FAQ

Questions.

What we fund, how to apply, how money comes back, and what happens to the founder if the company does not work.

The basics

What this is.

What is Georgia Angels?
We write the first check into early stage Georgia companies, in every industry and every county. Two things come with the money that usually do not: support that continues after the check, and founder programs built to carry a person through the end of a company.How it works
Have you invested in anything yet?
Not yet. We are raising the money now. When there is a portfolio it goes on this site by county and by industry, including the companies that did not work.What we will publish
Are you a state program or a government agency?
No. Georgia Angels is private, and the money in it is private Georgia money. We are not a state agency, we do not administer public money, and we are not affiliated with any government body. We work alongside public programs and expect to send companies to them.
Where does the money come from?
Georgians. Individuals, founders who have already sold something, family offices, corporations, foundations and funds. All of it is invested in Georgia companies.
Who runs it?
Mark Feinberg, Managing Partner.About
How big do you intend to get?
Over ten years, $1 billion in cumulative Georgia Angels capital, across successive funds and vehicles, and 1,000 companies funded across Georgia over the life of the platform, directly and alongside partners.An ambition rather than money we hold, and it depends on performance, on raising each fund on its own evidence, and on conditions nobody controls. An ambition too. Every company still has to earn its check.Where this goes

For investors

Questions investors ask.

Is anything on this site an offer to invest?
No. Nothing here is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, and no form on this site reserves anything or commits anyone. Any offering is made only through definitive documents delivered to qualified investors.Disclosures
Can I register interest?
You can tell us you are interested and we will have a conversation about what Georgia Angels does. The form starts that and nothing else.Tell us you are interested
How much money are you raising?
It has not closed. The figure goes up when it closes and counsel clears saying so on a public page.
Why put money here instead of writing my own angel checks?
Because doing it properly alone is a job. Diligence on one company runs past twenty hours, you can only judge well inside your own field, and the arithmetic of this asset class wants roughly fifty investments to work. The median angel portfolio is seven.The case, with the research under it
How does money come back?
Two ways. Out of revenue as a company earns, which starts earlier and needs no sale. Or in a sale or a later round, years out. Which one applies is set at the start from how the business makes money.One check in, two ways back
What return should I expect?
None is promised, projected or implied, here or anywhere else on this site. Most first checks into early stage companies do not come back. Anybody who tells you otherwise about this asset class is selling something.
How long is the money tied up?
Years. Private company investments are illiquid and there is no secondary market for them. Do not put in money you will need.
What is the minimum?
Minimums, fees and every other economic term sit in the offering documents. We walk you through them in the first conversation, and nothing goes out before we have spoken.
Can I decide what happens to my returns?
Directing your own share is something we intend to offer. What the elections are, how they work and what they do to your tax position are being settled with counsel and a fund administrator, and they live in the definitive documents.
Do I have to be accredited?
The form asks whether you believe you qualify. That answer is a screening signal so we know what conversation to have, and it is not verification. Where an offering requires verification it happens separately, before the offering, through a third party.
Do I have to live in Georgia?
No. The companies have to be here. The money can come from anywhere.
Can I pick which companies I am in?
No. Investments are underwritten as a portfolio and not one at a time. Co-investing alongside us is a separate conversation and a separate set of documents.

Whether you fit

Whether you fit.

Four gates, and then the questions people actually ask about them.

Do you only fund technology companies?
No. Every industry. A fourteen-van plumbing business and a university spinout are both in scope, and they are judged by different things, because they are different businesses.
Do I have to be in Atlanta?
No. We run the state as six territories and Atlanta is one of them.The six territories
What counts as a Georgia business?
Headquartered here, employing most of your people here, or committed to doing so. The precise legal test is being written with counsel and is not settled. In the meantime we will ask what it looks like for your business and take an honest answer.
How early is too early?
There has to be something to look at. Customers, users, a product in the field, a signed pilot, research on its way out of a lab. If you have an idea and nothing else, an SBDC, an incubator or an accelerator is the better first call, and we will still read the application.
Do you fund companies with no revenue?
Sometimes. Commercialization work gets smaller checks, and research coming out of a university often has no revenue by definition. What it needs instead is evidence that somebody wants the thing.
Is there anything you will not fund?
Grants and charities. Everything else gets a real answer from us. If we cannot underwrite your business we will say so in the first conversation.
How old can the company be?
We have not set an age limit. A ten-year-old business adding a second location is a different underwriting question from a spinout, and both can be a fit.
I failed at a company before. Does that count against me?
It counts in your favor. We ask what happened and we do not screen on it. In venture-backed companies the success rate for founders starting again after a failure is 22%, against 18% for first-time founders. We read a previous failure the same way in every industry we fund, and the study only describes one of them.Gompers, Kovner, Lerner and Scharfstein, Journal of Financial Economics 96(1), 2010. United States figure. Venture-backed companies from 1986 to 2003, with success defined as an IPO or a filing to go public. Growth ventures only.
Does meeting the criteria mean I get funded?
No. It means the application gets read properly. Most companies that clear the gates are still not a fit for this portfolio at this moment.

