FAQ

First and foremost, PORTAL is structured and operates as a traditional venture firm. Investors may place capital in our Fund or individual investment opportunities via our Syndicate. PORTAL both leads investment rounds and partners with other financial investors in a round. We also participate in investment rounds across stages beyond the angel round and are often able to do larger rounds over time.

On the contrary, angel and traditional syndicate groups do not typically follow deals, and a startup cannot necessarily rely on them for additional capital. Individuals in these investment groups are typically loosely affiliated, as they come together to be able to participate in an investment opportunity on a greater scale, so they don’t generally offer the complete infrastructural support for a startup that a venture firm would.

Furthermore, it is less likely that board and formal advisory roles would be available to investors in angel and other syndicate groups, while they are more likely to be available via PORTAL as a venture capital firm. As an investor in PORTAL, investors will also have the opportunity to contribute to the success of entrepreneurs in a facilitated manner, while most angel and syndicate groups do not actively facilitate these relationships.

At PORTAL, we use a combination of Art & Science in our due diligence and sourcing process. We complement the work of people on our direct team and wider Community (the Art) with our proprietary machine learning software, PortalMatch (the Science), to source, diligence, and close the best deals both efficiently and effectively. 

Regarding the Art, we utilize our proprietary scorecard to evaluate deals, work internally with the investment committee, and leverage the knowledge of our Community to diligence our opportunities. Regarding the Science, we touch more on PortalMatch and its importance in our diligence process in the PortalMatch FAQ below.

Modern technologies can have an exponentially positive or negative impact on humanity. We seek to invest in entrepreneurs and startups developing Positive Technology – innovations that measurably improve the human experience and promote individual sovereignty over technological control.

Team members at PORTAL have invested in and built many data-driven companies. Leveraging this experience, PORTAL applies AI, machine-learning and data science to the practice of venture capital. PortalMatch is our proprietary machine-learning software, which not only helps us more quickly identify and evaluate investment opportunities, and pick the likely winners, but also provides us insights into how a particular company’s risk/reward profile will balance our Fund portfolio. PortalMatch identifies startups that can return 10x+ in 5 years and enables us to screen more deals in less time, while informing the professional judgment of our team. Check out our post about PortalMatch and how we incorporate Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into our investing process to generate outsized returns at scale. 

No. PORTAL is only able to accept investments from invited Accredited Investors and/or Qualified Purchasers.

An Accredited Investor:

• Has a net worth of at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of one’s primary residence
• Has income of at least $200,000 each year for the last 2 years
• $300,000 combined income if married with expectation to earn the same amount this year

A Qualified Purchaser:

• For individuals and family-owned businesses: Has $5 million in investment excluding the value of primary residence or business property
• For entities: Manages at least $25 million in investments for other Qualified Purchasers or being exclusively owned by Qualified Purchasers

Based on experience from past firms, we know that a significant cohort of individual investors and family offices want to do more than simply write a check. These folks are generally on the other side of their operating careers, have built a reasonable amount of wealth, and want to pay it forward. We’ve learned over time that these investors (our individual LP base) want to remain plugged into industries and use their time efficiently. We help them achieve this by giving them first access to exciting new startups and industry trends and presenting them with fully-diligenced deals that they can assess for potential investment.

PORTAL chooses exceptional, influential operators, successful entrepreneurs, and investors with the passion, drive, and vision to build great startups that will positively affect humanity. The ideal PORTAL Community member is an individual who has built and / or operated successful businesses, and wants to give back by helping the next generation of entrepreneurs. The stronger our Community, the better access we get to great deals and the more value we can provide our startups and entrepreneurs. While we thrive on active investor participation in our Community, PORTAL also welcomes passive investors who are interested in building a VC portfolio.

Our investors act with respect and integrity as an investor and advisor to entrepreneurs in the PORTAL Community and beyond. When supporting entrepreneurs in our Community, they endeavor to help them achieve their highest potential beyond financial means.

Investors invited into the PORTAL Community can contribute beyond capital in the following ways:

• Sit On Boards and Hold Advisory Roles: Select investors are invited to formally fill board seats and advisory roles of our portfolio companies based on their expertise
• Assist Portfolio Companies With Relationships and Expertise:  PORTAL facilitates thoughtful and meaningful support to entrepreneurs, including key introductions, hiring and business advice, leveraging the power of its investor Community
• Share Deal Flow: PORTAL welcomes Community-sourced deal flow and offers preference for investors that refer deals in which we end up investing
• Vet Deal Flow: Invited investors can help PORTAL vet its deal flow leveraging operating and domain expertise
• Refer Investors: Refer other investors into the invite-only PORTAL Community
• Or Simply Passively Invest:  Invest with a competitive edge, knowing portfolio companies and coveted deal flow often backed by top-tier VCs are well supported by this invite-only Community

We offer our fund investors (PORTAL Fund) reduced fees (1% vs 2%), priority access in oversubscribed syndicate deals, and guaranteed pro-rata as a fund investor in syndicates.

We work with STRATA Trust, an alternative IRA custodian, to enable you to use retirement funds to invest in venture opportunities via a self-directed IRA. A self-directed IRA is a retirement account that empowers investors to take control of their financial future. Just like a conventional IRA (or 401(k)), a self-directed IRA gives you the option to take advantage of tax benefits and watch your money grow with compound interest. It has all the benefits you’ve come to expect from a retirement account with two important differences — more investment options and greater control of your retirement portfolio.

If this is an option you wish to explore, we will connect you with STRATA to learn more. The process works a lot like an IRA rollover. Your funds will be moved from an existing IRA or 401(k) account to an account with STRATA. These funds will then be applied to venture capital investment opportunities of your choosing. Upon any liquidity event, your capital can then be moved back to a traditional retirement account custodian.