One year ago the angel group I have the honor to lead pivoted to a substantially different model. Like all pivots, it wasn’t easy. In fact, it was scary as hell. But thanks to the incredible involvement of our members and our assistant manager Ethan Ferris, 2020 was our best year ever.

• Membership tripled, pulling in people from a much larger geography than conceivable before. Whereas before it was hard to get people to drive 45 minutes from Amherst to Springfield, now we have members as far away as Texas and prospective members attending from California.
• Invested in nearly twice as many companies in 2020 than in any prior year in our 18 year history.
• Increased diversification by making it easy for our members to place smaller bets on lots more companies.
• Delighted entrepreneurs by giving them answers in 7-10 days from when they pitch and providing pitch feedback they constantly rate as among the best they’ve ever received.
• Delighted our syndication partners by making life easy on them and their entrepreneurs by moving with speed, efficiency, and respect.

I’m proud as hell of what we we did in 2020 and can’t wait to see what 2021 brings us.

If you aren’t familiar with the River Valley Investors (RVI), we connect angels to strong startups who have already secured an angel group or venture fund to lead the round, share their due diligence, and help guide the company post-investment. Our streamlined, collaborative process means you get to leverage the expertise of dozens of fellow members to get to YES or NO in just a few short hours.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, learn what is required to be an RVI member.