Angel investing for designers
Issue 248: What I learned from four awesome panelists
Ben Blumenrose of Designer Fund recently wrote, It's a Historic Moment for Design Founders; With that, I hope it ushers a new era of design investors. Blumenrose, Soleio, and many other designers turn investors paved the way, but we need more in the ecosystem future generation. This is why Proof of Concept co-hosted an event with Bain Capital Ventures in their beautiful Jackson Square office: Angel Investing for Designers. I met Amanda Huang during my time at Replit, and she was at Adobe. We reconnected during the Paper investment announcement and discussed how it's relatively easy for founders to connect with Product Managers and Engineers, but Design is a rare commodity to find.
The event had an incredible panel of designers: Adrián Mato from GitHub, Kathryn Gonzalez from Airbnb, Effy Zhang, who is building something new, and John Pham from SF Compute. I'll synthesize some of their insights and answers to questions during the evening.
Insights from the conversation
1. You don't need to be a millionaire
Being a millionaire definitely helps. However, the perception that you need to be an exited founder or have generational wealth to angel invest is what immediately stops people from considering it. In the United States, the SEC has a criterion to be an accredited investor. There are also exams you can take as an alternative path to being accredited: Series 65, 7, and 82.
Amanda brought up the money topic with the panel, as many people in the event wanted to know, "What are the check sizes?" Check sizes can be from $50,000 to $1,000. As John Pham said, the amount of money a designer brings is often not the value they bring to the capital. The value is your taste, skill, and insights that make the check size invaluable. I've been able to get into deals at the seed round, sometimes Series A, with a smaller check because of my domain knowledge in the space of design and developer tools.
What you can do: Allocate yourself. Pham mentioned he could take $1,000 and invest in his friend's startup instead of going to Disneyland. You'd be surprised how much capital you can acquire over time when you have clear intentionality on what's important to spend it on.
2. Some designers are bad investors
Our strengths as designers can also be our weaknesses in certain contexts. I shared this hot take that not all designers should get into angel investing. Our empathetic nature might compel us to say “yes and” to every opportunity vs. being disciplined and pragmatic about evaluating companies. Rooting for the founder comes with bringing doses of reality to be of value to them. I challenged the designers in the room to consider other ways of getting involved in startups if this is difficult: consult, make a connection, and be an operator who is around to help.
That said, Annie Clark, Director of Design at BCV, posted on LinkedIn what makes design investors great:
Designers make excellent early investors. Not because we’re great with spreadsheets (unless you count color-coding rows by vibe 👩🏻🎨 ), but because we’re sensitive to product quality, emotionally attuned, and deeply opinionated. The best ones don’t just write checks—they help you tell your story, tighten your pitch, and ship something people actually want.
For designers: You don’t need a fund or a fancy title to get started. Angel investing can begin as simply as offering help. Giving product feedback. Sharing a Notion template. Making an intro. It’s not about getting rich (at least not quickly or reliably)—it’s about getting closer to the kinds of products and people you believe in. Basically: be useful, be opinionated, be early.
What you can do: Reflect on the pros and cons list on why you may choose to get into investing.
3. "Show, don't tell" is forever our strength
Making slide decks and working on visuals to tell the story may be second nature to us, but for those who don't have that gift, it's immensely valuable. Effy Zhang has been an angel investor and exited design founder. She's seen both ends of it. Zhang is a YC alum and knows how important it is to get the slide deck and story correct when raising money. If you do not have a stunning visual narrative that inspires investors, it could be the difference between if they say yes or no.
It's not only at the pitch deck phase. Zhang also helps with her portfolio companies on how they think about their marketing site and show themselves to the world. Not only does she advise them, but she can also jump into the pixels and code to make the experience better. I've helped portfolio companies with their brand and creative work. It sometimes involves getting on a call to give feedback or referring a Webflow developer they need for their site.
What you can do: Offer to review pitch decks of startup founders to give feedback. If you're getting started, be explicit that you're not investing but happy to look at their materials, which every founder will ecstatically accept an offer.
4. Develop a clear thesis
My first few investments were truly YOLO'ing it. Given my Growth background, I treat everything as an experiment, and angel investing is no different. After gaining insights on what's important to me, how I want to help, I developed the thesis of "Investing in tools that revolutionize the internet." It allows me to have a specific focus area in software democratization and enablement, while not being so niche that I can look at design/developer tools, infrastructure, and consumer. The thesis being clear doesn't mean it has to be complex. During the event, John Pham said, "I invest in my friends." It's such a powerful thesis that everyone understands.
5. Have clear expectations of success
As Effy Zhang said, if you're looking for ROI, you're better off investing in the stock market. Angel investing is high risk, and you should really think about it before putting your own money into it (Ask your Financial Panther). When I talked to a mentor about angel investing, he asked what I was expecting to make from it. "I expect to lose money," I responded, and that's when he knew I was ready. Exits do happen, but they take time. There is a meme about Jason Calacanis always bringing up how he was an early Uber investor, but hey, he got it, and it paid off.
For many in the panel, ROI wasn't the reason they got into angel investing. Kathryn Gonzalez shared a moment when there was a great moment of joy to use the infrastructure of one of her companies to build other things. For John Pham, the ROI is hanging out with friends and backing them by literally putting money in. Success stories also include Galileo joining Google and is now part of Stitch.
Recap
Thank you to those who came to the event. It was a wonderful discussion, and I was impressed with the honest and thoughtful questions. My hope isthat people in the room who once thought angel investing was not approachable were able to take a tiny step in considering that journey.
I've written a few posts on this topic in the past:
If you’re interested in angel investing, keep on the lookout for events on Luma. We received great feedback and will likely host more again. For me, angel investing is not about the ROI, but a sense of duty to give something back to the startup ecosystem that has been so good to me. When I was younger, living in San Francisco for the first time, I remember all the people who helped me along the way. Helping founders now do the same is the ROI for me.
Hyperlinks + notes
A collection of references for this post, updates, and weekly reads.
I felt this in my bones. As a founder, I’ve had days where just getting out of bed felt like a miracle. And yet, we keep showing up — not because it’s easy, but because something inside won’t let us quit.
Thank you for writing this. These words matter more than you know. Sometimes being “on the verge” is also where the next breakthrough happens.
Rooting for you,
—Eric