#2
Peter Thiel
21 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeedSeries A
PayPal co-founder, Founders Fund GP, first Facebook outside investor.
Notable bets
Facebook, Palantir, SpaceX, Stripe
Top pre-seed investors
The angels and venture firms most active at pre-seed, drawn from Stanford GSB's unicorn research. See who's leading rounds right now via live news per investor.
Latest activity refreshed hourly via Google News. Last refresh: May 13, 2026, 3:42 PM.
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Top angel investors
7 shown#10
Scott Banister
18 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeed
IronPort founder, prolific PayPal-mafia angel.
Notable bets
Facebook, Uber, SpaceX
#11
Ronald Conway
17 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeed
SV Angel founder, the original superangel.
Notable bets
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Square
#13
Paul Buchheit
16 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeed
Gmail creator, YC partner.
#19
David Tisch
14 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeed
BoxGroup founder, Techstars NYC alum.
Notable bets
Warby Parker, Plaid, Ro
#22
Sam Altman
13 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeed
OpenAI CEO, ex-YC president.
Notable bets
Stripe, Reddit, Airbnb
#45
Garry Tan
9 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeed
Y Combinator CEO & president.
Notable bets
Coinbase, Instacart
Tier-1 venture firms & accelerators
3 shownY Combinator
AI · SaaS · Consumer · Fintech
Pre-SeedSeed
Most prolific accelerator. ~7,000 companies funded, 100+ unicorns.
Notable bets
Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, OpenAI, Reddit, DoorDash
Techstars
SaaS · Fintech · Health · Mobility
Pre-SeedSeed
Global accelerator network across 50+ programs.
Notable bets
SendGrid, DigitalOcean, ClassPass
NFX
Marketplaces · Network Effects · Bio · Crypto
Pre-SeedSeed
Network-effects-focused seed firm. Pre-seed and seed only.
Notable bets
Lyft, DoorDash, Patreon
How this list was built
The angels are ranked by their count of pre-unicorn investments, per the Stanford GSB research published in September 2025. Pattern recognition matters here: most of the top angels were operators or executives at large tech companies first (PayPal, Google, Facebook, Stripe). Many co-invested together repeatedly. The PayPal mafia alone (Thiel, Sacks, Levchin, Banister) shows up across Facebook, Airbnb, Palantir, and SpaceX.
Funds and accelerators are curated separately. Y Combinator and Techstars sit earliest in the funnel. Sequoia, a16z, Benchmark, and Accel are where most category-defining companies scale. NFX is the network-effects specialist. Tiger Global and SoftBank Vision Fund sit at the growth end, where their participation confirms a trend is real rather than predicting it.
Latest activity for each investor is pulled from Google News RSS, refreshed hourly, with query-level disambiguation and a post-filter that drops obituaries and unrelated stories. Coverage skew is real (high-profile names get more news) and the page prefers the most recent items regardless of sentiment.
Frequently asked
Who is the most prolific angel investor?
David Morin tops the Stanford list with 23 pre-unicorn investments. Peter Thiel and Lee Linden are tied for second at 21 each. David Sacks (20) and Marc Benioff (19) round out the top 5.
Are there any women in the top 50?
The Stanford list as published does not include any women in the top 50, which has drawn fair criticism. Notable angels missing from the methodology include Cyan Banister (Uber, SpaceX, Postmates, Niantic), who multiple commenters flagged as a likely top-ten figure if included.
What stages does each investor write at?
Each filtered view is a separate URL: pre-seed, seed, series A, growth. Most top angels lead at seed; YC and Techstars are pre-seed; Tiger and SoftBank are growth-only.
How is "latest activity" sourced?
Google News RSS, queried per investor name, refreshed hourly. Each query carries disambiguating context (e.g. Dave Morin / Slow Ventures) and we drop obituary, funeral, and crime headlines as a safety net.
How can I get in front of these investors?
Upload your pitch deck for free AI feedback and an investor match preview. Most warm intros happen via operators these investors trust, so increasing your score on the things they actually care about (clear problem, credible team, real traction) is the best use of your time today.
Ben Wiggins
7x Founder · 1 Exit · Experienced Angel Investor · CIO Family Office
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