Angel Investor of the Month News | November, 2026 (STARTUP EDITION)

TL;DR: Angel Investor of the Month News for November 2026, Top Picks and How to Pitch Them

Table of Contents

Angel Investor of the Month news, November, 2026 gives you a vetted shortlist of active angels, so you stop pitching investors who quit years ago. No official body named a monthly winner. Violetta Bonenkamp (Mean CEO, co-founder of CADChain, founder of Fe/male Switch) chose Hesham Zreik of FasterCapital as her editorial pick for his accessibility and global reach.

Who Made the November 2026 Shortlist

Editorial pick: Zreik has backed 100+ startups and co-founded 40+ companies. He started his first company on under $20 a month.
Repeat leaders: Naval Ravikant and Scott Belsky rank high for both deal volume and exits. Fabrice Grinda leads exits with 87, and Elad Gil leads deal count with 150+.
Reachable operators: Immad Akhund and Kunal Shah accept pitches by Twitter DM. Rahul Vohra prefers warm intros.
Surprise name: Sahin Boydas was the most active angel of 2024, yet many founders have never heard of him.

Numbers Every Founder Should Know

Angel checks typically run $5K to $250K.
Angels decide in days or weeks. VC funds often take months.
About two-thirds of founders face failure risk within 25 months. Bring a survival plan to every pitch.
Many "2026" angel lists still carry data from 2016 to 2018. Check each name for a public deal in the last 12 months.

How to Approach Angels This Month

Build a list of 50 to 100 angels filtered by sector and check size.
Remove anyone without a public deal in 12 months.
Write a 5-sentence note covering problem, traction, why now, why them and the ask.
Send in batches of 10 to 15 and track every reply.
Send monthly updates, even to people who said no.

What the Rankings Miss

The top 20 exits list includes zero women, and almost every ranked angel is US-based. Local angel networks and niche operators often write better first checks than global stars. Before any term sheet, run a cap table and IP audit, because unclear IP ownership kills more early deals than weak traction.

Your first ten outreach emails will teach you more than any ranking. Pick your shortlist this week and press send.

Check out other fresh startup news and trends that you might like:

Alternatives to Pipedrive

When the Angel Investor of the Month realizes your hockey stick growth chart was just a typo in Excel. Unsplash

The Angel Investor of the Month news for November 2026 starts with an uncomfortable fact: NO public source has crowned an official “Angel Investor of the Month” for November 2026. I checked the rankings, the databases, the newsletters and the award archives. Ranking lists name investors like Hesham Zreik, Edward Lando, Elad Gil and Naval Ravikant, and none of them carry an official monthly title. So instead of inventing a winner, I am doing what I do with every startup decision: I read the data, compare the signals and make a transparent call.

I am Violetta Bonenkamp, known online as Mean CEO. I co-founded CADChain, a deeptech company working on IP protection for CAD files, and I founded Fe/male Switch, a startup game and online incubator for women founders. I have raised money, been rejected by investors, sat through accelerator demo days from Yes!Delft to Y Combinator Startup School, and watched brilliant founders lose months chasing the wrong angels. This monthly column exists for one reason: to help entrepreneurs, startup founders, freelancers and business owners figure out which angel investors are worth their time right now.

Here is what you get in this November 2026 edition: an editorial pick for Angel Investor of the Month, a shortlist of the most active angels based on 2026 data, the stats that matter, a step-by-step guide to approaching angels, the mistakes I see founders repeat every month, and a European founder’s view of what the Silicon Valley rankings keep missing. If you read last month’s edition, the Angel Investor of the Month news for October 2026 covered Josh Garratt of Southern Angels and the Australian Angel Awards. This month, we go wider.

Is there an official Angel Investor of the Month for November 2026?

Short answer: NO. No angel network, award body or media outlet in the available sources has published an official “Angel Investor of the Month” designation for November 2026. The closest formal recognition in recent records points back to the Australian Angel Awards for 2023, where Josh Garratt of Southern Angels received an angel investor honour. Everything else you see online in this category is a ranking, a database or an opinion piece.

That matters for founders. When a blog says someone is “the angel of the month,” you should ask who decided it and on what basis. An angel investor, in the startup sense, is an individual who puts personal capital into an early-stage company, usually in exchange for equity or convertible debt, according to the Wikipedia definition of an angel investor. That definition says nothing about awards. It says everything about risk, timing and personal money. So my pick below follows that logic: who is most useful to a founder raising early money in November 2026?

