you about how I got here. 

The story begins in 2010 after I started my first “venture-backed” company, only to shut it down four years later. Forced to cope with failure, I questioned all the decisions I had made up until that point, and then I restarted my career. Soon after, I stumbled on a chance to help other founders achieve what I could not, which kick-started a passion for what I do today. Starting out as an absolute “nobody” in the venture world, a calling began to take hold, and ever since I have set out to pursue my dreams and aspirations of becoming a “Super Angel.” 

While I certainly don’t consider myself a “Super Angel” yet, I believe that I have taken many of the steps required towards achieving that goal. Through consistency, hard work, ruthless dedication, above-average risk tolerance, commitment to the craft, patience, a drive for greatness, and a little bit of luck, I am starting to feel the universe pull me closer to that elusive point. I have invested the first checks into three companies that are each becoming category-defining, deployed $15 million from a collection of more than 300 LPs, and backed the founding teams of more than 100+ companies.

My hope for this post is that it will stand the test of time and serve as a tentpole marker in my career that I can look back on when I write the next version of it 5-10 years from now. I also hope to shine a light on what got me off the mat and into the ring, in case it sparks an idea or encourages you to take action in your life. As always, my inbox is open and I welcome any thoughts, questions or feedback (ben@superangel.vc).

One last thing before we get started. At the very end of this post I list two ways you can come along the SuperAngel journey with me. In case you don’t make it that far…

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share, and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate or here to view my deck.

2. Request information on SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund or here to view my deck.

My Founder Journey (2010 - 2014)

As my second job after graduating from Boston University, I worked as a retail real estate leasing broker in NYC. The firm I worked for represented landlords seeking tenants for their vacant retail spaces, and helped tenants find spaces to open new retail store locations. A few weeks into the role, I could not for the life of me understand why most of the workload was done manually and almost exclusively offline. 

For example: My company was hired by Verizon Wireless to find 10 new store locations in Manhattan. In order to identify locations that met their criteria, I had to walk around the streets (sometimes I roller skated to save time), write down phone numbers from storefront signs, call the landlord or listing brokers, and collect a dozen data points on the spaces, including their size, asking rent, and other variables. I wondered why there was no online multiple listing service (MLS) that landlords, brokers, and tenants could easily use to collectively share information in a more efficient manner (think Zillow or StreetEasy for retail space). I was unable to get the idea out of my head, and after researching obsessively to see if anyone else was working on it, and why it would or would not be a good idea, I decided to build it myself. 

I painstakingly worked on RetailMLS.com (of course, the URL now redirects to my LinkedIn page), which aimed to become the Zillow or StreetEasy for retail store listings. You can see the original deck I created here and a few screenshots and photos of me pitching the business here.

To get it off the ground we needed outside capital, so I pitched everyone I knew or who was willing to listen. I heard “no” what felt like 10,000 times before eventually raising $2 million from 30 angel investors and an early-stage seed fund. I hired and scaled a team, brought on a technical CTO, successfully launched, and was featured in countless press articles. But as well as it was going, the business had no revenue. I had made a decision early on not to charge either side of the marketplace to reduce friction from acquiring users and listings. My goal, once we reached a critical mass of users, was to build paid features and start collecting money for “Featured Listings” or what I called the “RetailPRO” search subscription. 

Over four years, our team went through what felt like an endless number of ups, downs, successes, failures, wins, and losses. There is nothing quite like coming up with an idea that you think the world needs, putting your blood sweat and tears into building it, and then seeing real people - other human beings! - actually use your product or service the way you envisioned or intended them to.

We had acquired thousands of listings and active users, clearly demonstrated the need for our service, iterated and pivoted multiple times, refactored our code base, given hundreds of product demos, attended dozens of industry events, pitched hundreds of VCs across the country, including a road show on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley, and yet failed to raise a successive round of funding. I was forced to wind down the company. 

