Apply To Spearhead 2 For A $1M Fund
Today, we start accepting applications for Spearhead 2, a program that gives startup founders their own fund, so they can start angel investing.
Founders start with a $200K fund. If they make promising investments, they receive up to $1M to invest over 2 years.
Nine months ago, Spearhead 1 accepted 19 founders from companies like PillPack, Handy, and Clearbit. These founders have now invested over $2M in 50 seed and pre-seed companies. They’ve co-invested with Founders Fund, Greylock, and Marc Benioff. And they’ve been mentored by investors like Keith Rabois, Elad Gil, Cyan and Scott Banister, Daniel Gross, Lee Linden, Jared Friedman, Nick Chirls, Ann Miura Ko, Naval Ravikant, and Jeff Fagnan.
Applications for Spearhead 2 are due by Oct 31.
Founders backing founders
Founders already help startups with advice–they’re probably the most helpful advisors. They also have access to the best startups. Spearhead gives these founders a fund so they can start investing in the companies they advise.
These funds let startups raise money from their most helpful advisors. They compensate founders for their advice. And they create more high-quality opportunities for downstream VCs.
Collaboration between AngelList and Accomplice
Spearhead is a collaboration between AngelList and the venture capital firm Accomplice. AngelList provides the technology and back office (lawyers, accountants, et cetera). Accomplice is the largest investor in Spearhead.
Spearhead funds are independent of Accomplice and investments don’t require their (or anyone’s) approval. Founders are also encouraged to get additional investors for their fund.
AngelList’s co-founder, Naval Ravikant said, “This is the first program that is trying to turn you into a capitalist, and not a laborer. Unlike a traditional scout program, we are not training scouts, we are building full-fledged VCs. The founders are not getting a slice of carry in a fund, they are getting carry in their own funds. This is really about teaching, learning, and scaling the craft of investing.”
Wealthy founders have been investing in startups since the dawn of venture capital. Now any founder can apply for their own fund.
See the FAQ and podcast to learn more about Spearhead. Also see this in-depth report from Techcrunch.
Meet Spearhead 1
These 19 members of Spearhead 1 are now running their own funds with millions of dollars of dry powder.
Alex Yampolskiy, Founder of Security Scorecard
Alex MacCaw, Founder of Clearbit
Alice Zhang, Founder of Verge Genomics
Amrit Saxena, Founder of Stella.ai
Andrew Bialecki, Founder of Klaviyo
Ankur Nagpal, Founder of Teachable
Evan Weaver, Founder of Fauna
Grant Miller and Marc Campbell, Founders of Replicated
Jay Desai, Founder of PatientPing
John Capodilupo, Founder of Whoop
Laura Behrens Wu, Founder of Shippo
Nikhil Srinivasan, Founder of Cleargraph (acquired by Coinbase)
Noah Ready-Campbell, Founder of Built Robotics
Oisin Hanrahan and Umang Dua, Founders of Handy
Prasanna Sankar, Founder of Rippling
Preethi Kasireddy, Founder of TruStory
Roger Chen, Founder of Computable Labs
Tiffany Zhong, Founder of Zebra Intelligence
TJ Parker, Founder of PillPack (acquired by Amazon)