How I chose this month’s pick

I used five criteria, and I weight them the way a bootstrapped founder would, with accessibility ranked above fame. Celebrity angels look great in a press release and are often impossible to reach. A slightly less famous angel who answers cold emails can change your year.

Volume of deals: how many startups the person has actually backed.
Accessibility: is there a public, realistic path for a founder without a warm intro?
Founder support beyond cash: mentoring, networks, operational help.
Recency: evidence of activity in 2025 or 2026, since stale data kills fundraising plans.
Global reach: does the investor back founders outside the San Francisco bubble?

Who is the Mean CEO Angel Investor of the Month for November 2026?

My editorial pick for November 2026 is Hesham Zreik, co-founder and CEO of FasterCapital. To be clear, this is a Mean CEO editorial choice and not an official industry award. I chose him because his profile scores high on the two criteria most founders ignore: ACCESSIBILITY and GLOBAL REACH.

According to the Eqvista list of the top 100 active angel investors for 2026, Zreik has invested in over 100 startups and co-founded over 40 companies. FasterCapital, founded in 2010, has assisted more than 450 companies and works with a network of more than 1,000 regional partners worldwide. His origin story is the part I like most. In 2002, he launched his first startup, ZGroup Mobile, with less than $20 per month, and grew it to a valuation of $2.5 to $3.25 million by 2005.

Why does a $20-a-month origin story matter to you? Because angels invest in patterns they recognise from their own lives. A founder who started with almost nothing tends to respect capital discipline, cheap experiments and scrappy validation. That matches what I teach inside Fe/male Switch, where my rule is “Default to no-code until you hit a hard wall.” Zreik also names AI and machine learning as major forces across industries and points to the lasting impact of remote work, two themes that fit solo founders and distributed teams very well.

Who should pitch Hesham Zreik, and who should not?

Good fit: technical founders outside the US, founders who want hands-on accelerator-style support, teams working on software architecture, digital tools or AI products.
Good fit: founders who need a co-founding style partner more than a passive check.
Poor fit: founders who want a quiet investor and zero involvement.
Poor fit: founders chasing a celebrity name for press coverage alone.

Which angel investors made the November 2026 shortlist?

Let’s break it down by investor type. Different rankings measure different things: exits, number of deals, unicorn hits or recent activity. I grouped the strongest names into four buckets so you can match them to your stage and sector.

The volume players: who writes the most checks?

The Sahin Boydas ranking of the top 15 angel investors in 2026 focuses on deal count and check size. These are the names with the deepest portfolios:

Elad Gil: 150+ deals, checks from $100K to $5M, focus on AI, infrastructure, crypto and enterprise. Early backer of Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Instacart and Figma. Author of High Growth Handbook.
Naval Ravikant: 100+ deals, checks from $25K to $500K, co-founder of AngelList. Portfolio includes Twitter, Uber, Notion and Clubhouse.
Scott Belsky: 80+ deals, checks from $25K to $250K. Founded Behance, which Adobe acquired for $150M. Backs creative tools, AI, consumer and productivity products.
Gokul Rajaram: 70+ deals, checks from $25K to $200K. Led Google AdSense. Backed Coinbase, Figma and Airtable.
Josh Buckley: 60+ deals, checks from $10K to $100K. Became a CEO at 18. Focus on gaming, consumer, AI and social.
Lachy Groom: 50+ deals, checks from $50K to $1M. Former Head of Stripe Issuing. Backed Ramp, Brex, Plaid and Linear.
Sahil Lavingia: CEO of Gumroad, known for transparent investing and founder-friendly terms in creator and builder tools.

The exit kings: who has the most liquidity events?

Exits tell you whether an angel has seen companies all the way through acquisition or IPO. The Eqvista table, built on Crunchbase data from April 2026, shows this top 10 by number of exits:

Fabrice Grinda: 87 exits
Paul Buchheit: 74 exits
Naval Ravikant: 72 exits
Shervin Pishevar: 72 exits
Edward Lando: 68 exits
Scott Belsky: 63 exits
Ron Conway: 61 exits
Scott Banister: 60 exits
Alexis Ohanian: 55 exits
Daniel Curran: 52 exits

Notice who appears on both lists: Naval Ravikant and Scott Belsky. When an angel ranks high for both deal volume and exits, you are looking at someone with a repeatable process. If you only have time to research two names this month, research those two.