Though impossible to see in the heat of the moment, it is obvious looking back that those experiences gave me the major competitive advantage that I have today: founder empathy and a unique understanding of the startup journey. Nearly a decade after it closed, I still get asked why RetailMLS did not work out. The main reasons, I believe, were that (i) we blew through $2 million and had yet to start the revenue engine - giving investors pause or concern about our real traction and customer willingness to pay, and (ii) I was pitching as a solo, non-technical founder which presented significant risks given that we were ultimately building a software company.

It sounds cliché, but this is where the old saying “When one door closes, a window opens” started to ring true for me.

First Angel Investment (2014)

As RetailMLS was on its last legs, I flew to Miami to pitch a potential investor in an effort to keep the business alive. I decided to stay the weekend with a friend, who brought me to a party in Miami Beach. Minutes after arriving I overheard another guest - a total stranger - talking about a “toothbrush company” that his friend was working on. My ears perked up and I walked over to the group of people chatting about it to learn more.

At the time I had been an early customer of Dollar Shave Club, and was particularly aware of the attention they were capturing in the antiquated men's grooming market. I was directly in their target customer demographic and wildly attuned to the disruptive potential they presented to legacy incumbents in such a large, unsexy personal care category. While it's easy to forget just how innovative DSC was at the time, I think we all remember how exceptional their viral video was (currently standing at 28 million views!). I saw a similar untapped opportunity in oral care and was predisposed to the idea, coupled with the fact that I used to purchase dozens of toothbrushes in bulk so I could constantly keep my brushes fresh and clean, being a bit of a germaphobe myself. 

A few days after I returned to NYC, the party guest I had met in Miami introduced me to Simon Enever and Bill May. The two were both industrial engineers and product designers, working full-time for respective agencies in Manhattan. I invited them into my office, and after seeing the toothbrush prototype IRL, hearing their expansive vision to disrupt and improve the oral care industry first hand, and noticing the determination in their eyes, hearts, and minds, I handed them a check for $10,000. I made a commitment to support them in ANY and EVERY way possible to help turn their vision into a reality. I spent countless hours making investor intros, hosting pitch events, copy editing emails, providing deck feedback, introducing them to my top legal advisors, and more. The company was originally called Elements, but after an exhaustive branding exercise it was renamed quip. Today, the company stands as an industry leader amongst both CPG and healthcare brands, having sold more than 50 million products to millions of customers around the world, and delivering innovative digital oral care solutions for the modern age.

Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) & Syndicates (2015)

A few years later I received a call from a friend looking to sell shares in one of his high-performing angel investments that he had made a few years prior. Based on what I knew about the company, and the price he was offering to sell a few shares at, I believed it would build on its success over time. Instead of introducing him to another investor, I decided that I wanted to buy the shares myself, and I invited a few other friends to join me so that we could all share in the risk/reward. That led me to learn about the concept of an SPV (Special purpose vehicle) or Syndicate, which is a group of investors that pools capital to invest in deals.

Besides sourcing this “off-market” opportunity, I compiled, presented, and coordinated all the materials that my friends needed to feel comfortable investing with me. I acted as the “Lead” or “Manager” of the SPV. In exchange for this work, I would earn a success fee if and when the investment turned profitable - known as carried interest. After repaying their initial investment, every dollar of profit would be split 80% to them and 20% to me.

I worked with lawyers and an accountant, opened a bank account, got everyone to sign documents, collected money, and closed my first SPV on December 12, 2017. Six of us invested $350,000. So far, that investment has returned nearly all the initial capital we put in, and we still hold a majority of the shares we purchased. The following year I completed four more SPVs with a dozen new partners, investing an additional $840,000. 

Overseeing all the paperwork, legal, tax, and accounting docs required to make each investment and manage each SPV on an ongoing basis was time-consuming and onerous. For each one, I had to file tax returns, issue K1s, track expenses, pay annual franchise tax and registered agent fees, and communicate investor updates to the group. As organized as I am (and those who know me know I am incredibly organized), the process was much more burdensome than I expected. Because of that, I considered whether or not to lead more SPVs as I would not sacrifice tending to my full-time job at the time.

