Investment Club FAQs

Learn more about how PIN helps communities invest in startups.

What is an investment club?

An investment club is a group of individuals that pool resources to invest in startups. The best way to visualize an investment club is when a whole family gets together once every few weeks and they each vote on and invest in something they find exciting.

How many members do I need to start an investment club?

Our clubs accommodate groups of all sizes ranging from 30-500+! There’s no one size fit all, but on average, a PIN club tends to have 100-250 investors.

We also recommend starting a club with a team, including 1-3 other people. Although not required, we recommend including at least 1 teammate who angel invests, has experience in VC, understands equity (at least as part of a salary), is the founder of a startup, etc.

Depending on the size of your community, having a diverse leadership team who touches different parts of the organization (different job functions, at the organization during different time periods, etc) is ideal.

What is the minimum that each member has to invest?

Our minimum check size right now is $3k, but we’re working hard to get it lower!

How much do we need to raise as a club to start investing?

You need to raise at least $500k.

I can invest on my own, why should I start an investment club?

The power of an investment club is in its community. Not only is it a rewarding social/professional community for a lot of people, it’s also strategic. Members source diverse and more startups, resulting in better deal flow than any individual. Further, PIN clubs have a high rate of winning allocation into even the hottest deals because of 1) how easy it is for startups to accept an investment, very much like from a VC/angel, and 2) because there’s a lot of value-add in the community that comes with a check (that’s not replicable by others in the funding ecosystem).

How does our club get deal flow?

Clubs typically source a majority of their investments through community members, who all bring companies to the club through their own networks and experiences.

Most commonly, clubs will:

- invest in companies founded by their own members (i.e. Coinbase alum investing in Coinbase alum-founded startups), or
- invest in companies directly relevant to the shared expertise of members (i.e. climate scientists investing together in climate tech startups they discover through work, conferences, research, etc.)