Bringing A New Syndicate To Life

A Syndicate Is Not a Discount on Angel Investing

Every few weeks someone in the startup advisory circle tells me they’re thinking about running their own syndicate. “I should run one.” “Why should I pay you a carry for a deal I could invest in myself?” “I don’t want to pay carry.” “I know enough people, we can put together our own thing.”

It comes up so often I’ve stopped being surprised by it.

Most of them won’t run one. The few who try usually do one deal and quietly go back to writing angel cheques. That’s not a knock on them. It’s because the job they thought they were signing up for isn’t the job they ended up doing.

A syndicate isn’t a cheaper way to angel invest. It’s a different job. The job is fundraising.

Your Money vs Their Money

When I write an angel cheque, the decision is mine. The win or the loss is mine. I don’t need to justify the investment to anyone. I know the risks, I know the gaps in my knowledge, and I can live with the call I made. Every mistake gets rolled into my own do’s and don’ts for the next deal.

A syndicate flips that. Now there are 15 oto 30 people in the deal with you, each with their own questions, their own concerns, their own threshold for risk. They’ve all acknowledged the risk. They’ve all signed the docs. But when a deal doesn’t make it, some of them, rightly or wrongly, will assign responsibility to the lead. That’s why losing on a syndicate deal hurts more than losing on an angel cheque. It’s not just your money. It’s other people’s money, your reputation, and your ego, all at the same time.

Running a Syndicate Is Fundraising

I’ve been a founder. Every founder knows the pain of fundraising. The deal memo. The video. The demo. The calls. The follow ups. The chasing.

Running a syndicate is the same job, just with a startup that isn’t yours. You need enough conviction to go to your network and sell the deal, knowing some of them will say no, some will ghost, some will commit and then pull back at the last minute. Then comes the paperwork. KYC. Legal fees. Syndicate fees. Platform costs. They add up, and they eat into the upside that the people quoting carry concerns think they’re saving.

This is what the carry actually pays for. Sourcing the deal. Diligence. Running the raise. Handling the legal and admin. Putting your name on it when things go sideways. When someone says “why should I pay carry,” what they’re really saying is “I don’t see the work.” That’s fair. Most of the work is invisible until you’ve done it yourself.

Knowing People With Money Isn’t a Strategy

Some will say they know enough people to put a syndicate together. For one deal, maybe. For two? For four? For six?

Knowing people with money doesn’t mean they want to write cheques into high risk asset classes. It doesn’t mean they share your conviction on the founder. It doesn’t mean they care about the sector. I’ve watched people set out to raise $100k for a deal, certain they had ten friends good for $10k each, and end up scraping together five at $5k. The math always looks easier on paper than it does in your DMs.

Even one deal takes more work than people expect. Raising for four deals a year while holding down a day job and maintaining quality across each one is a different conversation entirely. The ego and the bravado and the “I know everyone” energy that gets people started tends to evaporate around deal two.

The Real Question

Running one syndicate teaches you why people pay the carry. Running four teaches you whether you actually want this job. Most don’t. That’s not a failure on their part. It’s the difference between writing a cheque and leading a raise.

Before you decide you can do this yourself, ask the people you’d be raising from whether they’d actually back you. The answer is usually quieter than the question.