25 New York Angel Investors Backing Seed-Stage Startups
By TurboFund Research Team
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New York gets treated as an afterthought by founders who build their investor list from West Coast blog posts. That's a real mistake. NYC is the #2 startup hub in the US by deal count, and some of the most disciplined early-stage investors in the world operate from Manhattan — with a bias toward fintech, media, enterprise software, and consumer that you don't get from a Bay Area generalist.
NYC investors have seen more business models fail on unit economics than their SF counterparts — many grew up near Wall Street and have a different relationship with financial rigor. When you pitch a NYC-based angel, bring clean numbers. Know your LTV/CAC ratio. Know your payback period. Know your NRR. The narrative pitch that wins San Francisco meetings falls flat when an investor has spent 20 years analyzing spreadsheets and knows exactly what questions a business model can't survive.
This list was pulled directly from TurboFund's database of 250,000+ investor profiles, filtered for New York City-based investors with active seed and early-stage investment history. We ranked by Crunchbase prominence score to surface the most active and well-connected names across fintech, media, and enterprise software.
Scott Belsky co-founded Behance (acquired by Adobe for $150M), went deep into product leadership at Adobe, and is now at A24 while angel investing independently — his focus is on founders who treat product experience as a business moat, not just a feature. Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital has backed GitHub, Instagram, Spotify, Warby Parker, and Oscar Health — a track record of picking category leaders before they're obvious. Gary Vaynerchuk's personal angel portfolio spans consumer tech, e-commerce, and brand-driven businesses where audience is a real asset. And Lee Fixel, formerly of Tiger Global where he deployed capital into Flipkart and Stripe, now runs Addition — writing large early-stage checks when he has strong conviction.
If your company is in fintech, enterprise software, media, or anything with a strong consumer brand, add two or three NYC investors to your target list. They'll challenge your assumptions and bring relationships you won't find anywhere else. Once you've warmed up relationships with angels here, institutional capital is the natural next step — our NYC fintech seed VC list covers the firms most of these angels co-invest with. If you're building in AI, the 25 AI investors backing seed-stage startups list is worth pairing with this one. The full TurboFund database includes thousands of additional investor profiles filterable by stage, check size, industry, and geography. There's a 14-day free trial — no credit card required.
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Scott Belsky
@ A24 / Angel InvestorCo-founded Behance (acquired by Adobe for $150M), spent years as Chief Product Officer at Adobe, and is now at A24 while actively angel investing. Scott's lens is product-first — he backs founders where exceptional UX creates durable retention and brand loyalty. One of the most respected product-minded investors in the game.
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Eric Glyman
@ RampCo-founded Ramp, the corporate spend management and finance automation platform that grew from zero to $500M+ ARR in just a few years — one of the fastest B2B SaaS companies ever built. Eric angels in fintech and financial infrastructure with a relentlessly rigorous view of what real product-market fit actually looks like.
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Zach Frankel
@ Mixhalo / AngelActive NYC-based angel investor with a focus on AI-enabled software and fintech at the early stage. Zach brings a sharp analytical framework to early-stage evaluation — he looks for founders who have genuine technical insight about their problem, not just a good narrative about the market.
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Lee Linden
@ Quiet CapitalManaging Partner at Quiet Capital and one of the more active seed investors in the NYC ecosystem. Lee previously led Karma (acquired by Facebook) and has backed a wide range of early-stage software companies across health, consumer, and information technology.
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Clark Valberg
@ Tiferes VenturesCo-founded InVision, which became the dominant design collaboration platform used by Netflix, Amazon, and thousands of product teams before the Figma era. Clark now invests through Tiferes Ventures with a focus on SaaS and design-centric software tools — with deep insight into what product-led growth actually requires at the infrastructure level.
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Meltem Demirors
@ CoinSharesChief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, one of the largest digital asset investment firms in the world with $7B+ AUM. Meltem is one of the most prominent voices in crypto and financial infrastructure — her investment focus is on blockchain protocols, digital asset infrastructure, and the companies building the plumbing underneath Web3.
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Nitesh Banta
@ B12Co-founded B12, the AI-powered professional services platform for small businesses. Nitesh is an active NYC seed angel particularly interested in AI-enabled software that serves underserved markets — companies building tools for the majority of businesses that can't afford enterprise software but need more than free tools.
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Nasir Jones
@ QueensBridge Venture PartnersGrammy-winning artist Nas co-manages QueensBridge Venture Partners, with early bets that include Dropbox, Lyft, Ring (acquired by Amazon for $1.2B), and Codecademy (acquired for $525M). One of the most successful celebrity investors in tech history — his portfolio performance competes with institutional funds.
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Joshua Kushner
@ Thrive CapitalFounder and Managing Partner of Thrive Capital, which has backed GitHub (acquired by Microsoft for $7.5B), Instagram (acquired by Facebook for $1B), Spotify, Warby Parker, and Oscar Health. Joshua's track record of picking category-defining companies before they're obvious has made Thrive one of the most sought-after growth funds in the world.
