Jason Calacanis thinks AngelList Syndicates will hasten the death of the worst performing VCs by further commoditizing capital and giving super angels more $$ to put into deals. I’m a big fan of AngelList (#investor) and Syndicates are going to change things dramatically (previous posts).
One aspect that hasn’t been discussed much is how they now make the angel environment more competitive as well. Before as a founder I might have been able to get both Dave Morin and Kevin Rose into my deal, offering them each $50k slugs. Now they each represent more than $300k in syndicate dollars. Does that full slug get invested into each deal or can they pro rata down? If not, all of a sudden the $250k in the round I set aside for strategic angels doesn’t get me a few value add folks, it makes me choose which syndicate do I want to include. Angels, who previously collaborated, now might be competing?
My guess is there are also some angels who were popular when they represented a $25k check but won’t be as sought after if they try to push $300k into a round.
Over the last few days there’s been a lot of momentum with angels starting to raise their Syndicate dollars. Maybe an angel differentiation before too long will be LACK of a syndicate so that they can put an easy $25-$50k into deals.