Case Study: How Charleston Angel Partners made sense of their data

The challenge: data silos, lack of transparency, and poor collaboration 

Established in 2004, Charleston Angel Partners (CAP) is the area's most tenured member-driven Angel Group. They’re a dynamic group of seasoned investors who work together to support high-growth economic development in the region while seeking attractive investment returns. Members work collectively to benefit from a group experience but act individually in every investment decision.

Before Dealum, CAP used a combination of spreadsheets and a platform called Seraf. Diane Szöke, the Operations Director of CAP says this caused data silos, hindered collaboration, slowed down investment decisions, and limited broader participation from those that would like to invest: “Seraf lacked intuitiveness, received no software updates for about a decade, and its customer service was notably lacking. Nobody wanted to use it. 

Worst of all – we couldn’t trust its data and had to keep separate spreadsheets for tracking investments, cap tables, investments, and members. With several people handling the spreadsheets, it was a nightmare. Finding specific information was challenging and created more work. All in all, we felt we couldn’t be as responsive or transparent as we wanted to be for our members and other parties.” 

CAP was looking for a centralized system that would: 

• Cover all their processes from membership to portfolio management – they didn’t want to compromise with a platform that would only cover 50–60% of their needs, perpetuating the data silos and data duplication.
• Allow each member to see their specific investment details – CAP wanted to be able to list investments within a portfolio company and break them down by distinct members. For instance, if they invested 100,000 dollars in total in a company, they wanted to be able to individually list all the investors contributing to that amount. This would allow each investor to see their specific investment details, access information about the portfolio company, receive updates if available, and track their investments from anywhere, at any time.
• Provide a way to capture updates from portfolio companies to keep the members informed of any new developments. 
• Be intuitive – because switching to a new platform would be pointless with people still not using it. 
• Help foster a sense of community – during social distancing, meetings were virtual, and the sense of community was lacking. But people want to connect – not only for investment interests but also for the social and community aspects. 
• Be a non-fund solution – at CAP, individual investors make their own investment decisions and that should be reflected in the solution. 

CAP explored numerous software solutions, but most were geared towards funds and ill-suited for a member-driven angel group. “I didn’t want to burden the group with another product that wasn’t significantly better than our current solution," says Diane.

Her optimism was nearly dashed until she stumbled upon Dealum at the 2022 ACA Summit event.

"I attended a session with Jeffrey Lang from Desert Angels, who spoke about transitioning to Dealum. It was exactly what we needed – we didn’t have to settle!"

Long story short, after thorough due diligence that included talking to other angel groups who already used Dealum, CAP launched the platform on January 1st, 2023. 

The outcome: a centralized space that helps engage new and old members 

Today, CAP uses Dealum to handle all aspects of membership and portfolio management. It’s the centralized space they were looking for, where CAP members can not only access their investment data and check upcoming meeting details but also actively participate in their community. 

10 key benefits of using Dealum for CAP 

1. Streamlining funnel and portfolio management – with Dealum, CAP now seamlessly oversees the entire investment process, starting from the initial introduction of a company, navigating through funding rounds, and culminating in its inclusion as a portfolio company. This comprehensive approach ensures that CAP gathers all relevant information right from the outset. While some existing companies were initially a bit reluctant to embrace Dealum, many of them, seeking follow-on funding, will inevitably transition to the platform. As a result, this reluctance will resolve naturally as Dealum becomes increasingly integral to the investment process.
2. Centralizing membership information – before Dealum, CAP had membership information scattered across different spreadsheets. In Dealum, their member list is centralized and easily updated.
3. 5x less time spent on taxes – having the list of members’ investments in the portfolio and their latest contact information becomes especially crucial during tax reporting. 
4. Dues collection and budgeting – the ability to process dues payments through the platform has been transformative for CAP. Before Dealum, some members preferred writing checks, while others preferred credit card payments, sometimes the payments were delayed. Due to the lack of information and manual handling of the payments it often took CAP until mid-year to have all their dues paid – now 85% of their dues are collected already in January and budgeting is so much easier. 
5. 90% membership engagement – members embracing Dealum was CAP's greatest success story. With a remarkable 90% engagement rate, the platform has become an indispensable tool for the majority of members. The ones not using it seldom use digital tools at all. CAP is seeing higher member engagement and members take an interest much earlier in the investment process. The funnel is transparent and information is available from the moment a company applies on Dealum, which is something members didn’t have access to before. 
6. Better planning of events – CAP has been using Dealum for events from the start but uses it even more now as the platform’s functionality continues to grow. They use it primarily for their member meetings and schedule meetings for the entire year so everyone can plan accordingly. They also attach companies to specific events so the attendees have all the relevant information at hand. 
7. Easier administration and enhanced transparency – using Dealum has made CAP a lot more nimble. They can do things faster and don’t have to waste time manually updating and deciphering spreadsheets. They can do better sourcing and screening of deals because they have all the relevant information. The members have also noticed the positive changes, especially pointing out the ability to see portfolio insights and that the deals are better sourced. 
8. Re-engaging old members – Dealum helps CAP communicate not only with their active investors but also with the ones that invested years ago. Due to the way the information was siloed before, it was difficult to keep track of inactive members. They were on a list somewhere but no one had time to engage with them because it was extra manual work. Now, with the information being centralized, CAP can send updates and yearly summaries to all their current and previous members. People have responded very positively and this has rekindled connections with tens of people CAP hadn’t heard of in almost 10 years. 
9. Continuous improvement of processes – CAP doesn’t stop here, they’re constantly looking for ways to harness the power of their data. For instance, they’ve decided to shy away from companies that are still LLCs as opposed to C corps, because it's a lot of work and ends up delaying their taxes. By asking for this information on the application, CAP can quickly determine which companies they’re interested in and let them know about their policy, ‘but if you’re planning to transition to a C corp, we'd love to talk’. 
10. Easier recruiting – just like a good website, a membership management platform is an extension of the brand. Diane says Dealum helps bring in new members because they see that CAP cares about their members, their processes, and keeping everything secure yet easily accessible. Not to mention providing information that people need for high-quality decision-making. 

The verdict: communicating and connecting in a totally new way 

Diane Szöke, the Operations Director of Charleston Angel Partners says that Dealum has been groundbreaking for their group:

“Dealum has allowed us to collect, discover, and share information, and connect to our members in a way we didn't imagine before."

"For other angel groups, I’d recommend taking a look at and understanding their current processes and to start planning ahead. We’re constantly refining our system to offer the best to our members and other partners. I think it's imperative that angel groups like ourselves do the work to make sure that information is as good as possible. Making the switch from an offline siloed environment to online management isn't always simple, but it’s definitely worth it.”