Angel Investment Checklist: What to Log Before You Send the Wire

An angel investment checklist for the hour before you wire is an ops log, not a second pass at the company. Company diligence (financials, market, founders) lives on Raziel's due diligence checklist for startup investing. This page is five fields you copy while cash is still in your account: the entity that should hold the stock, the wire instructions you were given, the instrument PDF, a shadow cap-table snapshot, and where the QSBS clock would start if this later becomes original-issue stock.

This is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Raziel does not provide it. Copy names and dates from the documents in front of you. Do not invent a holding-period end date.

Log the entity that should hold the stock

The name on the SAFE or stock purchase agreement is the taxpayer who will own the paper. IRC section 1202(c)(1) treats qualified small business stock as stock in a C corporation acquired by the taxpayer at original issue, in exchange for money or other property (not including stock). If you invest through a partnership or other pass-thru, section 1202(g)(2)(B) requires that you held the interest in that entity on the date the entity acquired the stock, and at all times thereafter until disposition. Wiring from a personal account into an LLC you form next week is a different fact pattern than the signature block. Put the legal name, the EIN if it has one, and the bank account the wire will leave from on the same row. Do not move cash from an entity that is not on the instrument.

Copy the wire instructions you were given

Direct checks go to the company's bank. Platform checks go to the vehicle. Do not mix them. Y Combinator's post-money SAFE User Guide: the investor and the company agree on the purchase amount and valuation cap, they date and sign a SAFE, and the investor sends the company the purchase amount. That destination is the company, not a syndicate account.

AngelList help: wire instructions live on the Funding Accounts page. If you manage multiple investment entities, select the correct one. Each entity has its own unique wire instructions. Instructions also arrive on each capital call notice. Funds land in that entity's sub-account. The investment is complete when AngelList receives the funds. Carta help for limited partners: Carta does not accept in-app money movement for capital call payments. Distribution wire instructions stored in Carta cannot be used to exercise shares, and Carta only supports distributions via USD wire.

• Bank name, routing, account, and beneficiary (must match the investing entity).

• Amount, currency, and the memo or reference printed on the notice.

• Which PDF those numbers came from, and the date you copied them.

If the face amount on the SAFE and the wired dollars differ, keep both figures. The User Guide is explicit that an investor's Purchase Amount cannot be amended without that investor's separate consent.

File the instrument PDF, not the deck

A Y Combinator SAFE is a short contract you sign to fund now in exchange for the right to shares of stock later. It converts into shares automatically when the startup raises a priced round. YC's comparison page: a SAFE is a convertible security with no interest and no maturity date. A priced round sells capital stock now. The User Guide: technically nothing happens until an Equity Financing, a Liquidity Event, or a Dissolution Event. Keep the signed SAFE or stock purchase agreement, any pro rata side letter, and the board consent if you were sent it. YC's US library ships three post-money forms (valuation cap and no discount; discount and no cap; uncapped most-favored-nation) plus an optional pro rata side letter. Log which form you signed. The legal landscape of startup investing page is the security-type overview.

Snapshot the cap table you were shown

YC strongly recommends that companies keep an accurate cap table to record how SAFEs will convert. Log the snapshot you were sent before you wired, so later conversion math has a baseline. Note fully diluted shares, the option pool, other converting securities, and the date of the file. On a post-money SAFE, ownership sold is the purchase amount divided by the post-money valuation cap, and that percentage is post-SAFE, not post-priced-round. Raziel's cap table guide is the dilution explainer. Here you store the PDF you were actually given.

Mark where the QSBS clock would start

IRC section 1202 talks about stock, not about a wire confirmation. Qualified small business stock is original-issue C corporation stock acquired by the taxpayer for money or other property (not including stock). The acquisition date is the first day the taxpayer held that stock, determined after applying section 1223. Public Law 119-21 (July 4, 2025) changed how long you must hold after that start. Do not write an end date on this checklist. Log instrument type (SAFE versus priced equity), the holding entity, and that the clock, if it runs, starts on acquisition of original-issue stock. A SAFE is still the right to shares later.

A workbook holds this if each check is a row and the five fields are filled before cash moves. Raziel's startup investment dashboard is the book those files sit on: IRR and unrealized gains on the cash you log, capital-call dates, and AI ingest of the PDFs. Copy the five fields. Leave the round to close on the paper you kept.