Queen City Angels

Scott Jacobs serves as Executive Director and oversees the group's day-to-day operations and investment coordination. Individual investment decisions are made by a screening committee composed of member leads with domain expertise in the relevant sector — typically serial entrepreneurs or ex-operators from firms like Procter & Gamble, GE Aviation, and Kroger. Final investment ratification requires a vote from the broader membership, though members may opt into individual deals rather than being compelled to participate.

Queen City Angels sources primarily through the dense corporate and university networks concentrated in the Cincinnati-Dayton-Columbus corridor — including spinouts from P&G, GE Aviation, the University of Cincinnati, and Ohio State. The group also co-screens with regional venture funds like CincyTech and Allos Ventures, and runs a structured referral pipeline through the Angel Capital Association. In 2023, the group expanded its sourcing radius by opening a dedicated Columbus satellite chapter.

Both. Members invest individually on a deal-by-deal basis with typical checks ranging from $100,000 to $1,500,000 per round. Queen City Angels also operates First Fund VI, a $10 million pooled vehicle launched in 2019 that allows for larger, more institutional co-investments alongside the group's individual member commitments. The fund structure enables the group to anchor rounds without relying solely on episodic member interest.

Queen City Angels functions as a syndication partner rather than a competitor to regional venture funds. The group has co-invested alongside CincyTech, Allos Ventures, JumpStart Ventures, and other Midwest-focused institutional funds across more than 110 portfolio companies. QCA member checks are typically deployed as part of larger syndicated rounds, with third-party co-investors contributing an aggregate $750 million of follow-on and co-investment capital since the group's founding.

Queen City Angels concentrates on seed and Series A rounds, with capacity to follow on into later-stage growth rounds for existing portfolio companies. Sector focus spans enterprise software, digital health, AI/ML, advanced manufacturing, and fintech — reflecting the industrial and corporate strengths of the Cincinnati-Dayton-Columbus corridor. The group does not invest in real estate, consumer packaged goods, or retail, and generally avoids pre-revenue biotechnology requiring extended clinical-trial timelines.

Queen City Angels uses a six-phase due-diligence process designed to mirror institutional venture underwriting. A sector-specific member lead conducts the primary diligence, supported by a screening committee that evaluates technical, market, and financial risk. The process culminates in a structured investment memo and presentation to the full membership, where participating members make individual opt-in decisions. This structured approach is a key differentiator from less formal angel networks.

Queen City Angels is an angel network — a formalized investment group composed of over 80 accredited individual investors, not a single-family vehicle. The membership includes multiple former corporate executives and entrepreneurs who each invest personal capital, not pooled family wealth. The group's longevity and structured fund vehicle (First Fund VI) sometimes blur this distinction, but its governance and capital structure remain firmly in the angel-group model.