Operator-led mastermind syndicate

25 operators who invest together and show up for every company they back.

Not an angel syndicate. Not smart capital. A working council of proven operators who invest ad hoc, show up as one line on your cap table, and deliver value that no check size can buy. The delta is experience and help.

Apply as Mastermind Submit a Company

25 members. Annual cycles. One line on your cap table.

The trust layer

One adoption slot. Per mastermind. Per year.

The council operates in annual cycles. Each year, the Antigone Committee reviews the roster and determines which masterminds continue. Some stay. Some rotate out. New operators rotate in. The group stays sharp because membership is earned every year, not granted permanently.

Every mastermind gets one adoption slot per year. When you adopt a company, you put your name on it. Every other member writes the same check. Investments are made ad hoc. Masterminds Capital invests as a single entity: one line on the founder's cap table, not 25. No side deals. No opt-outs. The group moves as one.

Members maximum

Adoption per mastermind per year

$25K

Per company, ad hoc, one cap table line

1yr

Annual cycle, roster reviewed by Antigone Committee

Process

How Masterminds Capital works

A mastermind identifies a company.

Any member can source a company they believe in. They do their own diligence. They talk to the founder. They decide if they want to use their adoption slot.

They present to the group.

The adopting mastermind brings the company to the full council with a clear thesis: why this team, why this market, why now. Members ask hard questions. The sponsor owns the answers.

Adoption triggers a unanimous check.

If a mastermind adopts a company, every member writes the same check. Today that is $1,000 per member, $25,000 total per company. Investments are made ad hoc. Masterminds Capital appears as a single entity on the cap table. No individual opt-outs. The group moves together.

The sponsor becomes the DRI.

The Adopting Mastermind is the directly responsible individual. They own the relationship. They set the engagement cadence. They bring the right members into working sessions based on what the company actually needs.

The company gets 25 operators, not just capital.

The founder walks away with a working council of people who have built, scaled, and exited companies. Capital is the entry point. Operator leverage is the product.

For founders

What founders get

This is not an angel syndicate where capital is the product. Imagine the 25 best group partners from YC put in their own capital and then personally helped you build. Not introductions to other investors. Direct operator leverage. That is the force multiplier. The capital is the smallest part.

GTM Teardown

Members with distribution and go-to-market experience will pressure-test your acquisition model, pricing, and channel strategy. Not theory. Real playbooks from real revenue.

Recruiting Leverage

Access operator networks for key hires. Members will make direct introductions, help close candidates, and advise on org design from experience, not frameworks.

Clean Cap Table

25 operators. One line on your cap table. Masterminds Capital invests as a single entity, so you get the leverage of an entire operator council without the clutter of 25 individual angels.

KPI Cadence

Your adopting mastermind sets a regular check-in rhythm. You report real numbers. The group responds with pattern-matched feedback, not pep talks.

Accountability

This group will tell you what you need to hear. If something is broken, you will know. If a pivot is needed, someone will say it. That is the value of operators over passive capital.

Hard Conversations

Fundraising positioning. Co-founder dynamics. When to cut a product line. When to fire a VP. The conversations that matter most are the ones most investors will never have with you.

Investment

What we invest

$25,000

per company today

25 members x $1,000 each

This is not an angel syndicate. Angel syndicates pool capital. We pool experience. Every investment is made ad hoc. There is no fund, no committed capital pool, and no deployment schedule. When a mastermind adopts a company, the group writes the check together. Masterminds Capital invests as a single entity, which means one line on the founder's cap table, not 25 individual entries.

Our greatest value is not our capital. The delta is experience and help. Imagine the top 25 advisors from an elite program all put in their own money and then personally advised your company. Not just introductions. Not just helping you raise from strangers who will never send a second email. Investing alongside you and showing up to do the work.

Capital per company can increase over time as the group proves its thesis and members choose to scale their commitment. But the model is designed so that value is always disproportionate to dollars. We want to invest in companies where $25,000 and 25 operators produce an outcome that $250,000 from a passive source never could.

The adoption model

Every company has a named sponsor.

The Adopting Mastermind is the single point of accountability for every company in the portfolio. They sourced the deal. They vetted the founder. They used their one annual adoption slot to bring this company to the group.

This is not an angel syndicate where capital flows and nobody shows up. Adoption means the sponsor is personally responsible for the quality of the engagement between the company and the council. They set the cadence. They coordinate operator involvement. They are the first call when something breaks. The capital is secondary. The operator engagement is the product.

What the adopting mastermind commits to

Conduct independent diligence before presenting to the group
Present a clear investment thesis to the full council
Own the ongoing relationship with the founder
Set and maintain a regular engagement cadence
Coordinate operator involvement based on company needs
Surface problems early and escalate when support is needed
Report back to the group on progress, challenges, and outcomes

Membership

Who we look for

Membership is based on operator credibility, not check-writing capacity. We are selecting for the ability to walk into a company and make it better. The roster is reviewed annually by the Antigone Committee, a rotating panel of five members who decide which masterminds continue and who rotates out. Seats are earned every year.

