THE INVESTOR'S SEAT
The Right Question.
Capital alongside named leads. Editorial only. Apply via Angel Club.
Never the lead. Never first money in. A high-conviction angel practice, selective by design
Pre-seed and seed checks for the founders I'd have built alongside. 4 personal checks plus approximately 12 Angel Club syndicate co-investments per year. Incentives aligned. Time compressed. Signal over volume. My one filter: my contribution must far exceed the check.
At Sensai in 2018 we had a US distribution deal ready to sign. The legal terms were standard. The incentive architecture was not. Three years later, when the partner restructured, the section we negotiated on a 3am call from Buenos Aires was the section that survived. Every exit is written at Series A. I have been on the wrong side of that call before. More than once.
The cleanest way in is through Angel Club. It gives founders a clearer path, and it gives me the context to be useful quickly. Founders sharpen narrative before the raise. Investors see signal faster.
THE PRINCIPLE IN ONE LINE
“Capital doesn’t flow to founders who have the answer. It flows to founders who have named the right question.”
ANGEL GAMBINO
Presence. Trust. Taste.
What endures when everything else is replaceable.
STAY CLOSE
If you're not ready to apply yet.
For allocators not yet ready to apply: receive the quarterly thesis note. Founders building toward Series A: opt in to the monthly deal-flow note for context, not capital pitches.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS
The truth about this
Most companies are not a fit.
I optimize for founder-market obsession, not polish.
I invest slowly and support deeply.
The check is small. The alignment is not.
WHERE TO START
Three lanes. One door each.
Pre-seed and seed founders raising capital. Angel Club is the front door.
Allocators seeking vetted, curated dealflow alongside 400+ co-investors.
Fund or SPV raising. Portfolio company support. Operational help inside your fund.
For embedded operating leadership at portfolio companies, the executive page covers fractional Chief Growth
Officer engagements
WHAT I BACK
Four ways in.
Three intersections, plus one wildcard. Not a sector thesis. A taste thesis. These are the places where I've operated long enough to recognize what the market hasn't priced yet, plus the door for the team that doesn't fit a box.
Health × living systems
Companies rebuilding the architecture of how people heal, flourish, and regenerate. Mental health, brain health, women's health, longevity, psychedelic medicine, and neurodiversity. Where the science is real and the bureaucracy is finally moving.
Senior Advisor, PsyMed Ventures. Board Trustee, CIIS. Former CPO of Ellipsis Health.
Culture × community
The companies building new digital and physical communities, and the platforms where relationship infrastructure compounds at scale. Sports, media, entertainment, music, gaming, film, and social media. The founders building where capital is under-allocated: third spaces, Detroit and the asymmetric entry points that the coasts keep pricing as fringe.
Partner at venture studios that built BarkBox (Co-Created) and Ro (Prehype). Board member, Audible Reality and She Writes Songs. Board Advisor to The Sensational League (women’s professional 7v7 soccer) and to Global Goals. Detroit-based Ford case-study investing. Former executive at the BBC, MTV/Viacom/Paramount, Rhapsody International (Napster) under President & CEO Bill Patrizio, Bebo (acquired by AOL/Time Warner), Sonico (acquired by IAC), Westfield Shoppingtowns, and Castrol Lubricants. Founding team at Gameplay, taken public. Former Queen’s Park Rangers footballer; tournament manager, US Women’s National Team at the London 2012 Olympics (team won gold).
AI × incentives
AI built with the incentives to remove bias and support people, planet, profit, and purpose. AI that makes the world better. AI that gives us time back to live la dolce vita, to discover and fulfill our true purpose. AI that scales human potential, for people and planet, universe and beyond.
Investor and advisor to multiple AI companies. Former Principal, AWS Startups, CEO of Sensai, and CPO of Ellipsis Health.
Surprise me
I invest in teams I trust, with the taste to build what’s needed and desired. People first; categories follow. If you’re outside the three intersections above, apply through Angel Club anyway. The conviction is mine to find.
Founder of Angel Club (411 investors in the network). 1,000+ founders advised, mentored, invested in, or supported across multiple categories.
WHERE THE CAPITAL LIVES
Active sectors.
Taste thesis stays. Receipts cluster here.
Brain Health
Healthcare
Animal health and wellbeing
Mental Health
Sports
Water and the blue economy
Behavioral Health
Media
Economic mobility
Longevity
Entertainment
AI
Sectors where I am actively deploying personal checks and where Angel Club syndicates cluster. Not a sector thesis. The places I have operated long enough to recognize what the market has not priced yet.
What a check looks like.
Pre-seed · Seed
Never first money in. Never the lead. Always alongside an established lead. Occasional Series A or secondaries when conviction justifies.
$25 to $150k
Sized to be meaningful to you,
proportionate to the round.
4 from me · ~12 syndicate
Intentionally small from me. The Angel Club syndicate is unlimited
and typically writes twelve checks per year alongside.
Observer or board
Only when it serves the company. Rarely requested, often declined.
HOW IT WORKS
From warm intro to wire.
No cold decks. No blind pitches. A real process, run fast, with a clear answer at the end.
01
Angel Club syndicate
Every investment begins here. Founders apply through the syndicate; the ones that match my thesis surface to me. No cold decks, no blind pitches. The Club does the first pass so the conversations I take are the ones worth taking.
02
One call
Thirty to forty-five minutes. I'm looking for the question you're answering that others can't see yet, and how you'll know when you've answered it. If the call goes well, we take a second.
03
A clear answer
Yes, no, or "here's when I can look at it." If yes, terms are fast and founder-friendly: priced rounds and convertible notes preferred; SAFEs considered. No surprise asks, no board drama. If no, I'll name what I'm not seeing, so you can use it. If later, I'll give you the window and you decide if it fits your timeline.
04
After the check
I don't micromanage, and I don't disappear. You get priority access to my network: Angel Club, Nfluence, operator friends at every stage. You get my line when a decision matters. Not a weekly call. A real one, when you need it.