Applying

Getting a decision.

How do I apply?
One form, one entry point for the whole state. About six minutes.Apply for funding
What will you ask me?
The company, where it is, what stage it is at, what you are building and who pays for it, how much you want, and the one thing this check would let you reach and by when. Think about that last one before you start. It is the question the whole application turns on.
Do I need an introduction?
No. Nobody has to vouch for you to get read. Warm introductions are how most capital gets allocated and are one reason the same few counties keep getting it.
Do I need a pitch deck?
Not to apply. Plain language about what you are building and who pays for it is enough to start. If we go further we will ask for the material we need.
How long until I hear back?
We have not published a time, because we would rather promise something we can keep. Once there are enough live applications to know what we actually do, the response time goes on this site and we hold ourselves to it.
What are the steps?
Apply, fit screen, a conversation, diligence, Investment Committee, then invest and support.The six steps, and whose move each one is
What is the Investment Committee?
The group that makes the final call, independently of whoever brought the company in. It weighs the company and how it sits against everything else we hold. Members are named publicly once they are confirmed.
Will you sign an NDA before I apply?
No, and you should not need one. Send what a competitor could read without harming you, and keep confidential information out of the form.
Who reads what I send?
The people running Georgia Angels, and the service providers that host the database and send the mail. Nobody else.What happens to your information
What happens if the answer is no?
You get told. Where we can say why, we do. A no from us is about fit at a moment in time and is not a judgment anybody else should read anything into.
Can I apply again later?
Yes. A company that was too early in March can be a fit in December, and we would rather see you twice than miss you once.
Can you delete my application?
Yes. Write to hello@georgiaangels.com and you do not need to cite a statute. Otherwise we keep it while the conversation is live and for a reasonable period after, so we know who we have already spoken to.Privacy

The check

What we put in.

How much do you invest?
$50K to $150K is a typical first check. up to $500K across the life of a company, once follow-on has been earned.A range, and set company by company. Smaller checks are written for commercialization work. A ceiling rather than a plan. Most companies will not reach it.
Is the money staged?
Yes. The first check buys one milestone that you name and we agree. Follow-on is earned by hitting it.How capital follows evidence
What if I miss the milestone?
We talk about why. Missing one is not a default and it does not end the relationship. It usually means the next check does not come, and most companies stop at the first rung. A company that stops there has not failed us.
Is this all the money I will need?
Almost certainly not, and we say so early. We are the first check. Part of the job is making the next investor possible.
What kind of instrument is it?
Set at the start, from how the business makes money, and being documented with counsel now. Forcing every business into the same security is how good companies get turned down: a company throwing off cash and a company chasing a large market do not fit the same paper.
How much of my company do you take?
It depends on the instrument and on what the business is worth, and it is agreed with you before anything is signed. A check this size does not buy voting control.
Do you take a board seat?
Not by default. Governance is agreed deal by deal and is in the documents before you sign them.
Do you lead rounds?
Usually there is no round to lead. We are the first money in and we set terms with you. Bringing the next investor in behind us is part of the job.
Will you invest again?
Follow-on is earned and not scheduled. It goes to companies that showed the thing they said they would show.The capital ladder

After the check

What happens next.

