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$1M for Founders to Invest

Spearhead is where founders get their first angel fund.

Over 50 founders have started their investing career at Spearhead. They come from companies worth over $15B, including OpenDoor, Neuralink, PillPack, Rippling, Shippo and Scale.

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Founders backing founders

Founders often help other founders get started. Spearhead gives them capital to invest, so they get compensated for their help. To date, they’ve invested over $8M in 160 companies.

Become a better founder

Founders in Spearhead get better at running their companies after sitting on the other side of the table. They also learn how to be better operators from the other elite founders in their class.

There’s no pressure for to invest—founders stay focused on their company and invest at their own pace. 

No investing experience required

We teach founders how to invest, and we give them access to mentors like Sam Altman, Cyan Banister, David Sacks, Elad Gil, Jeff Fagnan, Keith Rabois, Mike Maples and Naval Ravikant.

We also provide legal and back-office services, so founders can focus on investing instead of administering. Finally, we introduce them to limited partners when they’re ready to raise their next fund.

Started by Jeff and Naval

Jeff Fagnan and Naval Ravikant started Spearhead to democratize angel investing. We believe anyone with good dealflow should be able to invest, not just people with money and connections.

From founding to investing

Entrepreneurship is a career that goes from founding startups to investing in them. Founders may start one or two companies over their career—but they can invest for a lifetime.

Podcast available on:

Apr 07 2020

Founders Almost Can’t Be Referenced

A founder who’s great for one business may be terrible for another
Some angels insist on checking references of founders. This can work if you know what you’re doing, but reference checking is an art that most people haven’t mastered. Founding a startup is an act of creativity. If you think of the great writers, philosophers and artists throughout history, honest references would tell you they’re all crazy. More

Apr 04 2020

Your Reputation Is Built by the Companies That Are Doing Poorly

Don’t invest so much that you’ll behave badly when things get rough
Angel investors tend to be on the tough side when they get started, especially when investing a lot of their own money. Generally, you don’t want to invest money that you’re not OK losing. If you have too much at risk in any deal, you’ll engage in bad behavior when things get rough. More

Apr 02 2020

Coachability Is Overrated

Great founders listen to lots of advice and follow little of it
There’s a meme among venture capitalists—especially inexperienced ones—that a good founder should be coachable. These investors rely too much on their own abilities, thinking they’re right and founders are wrong. Inexperienced investors also rely too much on the idea that you can change people in the short-term. Experienced investors know this isn’t the case. More

Apr 01 2020

You’re Not Investing in Nice People

Invest in people with high energy, intelligence and integrity
I use Warren Buffett’s three-part test for qualities you want in a partner: high energy, high intelligence and high integrity. High energy is obvious. You have to work hard, because startups are the Olympics of business and you’re competing against the best in the world. To paraphrase “Glengarry Glen Ross”: first prize gets a Cadillac Eldorado; second prize gets a set of steak knives; and third place gets fired. More

Mar 31 2020

Invest Only in Technical Teams

If there’s no technical team, you’re not investing in technology
Let’s discuss how judgment applies to evaluating teams, product and market, traction, and social proof. This is the technology business; you want to invest in technology teams. Every great tech startup is highly likely to have a great technologist on its founding team. If they aren’t the most important member of the team, the technologist must be sufficiently compensated and motivated. More

Mar 30 2020

Invest in the Smartest Scientists in a New Field

You’re not going to become a great tech investor by reading TechCrunch
There are many ways to build good judgment. The timeless kind of judgment—good decision-making and the ability to size people up—comes with experience. You can develop it by reading great works at the intersection of science, business and philosophy. Read books that cover how smart people think. Build so-called “mental models” and develop an understanding of microeconomics, mathematics and game theory. More

Mar 25 2020

Don’t Fantasize About What You Would Do If You Were the Founder

You're not running the company—you’re betting on the founder
A common trap for investors—especially if you’re an entrepreneur—is to fantasize about the things you could do with the company if you were the founder. You’ll learn the painful lesson that it’s actually the entrepreneur who’s running the company. It’s important to listen carefully and take the founder at their word about what they plan to do. More

Mar 23 2020

You’ll Get Less Money in Your Winners

Always try to get your standard bite-size in a deal
It’s easy to overestimate your own judgment. It’s perfectly OK to say, “I don’t know.” That should be your answer most of the time. There’s only a few deals where you should say, “I have conviction.” And, even then, be careful how much conviction you have. At the seed stage, if you put a lot of money into one company and very little into another, that begs the question: “Do you really have conviction, or do you simply have better access to one deal?” Generally, the better the deal, the less access you’ll have. More

Mar 11 2020

You Can Give Every Deal One Fatal Flaw

A startup that breaks all the rules won’t get anywhere
You can give every deal one fatal flaw: the thing that traditional venture capitalists will use as their excuse to pass on the deal. If there’s more than one flaw, you have to worry. Startups are rewarded for innovating on something new. If you invest in a startup that’s trying to innovate on things that already work—such as team structure or founder mentality—you’re just taking on additional risk. More

Mar 09 2020

The Best Deals Look Weird

You want to be right when everybody else is wrong
In investing, you want to be non-consensus right. You want to be right when everybody else is wrong. If you’re right when everybody else is right, you won’t make enough of a return. If you’re wrong, you won’t make any return. The best deals are weird. They always have something broken, strange or different about them. More
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