Rolling fund

Rolling funds let you market a fund continuously if you have distribution

Brianne explains that rolling funds break the old rule against marketing a fund while fundraising, letting anyone with distribution (a podcast, an audience, great deal flow) continuously bring in new LPs instead of running slow, sequential closes.

“the rolling fund means that structurally you're able to talk about your fund broadly you're able to market your fund, which historically, you know, you weren't able to market your fund when you're actively fundraising. You know, if someone has distribution, if you have a podcast, you know, if you're an active angel investor and you already have great deal flow or you're leaving a high-growth startup and you have a great network, rolling funds are great because you can market it and you can constantly be bringing in new LPs.”

Steal thisIf you have an audience, use a rolling fund so you can market and add LPs continuously instead of doing slow sequential closes.

Shaan raised a $4M/yr rolling fund from strangers who follow him

Shaan deliberately raised his AngelList rolling fund only from people he'd never met — Twitter followers and podcast listeners — instead of his Silicon Valley network. He hit his $1M target in roughly 3 days and grew it to $4M/year without a single pitch call.

“I'm going to only raise this from people I've never met who just follow me on either Twitter or from the podcast. And I tweeted out, I said, I'm going to try to raise $1 million in 21 days. And we're like, I think we crushed it in like 3 days. And we are now at $4 million a year on the rolling fund from people I never met. And I never did a phone call.”

Steal thisRaise from your trusted audience, not your network — a niche following converts to capital with zero pitch meetings.

How a rolling fund works: a fresh quarterly fund, automated by AngelList

Shaan explains the rolling fund mechanic: instead of raising one closed fund over 6-12 months, AngelList software spins up a new 10-year fund entity each quarter with that quarter's investors, who pay quarterly (e.g. $6K/quarter) and can scale up or stop anytime.

“A rolling fund is different. A rolling fund I could start today. Every quarter is basically like a new little fund. Every quarter I can take on new investors. Investors who are in my current fund can go up if they want and they could double down. They could invest more or they could stop”

Steal thisIf raising capital, use a rolling fund so you can deploy immediately and let investors subscribe quarterly instead of closing one big round.

AngelList's rolling fund: raise capital quarterly instead of all upfront

Shaan explains the rolling fund mechanic that finally let him launch: instead of going dark for 3-6 months to raise $5-10M upfront, you collect commitments over time as small as $5K per quarter and start investing immediately. Lighter lift for both the fund manager and the LPs.

“And the key with the rolling fund is you don't have to raise all the money up front. So I can open up so that my idea is next week, I'm talking to AngelList guys who run this because it's kind of like invite only at the moment.”