I continued angel investing and added six new companies to my portfolio in 2018, including Swag.com, which grew from $0 to $30m in sales and sold to CustomInk in 2021 for a venture-like exit. 

As my network grew and the founders that I had already backed started to notice my passion for supporting early stage companies, both the quality and quantity of my deal flow increased. I spent a lot, and I mean A LOT, of time on nights and weekends getting to know other VCs, angels and co-investors, often making warm intros, connecting founders with potential co-founders, lawyers, accountants, designers, developers, customers, and more. I was shameless and unapologetic. I sent deals to other investors, most of whom were much more experienced and established, and had significantly more capacity to invest than I did. Some of the people I shared deals with I knew well, some I met once or never at all. All on behalf of, and in service of founders.

The Second One (2018)

In the summer of 2018 I received a cold email from a founder named Jordan Nathan who was starting a cookware company called Parfait. He discovered me by filtering through profiles on Crunchbase, an industry directory that featured startups and investors. What stood out in his email (below) was the personal touch, thorough, yet remarkably concise and confident pitch, prior leadership, sales, and category experience. As luck would have it we lived five blocks from each other in the West Village, and we met in person a few days later. We met for coffee weekly over the course of a month and got to know each other intimately, speaking to mutual references, including on my side, his former employer, personal contacts, and even doing a background check. A few weeks later I decided to write the first check into his company, and help him close out the remaining pre-seed round almost entirely from my network. As the company approached launch, they completed a rebranding exercise to change the name to Caraway, and it has since become one of the fastest growing consumer brands of all time.

Discovering AngelList (2019)

Sometime in early 2019 I discovered AngelList. Holy. Fucking. Shit. For a few thousand dollars, over the entire life of the investment (typically 10-12 years), AngelList would take ALL, and I mean ALL, of the setup, legal, banking, tax, and accounting work off my plate. They would give me a secure deal room with access control permissions and custom links to invite prospective investors, open up a bank account, collect and hold all the money, send funding notifications and confirmations for wires and ACHs, calculate member ownership percentages, as well as pro-rata allocations and expense attribution, manage our stock certificates, verify legal terms for accurate conversions, and process distributions when the time comes. They even track performance metrics and handle SEC and regulatory compliance. Instead of performing these crucial tasks myself (or with the help of expensive providers), I could focus on building relationships with founders, hear more pitches, research new companies, secure allocations into great rounds, and provide support to portfolio companies.

I was giddy. With AngelList as my partner I felt confident that I could tackle the core “value-add'' functions to become a successful investment manager: (1) fundraising, (2) sourcing winners and performing due diligence, and (3) supporting portfolio companies.

SuperAngel is Born

As I thought about scaling and inviting more people from my network to invest with me, I wanted a brand to operate under. Like a lot of beginners, I was a fan and disciple of Jason Calacanis and his book “Angel”. I closely followed him along with other notable “SuperAngel” investors like Fred Wilson, Howard Lindzon, Scott Belsky & Spencer Rascoff.

I aspired to be as recognized, well-networked, and successful as those others. I wanted to be a SuperAngel.

I logged onto GoDaddy and snatched the domain name SuperAngelSyndicate.com for a whopping $2.99. A few months later I negotiated and coughed up $1,500 for SuperAngel.vc.

I launched my first SPV on AngelList in October 2019, investing $2 million more across eight additional SPVs through 2020. Since the “back-office” was now heavily automated and off my plate, I was able to substantially lower the minimum that friends could invest with me to $2,500. I had gone from six people in my first deal to regularly having 25, 50, and even 99 investors in a deal. Without AngelList, there would have been no cost-effective way that I (or my syndicate network) could have successfully coordinated legal docs, funding timelines, wire confirmations, K1s, and more - I was hooked.

Aside from SPVs, I continued making direct investments, many of which had much tighter closing deadlines. In certain cases, there wasn’t enough time for me to prepare a deal memo and wait for other people to get caught up to speed on the opportunities and information I was seeing. So I continued to invest my own money, and do what I could to share deals with friends, all while keeping a full-time job and making sure to over-deliver on my responsibilities and commitments in that capacity.

