Dharmesh Shah
Operator AngelAngel Investor
HubSpot co-founder and prolific SaaS angel investor
Background
Dharmesh Shah is co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, which he co-founded in 2006 and helped grow into a publicly traded company. Alongside his operating role, he is one of the most active angel investors in the US, with over 100 personal investments in early-stage startups. He focuses on seed-stage SaaS and internet companies, typically investing up to $50K per company, and looks for technical founders. Notable investments include Coinbase, Okta, Gusto, AngelList, Stack Overflow, OpenAI, and Lovable. He is also building agent.ai and publishes the simple.ai newsletter with over 2 million subscribers.
Investment Thesis
Seed-stage SaaS and internet companies with technical founding teams; preference for B2B software, developer tools, and founder-centric platforms.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: Up to $50K
Sectors
Based in: Boston, Massachusetts, USA; invests globally (North America)
Notable Investments
Coinbase
Early angel investment; IPO 2021
Okta
Early angel investment; IPO 2017
Gusto
Early angel investment
Stack Overflow
Angel investment; acquired by Prosus 2021
Lovable
Series A, July 2025
Drift
Angel investment; acquired by Vista Equity Partners
AngelList
Early angel investment
OpenAI
Angel investment; owns chat.com domain sold to OpenAI