AngelList Venture

Colby Coley joined AngelList Venture in July 2019 after a decade of entrepreneurship, including selling his food delivery company FastBite to Square. While at Square, he witnessed firsthand how acquisitions work when they solve strategic priorities—and he stayed through the IPO. When Naval Ravikant approached him about leading AngelList Venture, Coley initially hesitated but spent five to six months exploring the venture business. Eventually, he saw the parallels between what Square had built with payments infrastructure and what AngelList could build for venture capital: a financial platform that removes friction.

Naval Ravikant had conceived the rolling fund idea long before—questioning why venture funds needed to lock down capital upfront and then repeat the process for new funds. Why not accept capital continuously? Working with deep banking and accounting infrastructure already built at AngelList Venture, the team shipped the rolling fund structure within months, automating what traditional funds handle manually through lawyers, accountants, and spreadsheets. As Coley explained, "Those steps didn't magically go away—they just went to AngelList, where software could improve them."

The rolling fund solved a real pain point for GPs like the podcast host who wanted to invest in startups but couldn't raise a traditional fund or keep re-soliciting for syndicate deals. The structure offered three key benefits: no upfront capital lockdown, LP capital committed to the fund (not deal-by-deal), and the ability to publicly solicit investors through platforms like podcasts. Adoption exploded after Sahil Lavingia announced his rolling fund, striking a cultural chord and creating organic momentum.

The main friction point Coley identified was the fee structure. New rolling funds with smaller quarterly capital commitments faced high fee percentages (up to 20% for funds under $100k/quarter) due to $20k minimums, making them feel inaccessible. However, AngelList actively addressed this by waiving minimums for multiple quarters and simplifying the fee structure—ensuring anyone could start a rolling fund without penalty. Coley noted this was a fair criticism they caught early and resolved before public launch.

AngelList Venture positioned rolling funds as a Pareto superior structure to traditional funds—infinitely flexible, with the ability to add constraints if needed to replicate traditional fund structures. The company published data showing it was seeing a large percentage of early-stage deal flow, making it a crucial source for understanding venture market dynamics. The vision was clear: democratize early-stage investing by enabling both GPs with podcast audiences and LPs with $5,000+ to participate in portfolio diversification.