On Deck is on a mission to 10x the number of founders building world changing companies.

To accomplish this goal, we also want to help increase the number of experienced operators-turned-investors backing these founders and companies.
‍
When startups raise capital, who they choose to raise from can have a critical impact on their trajectory.
‍
World-class founders love raising from other established founders and experienced operators who have been there before, can provide relevant advice, and open up their networks to find new customers, potential hires, and more.
‍
But just like starting a company, getting started as an angel investor is fraught with risk and uncertainty.

• How much capital should I allocate?
• What is the right valuation, and do the terms make sense?
• How do I evaluate opportunities in this industry, or find experts to help me evaluate?
• How should I reference this founder, or understand if this team’s experience fits the problem they’re trying to solve?
• How much do I weigh traction against other positive signals?

The goal of ODA is to build an amazing community and peer learning environment around cohorts of established founders and operators, experienced angel investors, and emerging managers; helping them accelerate their journeys to becoming world-class angel investors.

In lieu of a program fee, for all investor fellowships we ask you to contribute to the On Deck Access Fund. For the Angel Fellowship, we ask for a $5,000 donation that enables two fellows to partake in the On Deck Founder Fellowship.
‍
As a participant in On Deck Angels, you get: 
1) A 5-week immersive onboarding, including hours of live programming, breakout sessions and masterclasses.

2) Access to the online community and On Deck Directory. You’ll have visibility into the various projects and ideas fellows are working on, opportunity to engage in online forums, and host discussion groups/workshops with our founders.

3) The opportunity to participate in official On Deck investor programming, including office hours, our “first look” investor program, founder pitch days, and to request introductions directly to 1,000+ ODF founders at the most formative stages of company building.

‍
4) And ultimately: the life-changing opportunity to build relationships with a group of high potential co-investors, talented founders and operators: a network and talent “asset” that will follow you deep into your investing career.

To be a good fit for ODA, you are likely:‍

• A current or past founder or operator, with deep knowledge of your market who wants to move into angel investing
• An experienced angel investor looking to accelerate your pace of investing and develop your own pipeline of direct deals
• An emerging manager currently or in the early stages of raising institutional capital

Between attending sessions, meeting other fellows 1:1, and curated mastermind groups you can expect to spend ~2-4 hours per week engaging with the program. We recognize that everyone in the program has busy schedules and a lot of personal commitments so engagement may vary week to week and that’s ok.

We have purposefully structured the program with your schedules in mind, allowing for structured content, a speaker series, and more curated small group sessions pairing those with challenges to those who have solved them before. We will also record and share sessions and engage asynchronously on Slack. This structure will continue throughout the annual membership.

There’s no pressure to invest in any companies or founders you meet: you can invest at your own pace and remain focused on your company. Most participants invest in companies they’re already helping.

Yes, the On Deck Angel Fellowship is for accredited investors only.
‍
We want the ODA community to be a safe space to share information about active fundraises, deals you’re seeing and considering participating in. Unfortunately, this means we have to restrict access to accredited investors only.
‍
Accredited investors are individuals or entities that meet standards defined by U.S. securities regulators which allow them to invest in certain private securities offerings. Most startups raising money do so from accredited investors only.
‍
You should read the full definition here, but in brief this includes:
‍
1) Individuals with annual income over $200K individually (or $300K with spouse) in each of the last 2 years and an expectation of the same this year.
‍
2) Individuals with net assets over $1 million, excluding their primary residence (priced common stock or vested shares in a startup can count).
‍
3) An institution with over $5 million in assets, such as a venture fund or a trust.
‍
4) An entity made up entirely of accredited investors.
‍
While this regulation itself is problematic for a number of reasons, the consequences of not playing by SEC rules are high and mostly fall on founders, so we have to be strict here.

Yes. ODA will be run entirely remotely.

In the fall, we’ll return to organizing offline programming like dinners, small gatherings, and retreats, but the core Membership will remain a remote-first experience.

We expect that participants will be experienced angel investors, emerging managers raising institutional capital, and founders and operators who plan to continue operating and building companies as their “day job” while scaling up their investing on the side.

If you’re an investor interested in equities and crypto, we suggest you check out the On Deck Investing Fellowship.

Yes! Many ODF Fellows are excited founders and experienced operators who are investing in addition to building their own companies. We’d love to have you involved in both, or take one after the other depending on the optimal timing for your founder journey.

You can view our values here, but to summarize: Service, Sacredness, Respect, and Gratitude.

After the fellowship ends, you’ll maintain access to your cohort and community for one year. 

After one year of membership, you will have the opportunity to renew your membership. If you choose not to renew your membership, you will lose access to all On Deck platforms, networks, and content.