SPVs give smaller investors access

SPVs are great because they let everyday angels access high-quality, vetted deals without being an industry insider. SPVs allow you to write smaller checks to build a more diverse portfolio, no matter your budget.

There is a very real financial and administrative “cost” for every investor who shows up directly on the cap table, which is why most founders set higher minimum check sizes for direct investors. Higher typically means $25K. Some founders will go as low as $5K - $10K. Some more experienced founders won’t take less than $50K directly on the cap table unless it’s a highly strategic and coveted angel.

But SPVs are often black boxes

The big downside of investing through an SPV has always been that some, most nearly all are managed like black boxes. SPV organizers typically don’t share any investor information with the founder, and as a result SPV investors never hear from the company again after their investment is finalized.

This sucks. One of the biggest thrills of angel investing is being able to ride alongside the ups and downs of the founder’s journey. It’s also wasteful as it takes potentially valuable resources away from the founder. The most valuable people on the cap table aren’t always the folks writing 6-figure checks. The expertise, connections, and clout of the angels hidden away in the SPV could be game-changers for a young company.

Fixing it!

This is where Play Money is different.

First, after the SPV closes, we provide your contact info directly to the founder so they can include you in stakeholder updates.
For founders who provide those updates, we’ve built a tool to help them access the expertise and connections of the investors in their Play Money SPV.
Obviously, in exchange, we expect Play Money angels to act awesome. We’ll share more on how to be an awesome angel - but it’s really not that hard.

SPV Pros and Cons