Past Founders And Funders Make For Good Seed Investments

It’s often suggested that people who’ve previously founded startups are disproportionately successful with their next companies. For example, in his study of 195 billion-dollar startups, Ali Tamaseb of Data Collective (DCVC) found that nearly 60% of these unicorns were started by repeat entrepreneurs.

To better understand how experience affects the likelihood of a startup’s success, we dug into the AngelList syndicate and profile data. We defined success for a seed investment broadly: a successful seed investment goes on to raise an equity round or is currently marked on our books as having increased in value (including companies that have a positive exit). Filtering down to just those seed deals that have had at least two years to season, we see that companies founded by a team with both founder and investor experience are significantly more successful than the baseline.

The data suggests that having started a company and having invested in companies are both indicators of future success—but the combination of having both experiences on the founding team has an even greater impact. When founders bring their operational expertise and investors bring their breadth of experience, these strategic and tactical strengths combine to create a startup superpower.

That’s exactly why Spearhead was founded and we’re proud to announce that Spearhead is opening applications for its third class today—to give founders their own fund so they can learn the craft of angel investing, deepen their experience and increase their chances of future success. Here’s what Spearhead shared today about this opportunity:

Spearhead opens applications for $1M angel funds

Founders can also apply for a $10M fund when they graduate

Today, we’re opening for the third class of Spearhead—where founders get their own funds, so they can learn the craft of angel investing.