What support arrives?
Named people, matched to one company, on a standing commitment. They work on customers, product, hiring, operations and finance, healthcare, university resources and corporate introductions. A first customer is worth more than the check and takes longer to arrange.
Do you charge founders for any of it?
No. The support comes with the investment. Nobody pays a fee to be in the portfolio.
What do you ask of me in return?
Figures, on a schedule. A light monthly note, a fuller quarterly update, an annual return, and a call when something material happens in either direction. Revenue, headcount, capital raised, and how the milestone is going.
Why do you need all that reporting?
Because we say in public what our capital produces, and a number we did not collect is a number we would have to invent. It is also how we see a company needing help before it asks.
Will my numbers be published?
No. Your revenue, your margins and your operating detail stay yours and go out only with your permission. What we publish is aggregated across the portfolio, alongside the fact that a company was backed and whether it is still trading.What we will publish
What if the company starts going badly?
Tell us early. A bad quarter is not a breach of anything, and early is when the support is worth something.

Founder security

The founder, separately.

Two programs. One while you build, one if it ends.

What is Founder Security?
Group health coverage for founders and the people they hire. Somebody who knows the benefits system so you do not lose a week to it. Mental health access as a standard benefit. Help keeping the people you hired.
What is the Founder Resilience Fund?
What happens if the company ends. It is designed to carry a founder out with a healthcare bridge, transition support, coaching, a route back into the network, and first call on the next idea.Founder security in full
Is any of this guaranteed?
No. Both programs run on written program terms, eligibility rules and available capital. Neither is insurance and neither is an entitlement. What is described here is access to programs and arrangements, and never a promise that a particular benefit reaches a particular person at a particular time.Disclosures
Is the Resilience Fund capitalized today?
No, and we are not going to imply otherwise. It is intended to be funded from a share of returns and from philanthropic partners, and both of those depend on things that have not happened yet.
Who is eligible?
Founders of companies we have invested in, under the written program terms. Coverage arrangements extend to portfolio company employees where the program allows.
Why do this at all?
A founder carried through the end of one company can start another here. A founder who is not usually leaves the state and takes ten years of learning with them.
Can I help fund it?
Yes. It is one of the boxes on the Coalition of Support form.Coalition of Support

The ecosystem

Everyone already here.

Are you replacing accelerators, universities or the SBDC?
No, and we are not trying to. Georgia spans several regional ecosystems with universities, incubators, accelerators, angel groups, chambers and Small Business Development Centers already running in them. We do not intend to rebuild any of it. We coordinate with what is here and put the first check in.
Are you competing with the angel group I belong to?
No. Angel groups syndicate individual checks into a company. We underwrite a portfolio and hold it. The useful version of this relationship is co-investment, and we would rather share a deal than win one.
Who do you work with?
Universities and their commercialization offices, incubators and accelerators across the state, angel groups, chambers, economic development organizations and public programs. The list on the homepage is alphabetical, because ranking it would say something we do not mean.A partial list of what is already here
My organization wants to work with you. How?
The Coalition of Support form. Open doors to investors, mentor founders, be a customer or run a pilot, offer professional services, hire or refer talent, connect us to an organization, help fund founder security and resilience, or help tell the story.Join the Coalition of Support
What does joining the Coalition commit me to?
Nothing. It is permission to come back to you later about the thing you said you could do. Nothing is published today, listing your organization is a separate box, and one email withdraws it.
Can I refer a company?
Yes, and it is one of the most useful things anybody does for us. Referrals go through the same process as everything else, which is the point of having one.
Do you pay for introductions?
No. Nobody is paid for sending us a company and nobody is paid for taking one of our calls.
Mark works at HatchBridge and at Tame The Noise. Do companies from there get an advantage?
No. They go through the same process as everything else, and where a relationship exists it is disclosed to the Investment Committee before a decision. Both roles are on the About page and neither is a private matter.About

Impact

What we will publish.

What will you report publicly?
Companies backed by county and by industry with the failures listed, jobs at those companies counted the same way every year, where the money that came back went, founders who took Founder Security and founders the Resilience Fund carried, and founders who started something again afterwards.Impact
How often?
Annually, whether the year was good or bad.
Will you publish the companies that failed?
Yes, in the same report as the ones that worked. A portfolio report listing only the survivors is not a report. What goes out is that a company was backed and whether it is still trading, and never its financial or operating detail.
Do you publish job and economic impact forecasts?
No. There are no forecasts on this site. Research figures name their source on screen. Our own numbers, like a check range or the ten-year ambition, are labelled as ours and carry the words that say what they are. Modelled impact numbers appear when they have been independently validated and are labelled as models, or they do not appear.

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