37 Angels

Founder and CEO Alicia Syrett leads the organization, but investment decisions are made by a rotating Investment Committee composed of the network's angel members. The committee is structured to be majority female at every level, and members receive extensive training in due diligence before they participate in deal evaluation. This distributed model means no single partner controls the checkbook on any given deal.

The network sources through an open application process, evaluating roughly 200 startups per eight-week cycle, combined with a cultivated pipeline from university entrepreneurship programs, accelerators, and member referrals. Columbia Business School, where Syrett teaches and the network's Startup Forum bootcamp is integrated into the curriculum, serves as a significant origination channel. The group's transparent rejection process — every applicant receives a detailed memo — also generates inbound referrals from founders who respected the feedback.

It is a network, not a fund. Members invest on a per-deal basis with no blind-pool commitment, meaning each individual decides whether to participate in a given round. 37 Angels itself does not hold a pooled capital vehicle; the entity facilitates due diligence, term sheet negotiation, and post-close monitoring, but the capital flows directly from individual members to the company.

The network writes pre-seed and seed-stage checks typically ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. Deals are direct equity investments, not convertibles or SAFEs by default, though terms vary by round. 37 Angels generally participates in rounds with institutional co-investors rather than leading them, positioning its capital as a signal-amplifier for lead-investor processes.

Yes. The Startup Forum is a bootcamp-style educational program that teaches the same due-diligence frameworks the network uses internally. It has been integrated into Columbia Business School's entrepreneurship curriculum since 2018 and operates as a distinct, non-investment activity. The Forum serves both as a public good and as a talent-scouting mechanism, but participation does not guarantee funding.

As a network rather than a fund, 37 Angels does not allocate dedicated follow-on reserves. Members may individually choose to participate in subsequent rounds of portfolio companies, and the network facilitates communication with lead investors, but there is no centralized follow-on vehicle or pro-rata enforcement mechanism. This capital-constraint model influences the network's preference for startups with near-term institutional round visibility.

Enterprise software, fintech, digital health, media and entertainment, and consumer technology represent the densest portions of the portfolio. The network has historically been less active in hard tech verticals — biotech, semiconductors, hardware, and deep climate science — where the capital intensity and due-diligence timelines diverge from the cohort-cycle model. No official exclusion list exists, but the preference is observable in portfolio composition.