Dear ACA Member:

As Fall is in full swing, with leaves turning and a chill to the air, I am reflecting on a season of activity aimed at growing and strengthening our angel investing community.

This summer, I took the reins as Chair of the Angel Capital Association, alongside Vice Chair, Dawn Batts and our stellar, hardworking Board of Directors.

The vision I’ve laid out for this year is one of building community and delivering value to our 15,000 members. From public policy wins to the timely data and trends presented in our 2025 Angel Funders Report (released 6 months early this year!) ACA continues to advocate for and elevate our members’ success. Hundreds of new and seasoned angel investors have engaged in our Angel University courses and topical webinars, as we drive thought leadership and resources to our nationwide network of early-stage investors.

Over the summer, I criss-crossed the country to meet with angel networks, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders. In July, I attended several events at Seattle Tech Week, exploring the Pacific Northwest’s entrepreneurial and investor community. It was exciting to connect with PNW ecosystem builders such as Melissa Widner of Lighter Capital, Ben Nahir of Elevate Capital, and Dana Sather Robinson with Pitch4Impact and E8 Angels. ACA’s CEO, Pat Gouhin, was also invited to Seattle this summer by fellow board member Brianna MacDonald (Ecosystem Venture Group) to speak on our public policy efforts and recent wins alongside our Innovation Coalition partners (Carta, NVCA, and others) to expand the QSBS (qualified small business stock) tax benefits for private market investors.

In August, I was invited to speak at the Embarc Collective’s 6th Annual Glaring Gap Summit in Tampa, FL. This annual event is designed as a 2-day bootcamp on early-stage startup investing led by women for women. ACA member Sue Bevan Baggott (Queen City Angels) and I shared our angel investor journeys and a call to action to encourage more women to consider “jumping in” to angel investing. Excitingly, several attendees are now exploring starting their own angel group!

In September, I attended two back-to-back events for women angel investors, the ACA’s Women’s Investors Forum in Boston and Stella Foundation’s Women’s Venture Summit (WVS) in sunny San Diego. From investing in women’s sports to exploring new direct investment platforms using donor-advised funds, the energy was inspiring. Fellow ACA board member Silvia Mah (Stella Angels), along with ACA Member Alicia Robb (Next Wave Impact Fund & Kachuwa), and I led an “Angel Academy” at WVS, encouraging every woman in attendance to write their first check!

My next stop was Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I joined ACA Vice Chair Dawn Batts (Milestone Growth Capital) for a fireside chat at the Michigan Startup Capital Summit on angel investing trends, public policy, and the changing landscape of early-stage investing. Michigan has established five evergreen, early-stage investment funds and is working to expand its statewide network of seed-stage investors to fuel its robust innovation pipeline. A special shout-out to Ann Arbor Spark and a2TECH360 for hosting this annual gathering of ecosystem partners and investors. I’m looking forward to watching this state’s progress as it grows and supports its early-stage investing network.

And finally, I rounded out this Fall with a stop at Venture Atlanta (VA), one of the Southeast’s largest venture capital and entrepreneurship events. At VA I connected with colleagues from LaunchTN, Gain Capital, TechSquare Ventures, DualBoot Partners, and many others in the vibrant Southeast venture community. One of my JumpFund partners, Kim Seals, led a fascinating conversation with Austin Hope, People Partner at Google, where they discussed the rapidly changing nature of startup talent and hiring strategies in the age of AI.

Meeting with early-stage investors and startup ecosystems across the country helped me better understand the rapidly changing nature of early-stage investing. I learned firsthand how communities from Florida to Michigan to the West Coast are addressing challenges around access to capital — and that investors across the country are still looking for the next great innovators.

These travels and conversations reinforced three key insights for me:

• Innovation is alive and well, and investors are actively seeking great opportunities — especially if AI is at the core.
• New models of early-stage investing are emerging, from AI-assisted dealflow management to the integration of crowdfunding and SPV platforms that get investors off the sidelines.
• Many new angel investors are ready to jump in but are looking for education and trusted networks with which to connect.

I hope to visit other angel communities during my tenure as ACA Chair, and I look forward to connecting with many of you in person at our 2026 ACA Summit in Colorado, April 21-23rd. The keynote and program lineup this year is exceptional! You won’t want to miss it.

If you’d like to have me or an ACA representative to speak to your angel community, please reach out to ACA’s membership online community. Our growing Speaker Bureau members can cover everything from the basics of angel investing to the latest trends, and we’d love to support your efforts!

With gratitude,
Kristina Montague, ACA Board Chair
Managing Partner, The JumpFund

Kristina Montague is the current Board Chair of the Angel Capital Association and Managing Partner of JumpFund, an early-stage fund with a mission to engage more women in angel investing and increase access to capital for female founders across the Southeast US. Kristina is also a partner in Next Wave Impact Fund, which invests in impact ventures through a gender lens, and Mindshift Capital, a fund focused on women-led ventures globally. She is the author of the award-winning book Jump In: Women Investing in Women, Growing Our Capital and Impact, which encourages more women to invest in the change they want to see in the world.