angels don't get deal flow.

They get what's left.

Emerging Angels is the other path

Invest inside a top-10% fund - same deals, same table, same decisions - and learn the craft on live deals with our team every week.

The track record you'd want to learn from

1.86x

Unrealized MOIC, Fund I (as of Q2 2026)

41%

IRR, Fund I

Top 10%+

US VC firms

<0.03%

Portfolio Acceptance Rate

$300M+

Capital Deployed

$2.2B+

Raised by portfolio companies

540

Investments made

400+

Accredited investors in the network

This is not a course. It's a seat at the table.

Plenty of programs teach you the vocabulary of venture. Almost none put you in the room where real investment decisions get made. Watch what you're actually joining.

Your working investor's calendar

Weekly

Live diligence calls

Tuesday-Thursday, 2-5 PM PT, our team runs live diligence with founders. Sit in, ask questions, and watch how we decide - why we say yes, and more importantly, why we say no.

Weekly

Rolling pipeline

Diligence runs constantly, so decisions happen in weeks, not cycles. A live pipeline year-round - management, GTM, technology, financials - on the companies your capital backs.

Monthly

Investment Circle

One evening a month: GPs, operators with exits, people with real perspective. Hot takes and honest conversation, not rehearsed theses.

Always on

The Slack

Deal chatter, market debates, intros, and questions answered by people who've written real checks. The conversation between sessions is half the value.

On demand

The Library

Every session recorded - Investment Circles, diligence calls, course sessions. Miss a week or travel for a month, lose nothing.

Why learn here?
Because you'll inherit the standard.

The numbers above tell you the fund works. They don't tell you why - and the why is what you're actually here to learn.


A track record isn't luck at this sample size. It's a way of working, applied without exception, deal after deal. That's what transfers to you:

Disciplined sourcing

We see 4,000+ startups a year. You'll learn where signal actually comes from - and why volume without a filter is noise.

Aggressive filtering

A <0.03% acceptance rate isn't gatekeeping. It's the discipline of saying no a thousand times so one yes means something.

Transparency, even when it's mixed

Our investors hear the misses from us first. You'll learn to report the way you'd want to be reported to.

Start with the foundations

New angels make a few investments, lose their money, and never invest again.
Eight weeks, live, built to break that pattern.

1
Startup vs lifestyle and growth stages

Learn to spot which businesses are venture-scale - and which never will be.

2
Demystifying VC, fund theory, power law

Why one deal returns the fund - and what that means for every check you write.

3
Valuations and investing

Caps, SAFEs, dilution - price a real pre-seed round, not a textbook example.

4
Sourcing deals and growth hacking

Where signal actually comes from, and how to build deal flow that isn't leftovers.

5
Reviewing deals

Score a live deck from our pipeline - then compare your read to ours.

6
Due diligence: team and compensation

Reading founders - the diligence that predicts outcomes more than any spreadsheet.

7
Due diligence: GTM, technology, financials

Cross-check the numbers against reality, on companies currently in diligence.

8
Deal terms and after the investment

Term sheets, pro rata, and what being a useful investor looks like post-check. Plus our AI crash course.

The homework isn't case studies. It's our live pipeline. Graduate, and the full calendar above becomes yours - the course ends, the education doesn't.

How it works

Step 1

Interview

The quality of the room is the product. We partner with leading angel organizations and hold every member to a high standard of integrity and engagement.

Step 2

Invest

You become a Limited Partner in the fund. Your capital goes to work across ten investments - real diversification, real power-law exposure, real stakes on every diligence call.

Step 3

Learn

Complete the eight-week course, then take your seat: monthly Investment Circle, weekly live diligence, and a network that compounds.

$2,995program fee, year one

$1,000per year after

1752vc

Meet the instructor

Lucas Pols

General Partner, 1752vc

The track record above is his. Fund I - 1.86x unrealized MOIC, 41% IRR - built on AI enablement and GTM-first investing.
Former President, Tech Coast Angels - one of the largest angel networks in the US.
Hundreds of angels trained through Emerging Angels and Venture Fellows. Host of VC Unfiltered.
Full bio

Lucas Pols is the General Partner of 1752vc, where he leads investments at the intersection of AI enablement and go-to-market execution, with a focus on the middleware and application layers of AI. At 1752, Lucas backs startups at the inflection point - where traction meets acceleration - and has taught hundreds of angels how to invest through the Emerging Angels and Venture Fellow programs. He emphasizes high-signal sourcing, founder evaluation, and conviction-driven investing with a GTM-first lens.

Previously, Lucas served as President of Tech Coast Angels and built a career as a top-performing Fortune 200 sales executive, driving national technology pilots and enterprise-scale innovation. He also hosts VC Unfiltered, where he explores the unvarnished truths of early-stage investing.

VOICES FROM THE PROGRAM

Evan Gaul

Cohort 15

Sara Zolfaghari

Cohort 6

Amisha Kashyap

Cohort 15

PARTNERSHIPS

Backed by a nationwide network of accredited investors, we bridge the gap between capital and innovation, helping founders achieve sustainable growth while empowering investors to support and scale game-changing startups.

Logo with the letters 'A', 'C', 'A' in blue, orange, and green blocks.

Your experience is part of the fund's edge

Our portfolio companies get more than capital - they get you. Aligned interests, compounding both ways.

You advise where you're strong. GTM, hiring, industry access - founders get your expertise where it actually fits.
Your judgment sharpens. Nothing teaches investing faster than helping operators through real decisions.
Your portfolio benefits. Better-advised companies mean better odds on the checks you've already written.
Group of four men sitting on chairs, engaged in discussion and laughing, with a green leafy wall behind them.

Ready to stop guessing?

The next generation of great companies is being built right now - under the radar, while the noise thins out. The investors who learn to see them early won't do it alone.