Going For Three (2020)

On April 21, 2020, in the earliest days of the pandemic, I was catching up with Lolita Taub, a highly regarded angel investor and fund manager. After exchanging our respective investment criteria, she mentioned a company that had just come across her plate that sounded like a possible fit for me. She introduced me to a founder named Vanessa Dawson who was starting a new company called Evergreen as an all-natural alternative to the chemically-filled products in the lawn, garden, and plant care space.

We hit it off on the first call. I ran through my standard reference checks and due diligence process before writing the first check into her company, and I also spun up a deal memo that I shared with my syndicate network. Just like the others, Evergreen decided to change its name prior to launch. Almost exactly one year from our first correspondence, on Earth Day 2021, Vanessa launched Arber into the world. Since then, Arber has seen explosive early growth with unprecedented launches and distribution in thousands of doors throughout the world’s top retailers including Walmart and Target. Across SuperAngel vehicles, we currently represent the largest shareholder in the company.

The Decision (2020)

It was near the end of the first Covid summer. I was burnt out from my “day job” where I was the COO of an NYC-based real estate investment and property management company. Our firm had just completed a large M&A transaction that 10x’d our team and business overnight. My wife and I were blessed with our first daughter a few months prior, and like many people during that time, I was re-assessing and re-evaluating my professional circumstances.

It goes without saying that if you want to be the best in the world at a craft, you better be willing to give it your full-time attention. And given my goals of becoming a SuperAngel, I knew that was exactly what I needed to do. With AngelList in my back pocket as my “secret weapon,” I decided to do what I love as my entire career focus: work with founders to provide unwavering dedication and support. Help champion them and their success throughout the short, medium, and long term. So I walked away from my safe, reliable, and only income-producing job in real estate to become a full-time “professional” angel investor. It has since proven to be one of the best decisions of my life.

Launching a Fund (2021)

With 50 investments under my belt and $4 million deployed, I felt confident that I had a strong enough focus, filter, and expertise in identifying and evaluating what a potential outlier company looks like. And after completing more than a dozen SPVs, I was comfortable with the responsibility of managing other people’s money alongside my own. I already had a handful of high-performing companies in my portfolio showing breakout success (achieving what I describe as “the impossible”), I had established unique sources of deal flow, and I had identified categories to invest in where I was passionate and had an informational, educational, access or network competitive advantage.

A few months prior AngelList announced a new vehicle called Rolling Funds that allowed new fund managers to get started quickly and more efficiently. Since I did not have a legacy fund structure in place, I was willing to try something new and jumped right in. Back to GoDaddy. $8 bucks later, introducing SuperAngel.Fund.

I finished my former real estate duties and was open for business on January 1, 2021. Since then, across SuperAngel.Fund and SPVs, we have raised and invested another $11 million ($15m total to date), and added 75 more companies to the SuperAngel family. I’m a little over two years in, and while it certainly hasn’t been easy, there is nothing else in the world I’d rather do. As my friends and family can attest, I come to work every day excited and laser-focused on delivering value to founders, which in turn, delivers value to my LPs (and me). 

Thank you to everyone who has enabled me to find my passion and pursue it. I look forward to keeping you updated on my journey. As always, my inbox is open and I welcome any thoughts, questions or feedback (ben@superangel.vc).

Ben Zises

SuperAngel.Fund

If you are interested in participating with SuperAngel there are two options:

1. Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share, and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate or here to view my deck.

2. Request information on SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund or here to view my deck.

Why am I receiving this?

You’re receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of mine who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech, & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.

🎙️ ICYMI Watch Ben's Pod Interview

I am excited to share a podcast interview that was just released, hosted by Ben Tregoe of Bainbridge, a SuperAngel portfolio company. I will also be featuring them in this week’s Founder Friday newsletter, so stay tuned. After you give it a listen, feel free to drop me a note with any questions, thoughts or feedback!