We look for

Built and scaled a company past $1M ARR or equivalent traction milestone
Held a leadership role (VP or above) at a high-growth company through a meaningful inflection
Deep functional expertise in a discipline founders consistently need: GTM, product, engineering, finance, ops, people
Track record of advising or investing in early-stage companies with measurable involvement
Willingness to commit real time, not just capital
Reputation for direct, honest feedback

This is not for

Passive investors looking for deal flow without engagement
People who want the title but not the work
Anyone who cannot commit to the adoption model and its obligations
Investors whose primary value is capital, not expertise
People who are uncomfortable with direct feedback and transparent decision-making

For founders

Built for founders at inflection

You have a product. You have early traction. You might have some revenue. What you do not have is a bench of operators who have been exactly where you are and can help you make the right decisions in the next 12 months.

You are past the idea stage but before the scaling stage. You are making decisions about hiring, go-to-market, pricing, and fundraising that will define your trajectory. You need people in the room who have pattern recognition for these moments.

Most founders raise from angel syndicates where capital flows and nobody shows up. Or they collect advisors who help them raise from strangers who will never send a second email. This is different. 25 operators invest their own money, show up as a single entity on your cap table, and then personally help you build. The capital is not the product. The experience and help is the product. That is the force multiplier no advisory board or passive syndicate can replicate.

Submit a Company

FAQ

Questions

Expect 2 to 4 hours per month. That includes reviewing adoption presentations, participating in working sessions with portfolio companies, and occasional async feedback. The time commitment is real but bounded. Membership runs in annual cycles. If you cannot commit for a full cycle, you can rotate out and rejoin when your schedule allows.

The Antigone Committee is a rotating panel of five masterminds responsible for reviewing the roster at the end of each annual cycle. They decide which masterminds continue, which rotate out, and which new operators are invited in. The committee itself rotates so no permanent gatekeepers emerge. The name is intentional. Membership requires conviction, not compliance.

Yes. Every year, the Antigone Committee reviews the full roster. Some masterminds stay. Some rotate out. New operators rotate in. This is by design. The group stays sharp because no seat is permanent. If a mastermind does not have the time or capacity to adopt and engage at the level the group requires, they step aside and someone who does takes their place.

Each mastermind has one adoption slot per year. The decision to adopt is theirs alone. When a mastermind adopts a company, they present their thesis to the group. Adoption is not a vote. It is a personal commitment by the sponsor. Every other member then writes the same check. The trust is in the adopter, not in a committee process.

You write the check anyway. That is the model. Adoption is built on trust between members. If you do not trust the judgment of the other 24 people in the room, this is not the right syndicate for you. Over time, members whose adoptions consistently underperform will lose credibility within the group. The accountability is social, not structural.

As a single entity. Masterminds Capital invests as one line on your cap table, not 25 individual entries. You get the leverage of 25 operators without the cap table bloat. This is a deliberate design choice. A clean cap table matters for future rounds, and we do not want to be the reason yours gets complicated.

We do not publish standard terms. Each investment is made ad hoc and negotiated independently between the adopting mastermind and the founder. Terms reflect the stage, the round context, and the value the group brings beyond capital. We aim for structures that are fair to founders and aligned with the operator-first thesis.

Follow-on is not guaranteed and is not part of the base model. Individual members may choose to invest more in subsequent rounds on their own terms. The group may also decide to increase check sizes over time. But no founder should expect automatic follow-on. The primary product is operator engagement, not a capital pipeline.

Members disclose conflicts at the time of adoption presentation. If a member has a competing portfolio company or a material conflict, they flag it. The adopting mastermind decides how to handle it. Transparency is the default. If a conflict is serious enough to compromise the engagement, the conflicted member recuses from active involvement with that company but still writes the check.

Yes. All company information shared within the group is confidential. Members do not disclose portfolio company details, adoption discussions, or internal group dynamics externally. Founders should expect the same level of discretion they would from any serious investor. Violations of confidentiality are grounds for removal.

Companies fail. That is the nature of early-stage investing. The adopting mastermind communicates openly with the group about what happened and what was learned. There is no penalty for an honest adoption that does not work out. The model accounts for this. Not every company will succeed, but every company should get genuine operator support for the duration of the engagement.

Yes. The current structure is $1,000 per member per company ($25,000 total). The group may vote to increase individual check sizes over time as the model proves out. Any change requires consensus. The intent is to start with a structure where the capital barrier is low and the operator commitment is high, then scale capital as trust and track record develop.

Use the "Apply as Mastermind" button on this page. Applications are reviewed by existing members. We evaluate based on operator track record, domain expertise, and alignment with the group's culture of accountability and directness. There is no fee to apply. We will respond to every application.

25 seats. Apply or refer.

If you are an operator who wants to invest with purpose, or a founder who wants 25 operators in your corner, start here.

Apply as Mastermind Submit a Company