Pre-Seed Founders Should Not Ignore Small Angel Checks

Pre-seed and seed founders: don't ignore small checks.

In 2024, 34% of the checks into startups raising on SAFEs were for $25K or less.

Data below is for US companies on Carta that are raising their initial set of capital. All on post-money SAFEs, all before any priced rounds.

Let's be honest - yes, those big checks anchor the round and matter a lot! No question.

But there are many reasons why accepting small checks into your SAFE round may be beneficial.

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 (𝗮𝗸𝗮 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹)

• Often your very first believers, willing to commit to the vision before any institutional investors.

• Can kickstart the round, providing momentum to show vital proof to the larger checks down the road.

• Value of the network / effort > just cash. Angels often make introductions that snowball into future funding.

• For bigger round, small checks can strategically fill investor gaps (maybe you convert a GTM advisor into a strategic angel, for instance).

Fundamentally believe that startups are better for everyone when small ticket investors have an opportunity to participate - cool to see that many founders agree based on the data 🙏

#startups #founders #preseed #SAFEs #fundraising

Lots more on the current market for SAFE rounds in our State of Pre-Seed Report, read for free at the link in graphic!