[The Profit Forecast, Episode Description] Ben Zises: A Journey From Startup Founder to Angel Investor at SuperAngel.Fund

Ben Zises, angel investor and founding general partner at SuperAngel.Fund comes on the podcast to talk about his journey and the experiences that made him fall in love with investing. 

After several trips around the “founder flywheel” himself, Ben developed a passion for championing other founders to accomplish their goals, mission and vision. Now with over 100 total portfolio companies and almost a decade of experience, Ben Zises shares his story and expert advice for both founders and investors. 

Dive into this episode with Ben and hear his unique take on the VC world as an investor with unrivaled founder empathy.

Click here to watch on YouTube 📺

Click here to listen on Apple 🎧

Click here to listen on Spotify 🎧

Click here to read transcript 📖

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech & Future of Work. Learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.

Dear Partners,

I am pleased to share the Q4 & 2022 Year-End Update for SuperAngel.Fund. 

Before going into a review of our portfolio and activity, I would like to address some of the larger themes playing out in the market, as it is a topic that is likely on the forefront of everyone’s minds. 

General Market Conditions

While the public and late-stage private markets continue to fluctuate, early stage investing, particularly at the pre-seed and seed levels, remains somewhat insulated. This is because an early stage investment today, if successful, is not expected to reach maturity or an eventual liquidity event for another 5-10 years, when we are likely to be in an entirely different market environment.

According to Cooley, which handles more venture financings than any other law firm in the US, the amount of capital invested, and number of financings, have decreased substantially in the last quarter, with the most pronounced impact affecting later-stage deals (Series C and beyond). Additionally, the amount raised during Q3 2022 as compared to Q4 2021 dropped by 50% or more for Series A or later deals, yet decreased by only 9% for seed stage deals. Per Cooley, “The more significant drops in later-stage deals compared to early-stage deals is expected, given longer time horizons to exits in early-stage deals, leading to more stability for investors.”

Valuations also declined across the board, with the largest decrease occurring in later-stage deals too, and only a slight decrease at the seed stage, going from a median pre-money valuation of $18.6m in June 2022 to $17.6m in September 2022. Per Cooley, “The average pre-money valuation for seed deals has remained relatively consistent since late 2021.” After all, there is somewhat of a fixed floor for startup valuations that account for a simultaneous attractive ownership level in the present while also allowing for proper flexibility for future financing needs.

That said, these figures do not yet incorporate deals closed in Q4 2022, which, I believe will show a much more substantial decline in valuations for pre-seed and seed rounds than the preceding quarters of the year. If my inclination is correct, the next few years may be some of the best to invest in early stage companies.

Impact For Our Fund

I believe the trends above will continue over the next 12-24 months. We are likely to see further downward pressure on valuations, particularly for first time or otherwise overlooked founders, within our sectors of focus. Our own data over the past two quarters has also shown new deals priced more reasonably, both for follow-on investments in our top performers, and for new companies as well. 

While there is historic amounts of venture capital dollars on the sidelines, much of it waiting for the market to feel more “stable”, we continue to invest, seeking founders and opportunities that go against the herd. As Warren Buffett famously said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

Per a Wall Street Journal article from November 2, 2022:

“Venture has outperformed other asset classes in prior down cycles. About 75% of venture-capital funds raised from 2007 to 2016 beat the Russell 2000 during that time, and roughly 60% beat the S&P 500, according to a 2021 research paper published in the Harvard Business Review. According to research from the University of Miami, venture-capital returns during the dot-com crash and the 2007-09 recession averaged a 16% gain, while the S&P 500 lost 12% and the Nasdaq declined 18%.”

Below is a recent comment by Jason Lemkin, one of the most successful and well respected early stage VCs, that I felt was worth sharing:  

Here is another well-researched post from industry thought-leader Evan Armstrong titled “It is Always Time to Build” that I encourage reading (h/t Howard Lindzon):

“While there is some merit to the idea that when interest rates are lower, risky ideas are funded because returns are more challenging to find, it misses how great companies begin. If you’ve read the histories of Gates, Jobs, Ford, or Edison, they didn’t worry about federal interest rates when they started their companies. Technology companies came to be because scientific advancement met charismatic founders and risky happy financiers…companies are built with science, ingenuity, and sheer hustle to find and capitalize on a market opportunity. Regardless of the interest rate, it is always time to build.”

