Simon Willison’s Weblog

How can I invest in pre-IPO companies like Quora, Github, etc?

My answer to How can I invest in pre-IPO companies like Quora, Github, etc? on Quora

Get to know the founders and investors and see if you can get involved in a future funding round. If you don’t have at least a few hundred thousand dollars to invest you probably won’t get very far though, an even if you do you’d better have more than just money to bring to the table—these rounds are often over-subscribed which means the company can pick the very best out of a number of investors.

If you get in early it’s much easier—startups that haven’t yet raised a series A tend to be a lot less picky. You’ll likely lose more money than you make though. See various posts around Quora on how to become an angel investor.