Funding

Founders – please submit your company information to be considered for an investment by the Sierra Angels, our networking group, our partners seed funds, and our investor syndicate. We evaluate every application we receive, but cannot respond with specific reasons why applications are not selected to pitch to our group. For general guidance, there are several places on this website where we state our preferences.

Each year, the Sierra Angels conduct 5 new investment cycles with 2 companies pitching for investment each cycle. These new investment cycles are conducted in-person and virtually.  Members meet 3 additional times (virtually) to hear updates / add-on investment requests from portfolio companies.  Members and invited guests meet 2 more times for in-person Summer and Winter social gatherings at Lake Tahoe – just for fun!   That’s 10 meetings per year – see our current year’s calendar below.

Our investment cycles begin 3 weeks before our new cycle meeting date where we consider all applications submitted since the last cycle. We narrow the field to 8-10 “quarter finalist” companies based on the company’s application form information and light research conducted by our intern team.   2 weeks before the investment cycle, our selection committee meets, discusses quarter finalist submissions / research, selecting 4 semi-finalists. The 4 semi-finalists pitch (virtually) for 5 mins + 8 mins of Q&A at 9a-10a on the Thursday prior to our investment cycle member meeting. The final 2 companies are selected and pitch the following Thursday (6pm to 7pm) at our investment cycle dinner meeting.

All companies submitting to pitch for investment should be aware of the Thursday virtual and in-person meetings. We do accept / conduct virtual pitches for our dinner meeting when necessary, but prefer finalist companies to pitch in-person if possible.