Aside from more attractive entry points, a larger number of higher quality deals are coming our way because of the reputation, credibility and network we have established as a leading fund at the pre-seed/seed stage. We are also benefiting from deals moving a bit slower, providing more time to diligence and build a deeper relationship with founding teams. The companies we are investing in today are being shaped during more disciplined times, creating a higher degree of resilience more commonly held by the most successful, enduring companies. 

Entry Valuation Analysis

Fund Performance

Since the fund started on January 1, 2021, we have invested $6.2m into 86 companies across 109 investments. I estimate the current net asset value at $7.76m, representing a 25% unrealized IRR and 1.3x gross multiple. 

Out of 109 investments, 34 have raised additional capital at a higher implied valuation than we invested at, 70 are active yet to close a subsequent financing and 5 are inactive (or projected as such). The real value, however, will be determined in the future once our companies have time to mature and reach their potential. Of course, my job is to realize gains and turn them into distribution events for investors. Below is a summary of our performance:

> Click here to view a detailed performance tracker [Fund only]

> Click here to view a detailed performance tracker [Angel, SPVs & Fund]

As layoff announcements consume much of the headlines, we are still seeing strong updates from many of our large basket of portfolio companies. Some are using these times as an opportunity to lap emerging competitors or industry incumbents, leaning into the downturn by hiring more experienced and capable talent than was previously available to them. Top performers continue to get funded, with a few notable examples below that closed a follow-on markup round during 2022:

• EcoCart: Sustainability platform for brands

• Cadence: Personal care, sustainable travel system

• Bounty: Unlocking the power of influencer marketing

• Rubik: Investment platform for Single Family Rentals

• Intelligems: Revenue optimization platform

• Windmill: Eco-friendly, clean air products

• EIGHT: A new iconic American beer brand

• Merri: Event planning tools & marketplace

• EarlyDay: Talent marketplace for early childhood education

• Home From College: Career development platform for Gen Z

• Motion: Creative analytics platform for growth teams

• Confetti: Unforgettable team building experiences

• Pack: Modern storefront for headless commerce

• Arber: Modern lawn, garden & plant care brand

Q4 2022 Update

During the fourth quarter, we made 10 investments with a median check size of $50k and post-money valuation of $15m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (3), eCommerce SaaS (4), and PropTech / Future of Work (3). 

> Read the Q4 2022 Recap here 📝

• Packsmith: Distributed fulfillment for brands

• Flexbase: Finance super-app for small businesses

• Krava: Reimagining the future of sustainable spaces

• Two Boxes: eCommerce returns processing platform

• Popsmith: Reimagining the popcorn experience

• Candidate.fyi: The missing candidate experience layer

• Arber: Modern lawn, garden & plant care brand

• Otis: Modern pet care platform

• Stealth / TBA

• Stealth / TBA

There are exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere building exceptional companies, and we spend most of our time trying to find them, and buy a ticket on their rocket ship. I maintain deep conviction in our fund’s strategy, and believe the market turbulence will continue to work in our favor as we sit on a healthy cash position, ready to take advantage of opportunities. To rearticulate our approach:

1. Invest as close to the first check as possible 

2. Focus on the categories we know best 

3. Leverage our massive network on behalf of portfolio companies

4. Provide operational, sales & team support to deliver unfair competitive advantage

5. Champion our companies religiously to drive incremental exposure, customers, and business opportunities

6. Position ourselves as each founder's favorite and most helpful investor 

Many of these attributes result in higher quality and larger quantities of deal flow, one of the most pivotal aspects of any type of investment firm.