The operator angels: who invests with founder experience?

Operator angels are current or former founders and executives who still run companies. The Evalyze list of 40 active angel investors for 2026 gives some of the most practical detail I have seen, including how to reach each person and their last public investment:

Rahul Vohra (CEO of Superhuman): pre-seed and seed, $200K to $400K through his fund, warm intro preferred. Last public deal: Function Health, November 2025.
Des Traynor (Intercom co-founder): typical angel check around $25K, Europe and US. Last public deal: Continua, August 2025.
Calvin French-Owen (Segment co-founder): seed, estimated $50K to $250K. Last public deal: Shuttle, October 2025.
Immad Akhund (CEO of Mercury): $50K to $150K, open to fintech pitches through Twitter DM. Last public deal: Interchange, December 2025.
Kunal Shah (CRED founder): $10K to $50K, India and Southeast Asia, active on Twitter DM. Last public deal: Helium, April 2026.
Harry Stebbings (20VC): $250K to $5M through his fund, Europe and US. Last public deal: Lupin & Holmes, March 2026.

The quiet giant: who was the most active angel of 2024?

According to Lenny Rachitsky’s analysis of the top angel investors in the US, Sahin Boydas was the number one most active angel investor in 2024, even though Lenny admits he had not heard of him before running the data. Boydas sold his company RemoteTeam to Gusto and has invested in Anthropic, OpenAI, Scale, Hugging Face, Postman and WHOOP. He mostly backs AI and B2B SaaS. My takeaway: the most active angel in a given year may be someone you have never heard of, so stop limiting your list to famous names.

What do the numbers say about angel investing in late 2026?

Here is why stats matter before you send a single email. Founders who understand check sizes, timelines and failure rates write better pitches and set better expectations. These are the figures worth memorising:

Typical angel check: $5K to $250K, sometimes up to $500K for “super-angels,” according to the Awasero guide to the top 50 angel investors for first-time founders.
Typical VC seed check: $500K to $10M+, with board seats and formal due diligence, per the same source.
Angel decision speed: days or weeks, compared with months for most venture funds.
About 70% of entrepreneurs risk facing business failure, and nearly 66% face that risk within 25 months of launch, according to a Wilbur Labs survey of 150 founders cited on Wikipedia.
Fabrice Grinda leads with 87 exits on the April 2026 Crunchbase-based Eqvista ranking.
Elad Gil leads deal volume with 150+ deals on the 2026 Sahin Boydas ranking.
Jeff Bezos has invested in more than 30 companies through Bezos Expeditions as of mid-2026, across AI, biotech, fintech and space, according to the AngelMatch overview of the best angel investors in 2026.
Jeff Clavier’s Uncork Capital has closed 200+ investments since its founding as SoftTech VC in 2004.
Kevin Moore has over 300 portfolio companies and 19 unicorn investments, according to the unicorn ranking shared by Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev.

The shocking number for me is that two-thirds failure window: 25 months. Angels know this statistic intimately. When they write a $25K check, they assume most of their portfolio will die before year three. Your job in the pitch is to show why your company has a plan for the first 25 months, with cheap experiments and clear runway math. Show them you will survive long enough to learn.

Why do angel investor rankings disagree so much?

Put the 2026 lists side by side and you will see Elad Gil at number two on one list, missing from the top 20 exits on another, and expected at the top of a third. In the comments on Ilya Strebulaev’s LinkedIn post on the top 50 angel investors by unicorn investments, one reader wrote: “Pretty sure Elad Gil would be #1 on this at 35+.” Another pushed back on the methodology entirely. Rankings disagree because they measure different things.

Exit-based rankings reward older investors with long track records.
Deal-count rankings reward investors who spray small checks widely.
Unicorn rankings reward a few lucky or very well-connected bets, and some count late-stage personal checks that barely qualify as angel money.
Activity rankings reward recent behaviour, which matters most to a founder raising this quarter.

The data freshness problem nobody talks about

Here is a provocative truth: many “2026” angel lists contain 2016 data. The Evalyze list, which I like for its transparency, shows Sean Duffy’s last public angel investment as July 2016 and Elizabeth Iorns’ as January 2018. That is honest reporting, and it also means some founders are cold-emailing people who stopped writing personal checks years ago. I even spotted a small labelling slip: Kunal Shah’s April 2026 deal sits under “Q1 2026,” although April falls in Q2. Small errors like that tell you to verify everything before you build your outreach list.