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Esther Dyson
@ BAMF HealthOne of the most storied tech investors in the world — early backer of Flickr, Medscape, and dozens of internet and health tech companies starting in the early 90s. Esther is now focused on longevity, preventive health, and the intersection of human performance and technology through BAMF Health.
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Shana Fisher
@ Highline Venture PartnersFounder of Highline Venture Partners and one of New York's most respected early-stage investors. Shana is known for spotting consumer and internet companies before the institutional money shows up — her portfolio includes Tumblr (acquired by Yahoo), Etsy, and a range of software and e-commerce companies that were non-obvious bets at the time.
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Wayne Chang
@ ReasonerCo-founded Crashlytics (acquired by Twitter, then Google) and is now building Reasoner. Wayne is an active seed angel in SaaS and AI-enabled developer tools — with a particular focus on companies building infrastructure that makes software development faster and more reliable.
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Jennifer Fleiss
@ Initialized CapitalCo-founded Rent the Runway, one of the defining fashion-tech companies of the past decade — pioneered the rental economy model and took the company public. Jennifer invests in consumer and retail technology with a specific depth in subscription models, fashion, and companies rethinking how consumers access products and services.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
@ VaynerXChairman of VaynerX, a modern-day media and communications holding company, and one of the most active angels in consumer tech. Gary's early bets include Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Coinbase, and Uber. His value to consumer companies extends well beyond the check — he's one of the most followed business voices in the world with 20M+ followers across platforms.
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Matteo Franceschetti
@ Eight SleepCo-founded Eight Sleep, which built the leading smart mattress and sleep optimization platform backed by Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and others. Matteo is an active angel investor with a focus on health tech, AI-enabled software, and companies building at the intersection of biology and technology.
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Joanne Wilson
@ Gotham Gal VenturesFounded Gotham Gal Ventures with a focus on female and diverse founders who are underrepresented in traditional VC. Joanne has 150+ investments across consumer tech, e-commerce, education, and retail — and is one of the most respected angels in the NY startup community for both the check and the ongoing operating support.
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Bryan Rosenblatt
@ Craft VenturesPartner at Craft Ventures (David Sacks' fund) based out of New York, with a focus on SaaS, e-commerce, and marketplace businesses. Bryan evaluates companies with a rigorous financial lens — Craft's portfolio includes Zenefits, Postmates, and a range of enterprise software companies with strong underlying unit economics.
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Assaf Rappaport
@ WizCEO and co-founder of Wiz, which became the fastest SaaS company to reach $100M ARR in history and was reportedly offered $23B by Google (turned down). Assaf is an active angel investor in cloud security and enterprise software — and has one of the most credible operator perspectives on what it takes to win an enterprise market quickly.
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Lee Fixel
@ AdditionFormer Partner at Tiger Global where he deployed billions into Flipkart (acquired for $16B), Stripe, Peloton, and dozens of technology companies worldwide. Now runs Addition, which writes large concentrated checks into companies Lee believes are genuinely category-defining. His diligence is legendarily thorough and his conviction checks are meaningful at any stage.
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Olivier Pomel
@ DatadogCo-founded Datadog, the observability and monitoring platform that IPO'd at a $7.8B valuation and now trades at $30B+. Olivier is an active angel investor in cloud infrastructure, DevOps tooling, and SaaS companies building for technical buyers — with a practitioner's understanding of what developer-facing products need to achieve enterprise-scale adoption.
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Jenny Fielding
@ Everywhere VenturesManaging Partner at Everywhere Ventures (formerly The Fund) which operates micro-funds across 40+ cities globally. Jenny has invested in 300+ companies across health, software, and consumer wellness — she is one of the most prolific early-stage investors in the world and brings a truly global network of founders and follow-on investors.
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Chris Dixon
@ Andreessen HorowitzGeneral Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and one of the most influential voices in tech investing. Chris made early angel bets on Kickstarter, Pinterest, Oculus, Foursquare, and others before joining a16z — where he now runs the crypto fund. Operating from New York, he's a bridge between the West Coast VC establishment and the East Coast tech community.
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Alan Patricof
@ GreycroftFounding partner of Greycroft, one of New York's most storied VC firms, and a pioneer of New York tech investing going back to the 1970s. Alan backed Apple in its earliest days, and Greycroft's portfolio includes Huffington Post, Bird, Bumble, and dozens of media and consumer tech companies. He helped build the New York tech ecosystem from nothing.
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Albert Wenger
@ Union Square VenturesManaging Partner at Union Square Ventures, the NYC fund that backed Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy, Duolingo, MongoDB, and Coinbase — one of the defining early-stage portfolios of the internet era. Albert is also an active writer and thinker on the future of technology and markets, giving USV portfolio companies access to one of the most thoughtful investor networks in the world.
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Adam Rothenberg
@ BoxGroupPartner at BoxGroup, one of the most active seed funds in New York with investments in Plaid, Warby Parker, Ro, and hundreds of early-stage companies. BoxGroup is known for writing fast seed checks into companies where the team and idea are right — before most institutional investors would even take the meeting.
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