Network Drives Deal Flow

Shaan discusses his rolling fund's strategy of leveraging well-connected team members to source and vet early-stage investment deals, particularly focusing on Y Combinator companies.

Key Points:

• Core Strategy Structure:

  • Deploy $1 million per quarter
  • Brought on team members to handle deal flow and vetting
  • Focus on Y Combinator batch companies

• Key Team Member (Zack):

  • Former YC founder
  • Top referrer to Y Combinator (22 companies)
  • Well-connected in young founder community
  • Sees deals earlier than most

• Deal Flow Process:

  • Team creates comprehensive deal database in Airtable
  • Vets all potential investments
  • Narrows down to ~7 most interesting companies
  • Presents filtered opportunities to Shaan for final decisions

• Team Structure:

  • Multiple team members handle heavy lifting
  • Romine and Zack manage deal sourcing and initial meetings
  • Shaan focuses on final investment decisions
  • Team members get upside participation in the fund

This approach allows the fund to efficiently process many deals while maintaining quality through a structured vetting process and leveraging team members' networks.