Question 1

What are the three deadly sins of angel investing?

Accepted Answer

In this episode, Cheryl Kellond names three habits she sees inside angel groups: hoarding diligence instead of sharing it, forcing large minimum check sizes, and treating a direct cap table seat like a status symbol. She argues that all three come from the same place — scarcity thinking dressed up as process. Groups that sit on their diligence, insist on $10K minimums, or demand a direct seat end up slowing founders down and, in many cases, costing them funding. The alternative is an abundance mindset: share what you know, let angels write the checks that fit them, and use structures that keep the cap table clean.

Question 2

Why should an angel group share its diligence?

Accepted Answer

Cheryl's point is that diligence is most valuable when it circulates, not when it sits locked inside one group. When a group shares its research, other investors can move faster and with more confidence, which can turn a modest raise into a much larger one. In the episode she describes watching the same founder gain or lose roughly a million dollars in funding depending on whether the backing group chose to open up or lock down. Sharing diligence can be the difference between a founder raising $200K and pulling in a $1M follow-on check, and it sets the original group up for a better return too.

Question 3

Do angel investors need to write large minimum checks?

Accepted Answer

No. Cheryl challenges the old $10K minimum that many angel groups still enforce. That rule was built for an earlier generation of angels and quietly pushes out a newer, busier, more distributed group of investors who would rather write ten $1K checks than one large one. Forcing big minimums shrinks the pool of people who can participate and reduces the capital a founder can ultimately raise. Dropping arbitrary minimums lets more angels in, spreads risk across more investors, and, in her framing, reflects an abundance mindset rather than gatekeeping.

Question 4

How does an SPV keep a startup's cap table clean?

Accepted Answer

An SPV, or special purpose vehicle, pools many investors into a single entity that appears as one line on the startup's cap table, instead of adding dozens of individual names. Cheryl argues this removes the usual excuse for insisting on a direct cap table seat: with automated SPV tools, the old objections about cost and administrative burden are obsolete. Using an SPV lets a group back a founder without clogging the cap table, keeps the company's ownership structure simple for future rounds, and still gives angels real exposure to the deal — a cleaner outcome for the founder and the investors alike.

Angels Decoded Ep#20: The Three Deadly Sins of Local Angel Groups

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