AngelMatch makes a similar point about David Lee. He co-founded SV Angel with Ron Conway, left in the early 2010s, later co-founded Refactor Capital, and now leads Samsung NEXT. He still angel invests personally, with recent deals including HeyMax and Story Protocol, though he is no longer the SV Angel contact that older lists suggest. If your spreadsheet came from a 2019 blog post, you are pitching ghosts.

How should a startup founder approach angel investors in November 2026?

Next steps. This is the exact process I would follow if I were raising a pre-seed round today, adapted from what worked (and failed) for CADChain and from what I see Fe/male Switch players do inside the game.

Define your round in one sentence. Example: “We are raising $300K on a SAFE to reach 50 paying B2B customers in 12 months.” A SAFE is a Simple Agreement for Future Equity, a common early-stage instrument.

Define your round in one sentence. Example: “We are raising $300K on a SAFE to reach 50 paying B2B customers in 12 months.” A SAFE is a Simple Agreement for Future Equity, a common early-stage instrument.
Build a list of 50 to 100 angels, filtered by sector and check size. Use the Eqvista, Evalyze, Sahin Boydas and AngelMatch lists as starting points, then filter by your sector and geography.
Verify recency for every name. Look for a public investment in the last 12 months. If you cannot find one, move the person to a “maybe later” tab.
Map the access channel. Note whether each angel prefers warm intros, Twitter DMs, LinkedIn, a fund application or a podcast network. Immad Akhund takes fintech pitches by DM. Rahul Vohra prefers warm intros. Respect the channel.
Find your warm intro path. Portfolio founders are the best introducers. Search each angel’s portfolio and ask founders you genuinely know.
Write a 5-sentence outreach note. Problem, traction, why now, why them, the ask. Include one specific reference to their portfolio.
Send in batches of 10 to 15. Batching creates momentum and lets you adjust messaging after each wave.
Track every reply in a simple CRM. A spreadsheet or a no-code tool like Airtable or Notion works fine.
Close the first check fast. The first committed angel makes the second one easier. Offer a clear deadline.
Send monthly updates to everyone, including the people who said no. Many “no” answers turn into “yes” six months later when traction appears.

A real example of a good outreach note

“Hi Des, engineers at mid-size manufacturers lose IP every time they share CAD files with suppliers. We built a plugin that tracks file sharing rights inside the design tool, and 14 SMEs pay us monthly after a 6-week pilot. Supplier networks are shifting to remote collaboration, which makes the leak problem worse every quarter. You backed Continua and know how European B2B tools scale into the US. We are raising $400K and would love 20 minutes next week.” Five sentences, one clear ask, one personal reference. That is the format.

What are the most common mistakes founders make with angel investors?

I see these mistakes every single month, from first-time founders and from people on their third startup. Avoid them and you are already ahead of most of the pack.

Pitching celebrities first. Mark Cuban, Jeff Bezos and Elad Gil receive thousands of pitches. Start with active, reachable angels and earn your way up.
Using stale lists. If the last public investment is from 2018, you are wasting a slot in your pipeline.
Asking for the wrong check size. Asking Kunal Shah for $500K when his typical range is $10K to $50K signals you did no homework.
Treating angels like VCs. Angels invest personal money and decide on gut and founder trust. A 40-slide deck full of TAM charts will bore them.
Ignoring the access channel. Cold-emailing someone who only takes warm intros burns the relationship before it starts.
Hiding the IP situation. Angels in deeptech will ask who owns the code, the designs and the data. From my CADChain work, unclear IP ownership kills more early deals than weak traction.
Raising without a 25-month survival plan. Given the failure statistics, angels want to see how you stretch money.
Forgetting follow-up. Most yeses come after the second or third touch, often triggered by an investor update.
Accepting money from anyone. A bad angel can block future rounds, demand constant attention or spook later investors. Do reference checks on investors the same way they check you.

What does a European founder see that Silicon Valley angel rankings miss?

