How to find an investor. Abai Absamet on how Silkroad Angels Club works

Abay Absamet, Managing Partner Silkroad Angels Club, Instagram

About Silkroad Angels Club

Silkroad Angels Club is a community of angel investors consisting of business owners and top managers from the Central Eurasia region who are interested in the technology and venture capital sectors.

Silkroad Angels Club operates under the umbrella of the Silkroad Innovation Hub, an innovative ecosystem based in Silicon Valley.

Our mission is to provide access to investment opportunities in promising early-stage startups based in the United States. In addition to co-investing in deals, we offer educational support and build bridges between local investors and the U.S. technology community.

One of the club’s key initiatives is an annual educational trip to Silicon Valley, where participants undergo intensive training in venture investing, meet leading startups, funds, and technology companies, and attend major technology conferences.

About Investments

Venture investing involves high uncertainty and risks, as startups often address problems that the market has not yet fully recognized. In such cases, there is no clear track record to rely on, no proven models or instructions on “how to do it right.” One must be able to identify the presence or absence of potential where only a hypothesis exists.

Under these conditions, it is crucial to develop “sight” — the ability to identify recurring patterns of success and failure. This allows one to distinguish marketing noise from real value, recognize signs of “pseudo-AI” projects, separate short-term fads from long-term trends, and detect hidden insights in the target market that might otherwise go unnoticed without sufficient experience.

Therefore, it is extremely important to communicate with startups, actively evaluate deals, and, of course, invest to gain practical experience.

Silkroad Angels Club Strategy

Within our angel club, we invest in early-stage technology startups based in the United States and focused primarily on the U.S. market, as this is where there is enormous market potential and a mature venture ecosystem, which increases the chances of successful exits. We look for founders with strong academic and professional backgrounds, preferably with industry experience in the field where they are launching their project, as well as strong technical skills. Repeat founders are particularly valued, especially those who have prior experience launching a startup, even if unsuccessful, but who demonstrate an honest attempt to achieve success.

This is important because a startup must operate in conditions of extreme uncertainty, and the team must be prepared to move forward consistently, quickly test hypotheses, learn from mistakes, and pivot promptly if necessary.

Beyond evaluating the team, when analyzing a startup, we focus on several key factors that help understand its real potential. First and foremost, this is the problem the project solves: how relevant it is, how deeply it addresses market needs, and the scale of this pain. The larger and more acute the problem, the higher the chance of building a significant company.

Next is the solution, its competitiveness, and viability. We are interested in whether the product can effectively solve the stated problem, whether it has the potential for scaling and organic, viral growth.

In some cases, we pay attention to traction — early results in the form of revenue, churn rates, etc., confirming that the product truly delivers value to customers and they are willing to pay for it. However, having revenue and other metrics is not always a mandatory condition: our portfolio includes projects in which we invested at the idea stage, relying on the strength of the team and market potential.

Within the Silkroad Innovation Hub ecosystem in Silicon Valley, startups gain access to capital, expert support, strategic contacts, and necessary infrastructure. We do not just invest in promising startups — we actively support their growth.

All startups in our portfolio, especially at the early stage, have the opportunity to locate in our space in the heart of Silicon Valley, which significantly reduces their operational costs at the start. They immerse themselves in the right environment: they have access to mentors, potential customers, investors, and partners.

Overall, Silkroad Innovation Hub actively builds bridges between our region and the American market. For example, last year in San Francisco, a unique event — Central Eurasia @Silicon Valley 2024 — was held, which brought together 1,300 participants, 300 startups from our region, and about 150 American investors.

Additionally, every year dozens of successful founders from our region participate in acceleration programs in Silicon Valley, conducted jointly with our strategic partners.

In our angel club, each participant independently makes investment decisions, and our task is to provide access to carefully selected and promising deals.

At the same time, we offer a democratic entry threshold into one deal — the minimum check starts at $10,000, and we have no requirements for mandatory investment in every proposed deal.

The volume of investments varies depending on the deal, but if we talk about recent cases, the amounts of our investments were in the range of $100,000 to $200,000.

Venture investments are patient money, meaning money with a long horizon. In case of success, from the time of investment to exit can take from 5 to 10 years, or even longer.

Our principle is simple: we hold investments until significant value is realized, until we see multiple growth, for the sake of which this story was created.

The U.S. market is distinguished by its high dynamics and frequency of exits, making it one of the most attractive for investors: here, the probability of seeing the realization of early investments through M&A or IPO within a reasonable time frame is significantly higher compared to less mature ecosystems.

All our investments were made relatively recently, so final results are still ahead. Nevertheless, it is already clear that all portfolio startups are demonstrating confident growth and successfully attracting large rounds from leading venture funds in Silicon Valley.

Investor Advice

It is impossible to give a universal instruction in two sentences, but I always draw attention to two key elements — the thesis and the story.

First, the thesis must be clear, specific, and easily communicable. One of the most common mistakes is the attempt to immediately solve a global, abstract task like “digitize healthcare” or “reinvent education.” Such formulations sound ambitious but unconvincing. Investors are much more attracted to a narrowly focused, specific problem backed by a large market. Find one clear pain point, offer a powerful solution — and only then begin scaling.

Second — the story. It is important to understand why you are building this startup: why you chose this particular problem, what in your experience, knowledge, or personal pain gives you the right and strength to be the one capable of solving it. A personal, meaningful, and logical story is one of the key triggers of trust. Because a startup is always a journey through challenges, and we, as investors, want to be sure that founders have enough internal motivation, resilience, and purpose to see it through to the end.