Ohio Angel Collective introduces unique subscription model for investing in Ohio startups

Image: Will Zell

The Ohio Angel Collective (OAC) has accomplished a lot following its launch in October 2023, including completing four deals and introducing a unique subscription model for investors.

“The traction has been incredible,” says Will Zell, founder of OAC’s management company, Vessel.

The highlights so far include more than 125 members across Ohio and 13 states, more than 150 startups engaged, and four deals funded with a fifth on the way. OAC hopes to hit 16 total deals in 2024.

The organization operates not as a fund that pools capital but rather as a syndicate of investors who get to review every deal as it is brought to them. Through its Special Purpose Vehicle provider, Sydecar, OAC can have up to 250 in each SPV it creates.

OAC is managed by Vessel, which provides back office support, due diligence, and more. Formerly know as Zell Capital, Vessel has a flagship fund that is separate from the angel syndicate.

“I've been building in the region for over a decade and it's gotten a little bit easier to raise pre-seed capital, but it's still incredibly difficult,” Zell says. “And we really think that there's a big, big gap in the market when it comes to the amount of capital that's available for great founders and great entrepreneurs in the earliest stage.”

OAC members must be accredited investors with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

An Innovation in Investing

OAC is quickly innovating beyond the traditional angel syndicate, introducing a “subscription” program that allows investors to participate in deals by default. The CORE subscription model allows members to invest a minimum of $1,000 into each company OAC invests in. 

“It allows them to diversify their investments across a wide range of companies,” says Mike Supeck, founding partner of OAC. “And then it also gives us a basis—a foundation of capital—to go into each deal with, so that's very exciting.”

Adds Zell: “Let's say they like our diligence, they want to build a more passive portfolio, or they don't have time to review the deals, they're by default opted in and then they can choose to opt out if they want to. So they still have the freedom of choice to not do a deal or they can choose to increase their actual investment amount.”

OAC also continues to offer the opt-out by-default option, with a minimum investment of $2,500 per deal. 

OAC has 145 members, including 20 subscribers, and about $25,000 subscribed per deal. The goal is 500 members, 200 subscribers, and $200,000 into each deal.

Zell says the 10-year vision is to have more than $30 million deployed into pre-seed deals in Ohio, with over 150 startups funded. The huge ripple effects will be tougher to quantify.

“We've established great relationships with a ton of strategic and community partners across the state and we have deal flow sharing sessions scheduled with many of the VCs,” Zell says. “Every time we go to fund a deal, we send it off to all of our partners in the state and they take a look at it too.”

The syndicate’s first five deals include:

Narratize

Narratize is a team of 2x founders and PhD prompt engineers building an enterprise SaaS platform based in Cincinnati, OH leveraging generative AI to revolutionize the way businesses in science, tech, and medical sectors communicate complex insights. The platform used AI to automate the creation of accurate, compelling, and scalable long-form content, filling a critical market gap for evidence-based storytelling.

SourceCo

SourceCo, based in Columbus, Ohio, is a tech-enabled services platform that generates off-market transaction opportunities for private equity firms. SourceCo leverages a blend of custom data collection and analytics software, coupled with automated workflows to source deals more effectively. The approach is also geared towards a future where AI plays a pivotal role. The vision of SourceCo is to develop a robust AI enhanced sourcing solution, which will be trained on their unique and proprietary data.

Dolr

Dolr is a Columbus, Ohio based early stage startup, tackling a massive societal problem, student loan debt. They have built a platform to help people with student debt accelerate the pay down of that debt much faster than the standard payment plan. Utilizing Dolr, borrowers experience a meaningful reduction in cost and timeline to get out of debt so they can start building wealth for their future.

Peaceful Fruits

Peaceful Fruits (PF), based out of Barberton, Ohio, and in operation since 2017, is a new player in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry tackling the traditional fruit snacks and candy space. The company manufactures candy products composed of 100% fruit and zero additives. As of 2023, the company has rapidly expanded its distribution footprint to over 1,500 stores, driven by proprietary manufacturing techniques. Peaceful Fruits has been a certified B Corporation since October 2018, employing adults with disabilities and focusing on mental health outreach. Their commitment extends to sustainable sourcing and creating plant-based products.

Thoughtly

Thoughtly enables anyone to create AI-driven voice-based agents designed for a variety of applications including inbound and outbound calling, messaging, video/audio calls, and texting. The platform is a realtime, collaborative web app where users create conversation maps (Thoughtlys), provide the AI agent with tools and information to be effective, and then deploy the agent to selected contacts or via shareable URL. Thoughtly can perform actions during the conversations such as routing calls, managing leads, scheduling appointments, and more. Finally, Thoughtly records, tags and stores all conversations and will provide insights and reports back to the user.

Learn more at ohioangelcollective.com.