Now my unfiltered take. Look at every 2026 angel list cited above and count the women in the top 20. On the Eqvista exits list, the count is ZERO. On the Sahin Boydas top 15, the visible names are men. In the comments under Ilya Strebulaev’s unicorn ranking, Lily Lyman, General Partner at Underscore VC, asked exactly the right question: “What’s your take on what needs to change to get more women on this list?”

My answer comes from running Fe/male Switch: “Women do not need more inspiration; they need infrastructure.” Women founders and women angels face structural barriers in access to networks, capital and deal flow. Motivation is rarely the gap. When the rankings only measure exits from the last two decades, they mostly measure who had access to Silicon Valley deal flow in 2005. That says little about who will be the best angel for your company in 2027.

The second blind spot is geography. Almost every name on these lists sits in the US. Des Traynor (Europe and US), Harry Stebbings (Europe and US), Kunal Shah (India and Southeast Asia) and Hesham Zreik (global through FasterCapital) are exceptions. As someone who built companies in the Netherlands and pitched across Europe, the US, Asia and Australia, I can tell you that local angel networks often beat global superstars for first checks. Last month’s focus on Josh Garratt and Southern Angels in Australia was a reminder that strong angels operate far from Sand Hill Road.

Three contrarian tips from my own fundraising

Raise from operators in your exact niche, even if they write small checks. A $10K check from a manufacturing executive opened more doors for CADChain than larger checks from generalists.
Build before you pitch, using no-code. I built Fe/male Switch, a full startup game and incubator, on no-code tools. Angels fund evidence, and no-code lets you produce evidence for almost nothing.
Treat fundraising like a strategic game. Your goal in each meeting is to collect information, relationships and assets faster than competitors. A “no” with useful feedback still counts as a win.

Can freelancers and business owners become angel investors themselves?

Yes, and more of you should. The Wikipedia entry on angel investing notes that many angels are retired entrepreneurs or executives who invest for reasons beyond money: staying close to new developments, mentoring the next generation and putting their experience and networks to use on a part-time basis. If you run a profitable agency, consultancy or small business, you already hold the most useful thing an angel offers: operating experience.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a useful example. According to the OpenVC list of angel investors for startups in 2026, he grew his family’s Wine Library from a local liquor store into a $60 million online retailer, then started early-stage investing in the 2000s with bets on Twitter, Facebook, Uber, Tumblr and Venmo. He came from small business, and his edge was understanding customers and marketing.

A starter plan for first-time angels

Set a total budget you can lose completely. Assume most of your bets will fail.
Plan for 10 to 20 small checks of $2K to $10K, either through syndicates or alongside experienced angels.
Invest only in sectors you know from your own work. Your judgment there is sharper than any spreadsheet.
Join an angel network or syndicate to learn due diligence before going solo. AngelList, which Naval Ravikant co-founded, popularised this model.
Offer help before money. Mentor two founders for free for three months and see how they handle problems.

Frequently asked questions about Angel Investor of the Month news

Who is the Angel Investor of the Month for November 2026?

No official body has named one. The Mean CEO editorial pick for November 2026 is Hesham Zreik of FasterCapital, chosen for deal volume, global reach and founder accessibility.

Which angel investor has the most exits in 2026?

Fabrice Grinda, with 87 exits, according to Eqvista’s ranking based on Crunchbase data from April 2026. Paul Buchheit follows with 74.

How much does a typical angel investor invest?

Most angels write checks between $5K and $250K. Super-angels sometimes go up to $500K, and fund-backed operators like Elad Gil can reach $5M.

How fast do angel investors decide?

Usually within days or weeks, which is much faster than venture capital funds that run formal due diligence over months.

Can I pitch an angel investor without a warm introduction?

Yes, with some of them. Immad Akhund and Kunal Shah publicly accept pitches through Twitter DM, and Elizabeth Iorns is active on LinkedIn. Always check each investor’s preferred channel first.

What should founders do next after reading the November 2026 edition?

The November 2026 picture is clear once you strip away the hype. There is no official Angel Investor of the Month, the rankings measure different things, and a worrying share of “2026” lists contain years-old activity data. My editorial pick, Hesham Zreik, stands out for accessibility and global reach. Naval Ravikant and Scott Belsky stand out for ranking high on both deal volume and exits. And names like Sahin Boydas prove that the most active angel of a given year may be someone you have never heard of.