We also believe that the earlier the stage that one invests (and we invest very early), the more diversification is needed to weather the zeros and optimize the chances of hitting home runs. As you know, it is a tremendous amount of work to source, diligence, and assess these businesses. This is work I love, and what I feel is needed to deliver above market returns over an extended period of time.

As always, the fund has a strong pipeline for new investments and will continue to monitor follow-on opportunities into existing portfolio companies that show breakout success/growth metrics. If you come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me (ben@superangel.vc).

Thank you for your ongoing support and confidence.

Sincerely,

Ben Zises 

SuperAngel.Fund

PS - In case you missed it, our fund was recently featured by Mintz Levin in their newsletter series: “MintzTech Connect Industry News: Spotlight on Ben Zises and SuperAngel.Fund,” written by Daniel I. DeWolf, Chair, Technology Practice, Co-chair, Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice. 

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech & Future of Work.

We are excited to highlight Ben Zises and SuperAngel.Fund in this edition of MintzTech Connect.

When it comes to investing in private enterprises, success is often defined by a company’s revenue, customer base, and other performance metrics. But what happens when the companies you are interested in haven’t even sold a product?

Just ask Ben Zises, angel investor, fund manager, and founder of SuperAngel.Fund. In the turbulent world of venture capital, Ben has earned his reputation by funding companies at their inception (known in the industry as an “angel” investment). Ben has helped numerous start-ups, with both funding and advisory support, to power through their tenuous early stages and overcome obstacles on their journeys to success.

Early stage companies are rarely market-tested. As such, angel investors rely heavily on their intuition and other qualitative key selection metrics. Ben searches for those entrepreneurs that have the edge necessary to achieve success – a process he describes as “more of an art than a science.” Before every investment, he takes time to get to know the company’s founders intimately, looking for individuals who are resourceful, resilient, fastidious, and, above all else, driven. These traits can make all the difference in a company’s ability to find success.

Ben’s ability to identify up-and-coming entrepreneurs is just one tool he uses to set SuperAngel.Fund apart. Drawing on his own experience as a founder, Ben devotes a substantial amount of time towards advising the fund’s companies on an individualized basis, offering mentorship and acute insight during times of need. Ben also leverages his extensive network of other founders, operators, fund managers, and private investors in the New York region to help his companies procure capital and lend additional expertise. Maybe most importantly, however, is Ben’s unwavering support for each company in SuperAngel’s portfolio. Ben prides himself in being more than a financial resource for entrepreneurs; he is also their most relentless advocate, and is most proud of the references that founders share about him (read here).

Ben started angel investing in 2014 after meeting the founders and writing the first check into quip, an oral care company that started out by selling high-design electric toothbrushes via subscription online. Today, quip offers much more: it has expanded into other product categories like mouthwash, floss, and aligners, along with new retail/distribution channels like Target and Walmart, and more recently, launching professional dental-related services.

Using the success of quip as momentum, Ben began making angel investments into other consumer product companies, investing nearly $4 million of his own money and that of his network through special purpose vehicles (SPVs), eventually selecting 30 more companies to invest in between 2014 and 2020. As many of those other businesses showed signs of growth and success too, Ben decided to go all in as an angel investor to enable him to do what he loved and believed he could excel at professionally on a full-time basis.

He launched SuperAngel.Fund in January 2021 to scale his investment platform, and ever since, the fund and its portfolio companies have delivered upon their promise of growth. Inclusive of his earlier investments, the fund has now deployed over $12 million in capital to more than 75 companies and grown its assets to an estimated value of $30 million (62% IRR). The fund counts more than 100 LPs as investors, and focuses on categories where Ben has either an information, educational, access, or network advantage. Namely, businesses in consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), property tech, and future-of-work technology.

Given the nature of his fund registered as a 506(c), Ben is able to publicly share his fund materials and deck, which is accessible at the website: SuperAngelDeck.com. He also writes a regular newsletter series each week called ‘Founder Fridays’ that highlights each of the companies in his portfolio and the founders behind them – sign up for it here.

