A person in the U.S. is accredited if she meets either of these two criteria:
All the investors have stated that they are accredited. The vast majority of the investors have also made several angel investments.
You should verify that every investor you raise money from is accredited, whether or not you use AngelList. And you should treat each investor you meet on AngelList as if you just met them on the street. We give you information about each investor and display the source of that information, but we don't claim that they're good people.
You can message anyone who follows you or your startup. You can also message anyone who requests an intro to your startup.
Next, you can ask people on your team to forward your messages to their followers. And the AngelList team may also give you permission to message certain people.
Finally, you can message anyone who messages you first.
Newer investors who can’t claim several confirmed startup investments or fund partnerships already may be capped at $25K per investment (and $150K in total). But that cap can be adjusted as you build your track record and gain experience. Providing proof of accreditation, personal references from experienced founders and other known investors, and membership in an angel investing association (such as the ACA) all favor readiness to invest on AngelList.
To have limits reconsidered on your account, contact us at syndicates@angel.co.
If you're obviously fund-able (e.g. you previously started a company that made lots of money for its investors), don't add a lot of information to your profile. If you're not obviously fund-able, consider the risk of sharing your idea to be a cost of doing business. If you're not willing to take this risk, don't use AngelList.
Also, keep in mind that it is rare for someone to care enough about your idea to “steal” it.
Learn how to angel invest with these free investing resources.
Accreditation evidence is only valid for one year, so you might be asked to re-confirm your status after you've first been accredited as an investor. The same goes for qualified purchaser (QP) evidence.
The evidence can be provided during the deal closing procedure or in the user settings. Accreditation evidence and QP evidence will expire independently of each other.
A small number of campaigns on AngelList are public campaigns (called 506(c)), so it's ok to update your status once you're investing in the next public campaign.