Here is your checklist for this week:

Build a list of 50 angels from the sources linked above, filtered by your sector and check size.
Delete every name without a public investment in the last 12 months.
Write one 5-sentence outreach note and test it on 10 angels.
Prepare a 25-month survival plan to answer the failure-rate question before anyone asks.
Clean up your IP ownership so nothing blocks the term sheet.
Start a monthly investor update today, even if you have zero investors.

As I tell every founder who plays through Fe/male Switch: “Education must be experiential and slightly uncomfortable.” Fundraising works the same way. Reading lists feels productive, while sending the first ten emails feels scary, and only the emails get you funded. Come back next month for the December 2026 edition, where I will check which of these angels actually closed new deals and whether anyone finally earns an official monthly title.

FAQ on Angel Investor of the Month News and Angel Fundraising in Late 2026

Does an "Investor of the Month" honoree tell me what angels want right now?

Treat honorees as signals, not targets. When someone like Bill Gurley gets spotlighted, study the logic behind the attention: clean economics, clear ownership and real market access. Then audit your startup against those filters instead of copying buzzwords from his interviews. Read the Bill Gurley investor signals breakdown

Is a famous angel or a sector specialist better for my first check?

Sector fit usually wins. A specialist who knows your buyers can judge traction faster, open customer doors and defend your story to later investors. Fame helps with press, not with your first paying customers. Score each angel on portfolio overlap with your market before ranking them. See the September 2026 framework for assessing investor fit

How do I verify an angel's track record before accepting their money?

Ask which round they entered for their best-known wins, since some tallies include late-stage personal checks. Then call two portfolio founders, including one whose startup failed, and ask how the angel behaved under pressure. Liquidity history matters more than logo lists. See how founders question unicorn-based angel rankings

What should I clean up in my cap table and IP before an angel's due diligence?

Make sure every founder, contractor and early employee has signed an IP assignment agreement. Document equity splits and vesting, and record every SAFE or convertible note. Start a monthly metrics report now, because AI-assisted due diligence surfaces inconsistencies fast. Follow the August 2026 cap table and IP audit checklist

Where can I find angels who are writing personal checks right now?

Use live databases rather than static blog lists. AngelMatch notes that names like Jeff Clavier and Keith Rabois now write most checks through their firms, so pitching them as solo angels misfires. Filter for personal deals closed in the last six months and confirm them on Crunchbase. Browse the AngelMatch guide to active angel investors

Which angels can I reach through accelerators, podcasts or communities?

Several angels can be reached through channels beyond warm intros. Jason Calacanis sources deals through his LAUNCH accelerator and podcast, and Garry Tan through the YC network. Ryan Hoover uses Weekend Fund and Product Hunt, and Li Jin uses Atelier Ventures. Launching publicly or applying to their programs creates a legitimate warm path. Check the Awasero guide to angel contact channels

How can I use LinkedIn to find and warm up angel investors?

Follow your target angels and comment thoughtfully on their posts for a few weeks. Connect with their portfolio founders before asking for intros. Put your traction and sector in your profile headline so investors recognise you instantly. Short build-in-public updates turn your progress into visible proof. Master LinkedIn For Startups to reach investors

Can I raise angel money through online equity crowdfunding?

Yes. A small but growing number of angels invest online through equity crowdfunding platforms, which suits founders with engaged communities or consumer products. Expect many small checks, more cap table entries and public disclosure. Where available, use a nominee or SPV structure to keep governance simple. Read the Wikipedia overview of angel investing channels

Are university-backed funds a good alternative to angels for deeptech startups?

Yes, especially when you need labs, research partners and STEM talent alongside cash. SparkLabs' $20M fund with King Saud University shows how academic partnerships let deeptech and AI startups experiment and fail safely. Pair one academic backer with operator angels for credibility plus commercial guidance. Explore the SparkLabs and King Saud University fund

When should I stop raising from angels and start pitching VC firms?

Move to VCs once your round outgrows what a group of angels can fill and you can show repeatable revenue. Capital is clustering around AI, deeptech, cybersecurity and industrial technology, yet every fund now demands commercial proof. Angels still win on speed, flexibility and hands-on mentorship. Compare angels and VCs in the September 2026 VC edition

Violetta Bonenkamp

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as Mean CEO, is a female entrepreneur and an experienced startup founder, bootstrapping her startups. She has an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 10 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely. Constantly learning new things, like AI, SEO, zero code, code, etc. and scaling her businesses through smart systems.