Other notable investments Ben has made include Caraway, Arber, Settle, Density, and Swag.com, the last of which had a successful exit in 2021, selling to Custom Ink for an undisclosed yet meaningful exit for all investors.

Ben Zises is a formidable investor who strives to become nothing less than one of the top-performing angels, leading one of the top-performing angel funds in the world. 

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer (CPG, eComm SaaS), PropTech & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.

Instead of this week’s Founder Friday, we wanted to check in with you, our loyal subscribers, and do a temperature check by way of a survey. Our goal is to collect your feedback to better inform our content strategy, and guide us in what to share, moving forward.

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Oh…we almost forgot! Each person that fills out a complete survey will be entered to win one of Caraway’s brand new food storage sets - in the color of your choice, of course. The winner will be announced in a future post. Best of luck and thanks for the feedback!

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SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.

I am pleased to share the Q3 2022 recap for SuperAngel.Fund.

During the quarter we made 14 investments (five of which were follow-ons), with a median check size of $50k and post-money valuation of $15m. Our investments were spread across Consumer (4), eCommerce SaaS (9) & PropTech (1).

Read the Q3 2022 Recap here 📝

Since the fund started in January 2021, we’ve made 99 total investments into 66 companies, 27 of which have been marked up so far. You can view my entire performance history over the past eight years here.

PS - My next quarterly fund started on October 1. You can read the deck and learn more by clicking here. If you have any questions about joining as an LP, reply to this email and let’s connect by phone, video, or in person if you’re in NYC.

• Toppings: Socially driven free food delivery

• Kimai: Lab grown diamonds & recycled jewelry

• Arber: Modern lawn, garden and plant care brand

• EIGHT: A new iconic American beer brand

• Kinn: Reach and engage customer communities

• Status: Redefining customer accounts

• Vitrine: Creator shops made easy

• Roomie: A better way to plan & shop for your space

• Bainbridge: Financial planning, data & forecasting solution

• Motion: Creative analytics platform for marketers

• HerdPay: Group buying made easy

• Adgile: The first tech-enabled OOH advertising company

• Capsule: Save & buy anything you find on social media

• Otis: Modern pet care platform

  Read 'Q3 2022' Recap

Below are two articles that I thought were worth sharing. The first is written by another venture fund that we collaborate with. It is extremely well-sourced and speaks to our common investment thesis and why it makes sense to index more heavily towards eCommerce SaaS companies over the brands themselves (e.g. software businesses that support the eCommerce ecosystem). The second includes data that supports the top performance in venture capital coming from emerging/first time fund managers like ours vs larger funds.

• "Investing in the Future of Commerce" (via M13)

• "When Public Markets Experience Volatility, Experts Say To Invest In Emerging Managers" (via Forbes)

In case you missed it, I also recommend reading the ‘State of the Market’ report that I wrote on July 1, 2022.  This contains my thoughts on the current market conditions, how it impacts my fund and early stage investment opportunities as a whole. 

Additionally, I wanted to re-share an interview I did on June 30, 2022 with 1-800-D2C, an eCommerce publication. This provides deeper insights into my fund strategy, process and philosophy. I also list several trends I am seeing, along with investments we’ve made that target them.

If you happen to come across impressive founders looking to raise capital within our areas of focus, I always appreciate you sharing those opportunities with me.

Feel free to reach out via email with any questions, to share deal flow opportunities, or to get in touch (ben@superangel.vc).

As a refresher, SuperAngel has two distinct vehicles - our fund and syndicate.

Fund Info

The fund is structured as a Rolling Fund, which is a series of quarterly funds that enables Limited Partners (LPs) to join at any time and participate in all investments made during the quarters which the LP invests in. Investors get diversified exposure to every company that the fund invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio, and priority access to co-investments. Click here to apply.

Syndicate Info

Our syndicate allows investors to review individual opportunities (generally 1 per quarter). There is no upfront commitment when joining the syndicate - members are notified when we have a new investment to share and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. However, there are often limited allocations for syndicates as priority is given to fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to apply.

SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.