Deal Flow

The stream of investment opportunities that reach an investor, across every channel they arrive through.

Example

An angel who sees about 300 opportunities a year, most by email and a few through operators they know.

Volume is rarely the constraint. What matters is whether the best opportunities in your category are among what you see.

Proprietary Deal Flow — Opportunities an investor sees because of who they know or what they have done, rather than because the opportunity was sent to a list.
Inbound Deal Flow — Opportunities that arrive unsolicited through open channels such as website forms, public email addresses and pitch events.
Screening Funnel — The stages an opportunity passes through from arrival to investment, usually intake, first look, diligence and decision, each with its own time cost.

In private markets, who you know decides what you see — Private companies are not listed anywhere. Networks determine the deals an investor hears about, the quality of diligence they can do and whether founders choose them. (9 min)
A network is kept alive by small, useful contact, not by volume — Maintaining an investment network means a simple system: knowing who matters, staying in touch with a light rhythm, giving before asking and reviewing which relationships actually produce value. (9 min)
The best opportunities are rarely the ones being shown to everyone — Deal flow is not one thing. It arrives through channels with very different quality, and the channel an opportunity came through tells you something before you have read a word of it. (10 min)
How many do you have to see to make one investment? — Put real numbers on your funnel and two things become obvious: how fast a first look has to be, and how much sourcing you actually need to support the portfolio you are trying to build. (12 min)
Why what comes to you is a biased sample — The opportunities that push hardest for your attention are drawn from a worse pool than the ones that do not need to push, and urgency is the tell. (9 min)
A process you actually run beats a better one you do not — Screening only compounds if it is written down, identical every time, and produces a record - which is what turns a year of declined opportunities into knowledge about a category. (11 min)