Naval Ravikant

In two thousand and ten, only rich people could invest in startups. A venture capitalist could write a million dollar check. An accredited investor could participate in a round. But a nurse or teacher with five thousand dollars could not get access to early-stage companies. The venture system was closed. Startup deals were gatekept from ordinary investors. Naval Ravikant built AngelList as a platform changing this. A lead investor selected a startup deal and put in fifty thousand dollars. Hundreds of smaller investors could contribute one thousand, two thousand, five thousand. The lead investor did the work. Smaller investors followed. This created syndicates. Democratization of startup investing happened overnight.