New York Angel Investors

New York City is world-renowned for many things, and the exceptional business community is no exception. As the center of world trade, it is inevitable that many entrepreneurs flock to the city, whether for business school, a job on Wall Street or to start their brand new business. 

With such massive investments happening daily in the city, there is no shortage of New York angels. That's why we have rounded up some of the most notable investors based in NYC to help you get up to speed with who’s who!

Stephen Messer

The co-founder of LinkShare is a hugely successful entrepreneur and angel investor. After selling the company to Rakuten for $425m, the founders decided to focus on their new company and new investment opportunities.

They currently run Collective[i], a tool that allows founders to analyze their company's data for optimized performance. In addition to his work as an angel investor, Stephen is also a partner at a few NYC VC funds.

Michael Lazerow

It is impossible to discuss successful New York entrepreneurs and investors without mentioning Lazerow; with a hugely impressive list of achievements, it is impossible to mention them all.

As an entrepreneur, he has completed over $2 billion of successful exits. This includes media companies, venture firms, consulting firms, and countless others.

As an investor, he has played a vital role in many successful companies. Most notably, the huge social media sites of Facebook, Buzzfeed, and Tumblr.

Now, all investing is done through his firm, Lazerow Ventures, which is managed by himself, his brother, and his wife.

Alexis Ohanian

Brooklyn native Alexis co-founded Reddit with a friend in 2005. They built the site quickly over only three weeks. The site grew quickly and was acquired by CondeNast a year later, making Alexis a multimillionaire.

Since then, Alexis has mainly focused on investing, with over 100 startups in his portfolio and being a founder of the investment firm Das Kapital Capital.

Angela Lee

Angela runs the NYC-based investment community ‘37 Angels’. The group of women investors focuses on investing in early-stage companies.

The group source high potential deals in several sectors and provides advice and support to its angels.

Alicia Syrett

Alicia is the founder and CEO of Pantegrion Capital, a firm focusing on seed and early-stage company funding.

In addition to this, she is the chairman of ‘HeTexted’ and is on many different advisory boards. Alicia frequently speaks on several other investment panels in the city and at NYU and Columbia.

Joanne Wilson

Joanne is a hugely influential figure in the NYC startup ecosystem; as a very popular investor and advisor, she is known to most in the business. When investing, she tends to focus on women-led businesses across various industries.

Aside from being active in the business world, she also cares deeply about various charities and sits on the board of Hot Bread Kitchen. This organization supports foreign-born and low-income individuals through a bakery project and training program.

Jerry Neumann

Jerry has been investing in internet startups for over 15 years and is known for providing seed money to several hugely successful platforms. These include Tuition.io, Ufora, Premise, and Percolate.

As the founder of Neu Venture Capital, he usually invests in seed-stage companies with cutting-edge technology with substantial potential impact on individual businesses and the business world as a whole. As he typically only makes around four to five investments a year, he has to be highly impressed to commit to your startup.

Esther Dyson

Esther is an active investor in several technology startups, with multiple investments in the space and air travel industries. Her investment portfolio includes XCOR Aerospace, Space Adventures/Zero-G, and Airship Ventures.

In addition, she is also invested in the health tech industry and can frequently be found at the New York Tech Meetup.

Avi Fogel

 Avi is an active investor and a key member of two large investment groups. The first is ‘New York Angels’ for whom he runs an education program, and ‘Launchpad Venture Group’ of Boston. 

Having been a CEO four times and with six successful startup exits, he certainly isn't a lousy investor or advisor to have as part of your business.

Joshua Stylman

Joshua is a very active investor who has been involved in the digital world for over two decades.

Any social media platform you use regularly probably received some of its critical early-stage funding from Joshua. This investment portfolio includes sides like Kickstarter, Tumblr, and Bit.ly.

Best Angel Investment Groups in NYC

Empire Angels

This firm truly knows what it is like to be a young entrepreneur in the city. With all investors in the group having done it themselves, they are all young and eager to support those looking for that all-important investment. They have a different approach to investment with no bureaucracy, quick decisions, and collaborative diligence.

Tri State Ventures

This fund only supports companies with a protected proprietary position. They don't have any specific criteria in regards to industry and instead, look to hear from any and all potential founders.

Arc Angel Fund

They focus on investing in early-stage companies with high growth potential. All investors in the group are able to partake in group funding alongside personal investment.  Their recent investments include companies in the software, IT, internet, tech-enabled services, and digital media fields.

How to secure an NYC business angel

Once you have found some investors you would like to contact it is time to impress them! Here are a few of our tips to help start the conversation with a potential investor.

1. Make it interesting! The last thing an investor wants is a huge, detailed (and boring) business plan. Make sure that your initial contact is concise, easy to digest and covers the most interesting aspects of your business as quickly as possible.
2. Teamwork! An investor likes to see a talented, collaborative team that works well together so show this off. It is far more comforting for an investor to see a team that works well rather than a sole CEO.
3. Make your pitch good! Be sure to do your research about the investor you are interested in and show that in your initial pitch. Address them by name, reference recent investments and show that you have put in the work.

We hope this article has allowed you to get more up to grips with who is who in the New York City startup world. With thousands of investors in NYC, it is a great place to find your business and begin looking for investors. If you want to learn more about investing and the startup world, check out our blog.