Partner Guide · 2026
Everything you need to know about partnering with Play Money.
Overview
Most deal leads hit the same ceiling.
Your best investors write one check and disappear. New people take forever to get comfortable. Great founders get half the capital they deserve because the infrastructure wasn't built to close anyone.
Play Money is built around a fundamentally different model. Your investors follow your deal flow the way an audience follows a creator they trust: learning your judgment deal by deal, building conviction over time, and writing repeat checks into the companies you believe in.
We've studied what actually turns a first-time angel into a repeat investor. And that behavior loop is baked into every part of the platform.
Anyone can launch an SPV on Sydecar or AngelList. We approach our partnerships and process more thoughtfully. We have a higher bar for what goes on the platform, deeper relationships with our partners, and a track record of getting more capital to founders than they would have raised anywhere else.
Play Money partners don't need to be registered advisors or handle any legal or administrative paperwork.
Partnership Fit
The best Play Money partners sit at the intersection of startup deal flow and accredited investors. You come to Play Money because you want to grow a capital base around your deal flow and judgment, and not just run a one-off SPV.
Our approach is community first, deals second. Before we work on deals together, we want to make sure your investors are set up on the platform, getting trained on what to look for in early-stage companies, and developing the habits that turn a first investment into a second and third. Play Money is a multiplier on the community you bring, so every deal you bring should have your own investors behind it first.
The best Play Money partners have seen enough deals to understand how to underwrite opportunities well and be genuinely selective in the process. You have deep domain knowledge and a unique point of view worth following. Your investors follow your judgment because you've earned that trust.
Not sure if it's a fit? Just reach out.
Deal Criteria
Deal leads can run a deal to their own community on Play Money as long as it meets a few straightforward criteria.
Valuation, instrument, and minimum check need to be locked before you launch. Moving terms mid-raise kills momentum. We've seen it. Don't do it.
At least one credible investor needs to have completed a full round of due diligence and written a check. A formal lead is the strongest signal, but any credible investor who has done the work and is in counts.
Deal leads who build the strongest investor bases on Play Money don't focus on just a deal flow pipeline. They have a point of view that investors come back to, deal after deal. The best ones know something better than anyone else in the room, whether that's a sector, a stage, or a type of founder. That expertise is the reason investors keep showing up.
To be considered for the network, we look for a strong signalling anchor to the raise. That anchor is typically one or more of the following:
We're open to most categories, but we typically don't engage with anything past Series A extensions on stage. The deals that find the strongest footing on Play Money have an impact story at their core. Examples of categories that have done well in the past include health tech, climate tech, CPG, women's health, or fintech with a clear social angle. If your investors can feel the mission in the product, that helps.
Platform
Everything your investors need to say yes, in one place: company story, traction, terms, founder videos, social proof, and 2-click investing. Every deal also has its own AI chat trained on the deal materials, so investors get answers on the spot instead of emailing you the same five questions. That means fewer repetitive 1:1 meetings and less back-and-forth for founders. We also handle the follow-up nudges on each deal so you don't have to nag.
If your investor already knows the deal and wants in, they can go from click to investment confirmed in about 3 minutes. Everything is in one flow: accreditation, docs, payment. And if anyone gets stuck, a real person on our team is a chat away.
Most platforms stop at the transaction. We match each investor with education and content based on where they are in their investing journey. Every deal they see builds their confidence and their conviction in how you pick.
Every Thursday, we spotlight a deal to the full Play Money investor base. Deals earn that spot by building momentum from the partner's and founders' own community first. Nothing builds conviction with new investors faster than seeing that the people closest to a deal already backed it.
Co-branded sign-up flow, branded deal pages, and cap table attribution mean your name is on every deal you bring. Investors see what you've done and how you think, deal by deal.
If you're thinking of raising a fund someday, the best way to earn LP trust is to let them watch your decision-making and invest alongside you before they commit. If you never want to raise a fund, build your audience on Play Money and skip it entirely.
Economics
Deal leads and founders pay nothing. Investors pay a transparent 10% platform fee, capped at $1,500 for larger checks. Founders get a clean cap table with a single SPV line instead of 40 individual investors. Angels know exactly what they're paying before they commit.
Revenue share works like a built-in 2% management fee. Carry works exactly the way you'd expect.
You earn revenue share as your investors, and Play Money investors, write checks. You earn carry when your deals return a profit. And when the investors you bring to Play Money go on to back other deals across the platform, you earn carry on deals you didn't even source.
The short version: your economics get better with every deal.
Process
Your job: find great deals and share them with people who trust your judgment.
Our job: everything else.
The intake takes about 20 minutes and gives us everything we need to start building the deal page.
You record a short pitch and Q&A session with the founder using our question guide. Send us the raw footage, and we'll edit it into clips for the deal page.
Share your custom deal link. We handle onboarding, education, and the nudges that move people from interested to invested.
Every investor who comes through your deals helps compound your economics on the platform. You earn revenue share as investors participate. And as your investor base becomes more active across Play Money, you earn carry on deals beyond your own.
Tier System
The tier system tracks where each investor came from and weights your economics accordingly. Investors who joined through you are tracked separately from those who came through the broader Play Money community. Your carry and revenue share economics reflect that distinction.
| Tier | Who |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Signed up via your link, or via your founder's referral link |
| Tier 2 | Play Money community member who has invested in 2+ of your deals |
| Tier 3 | Play Money community member investing in one of your deals for the first time |
When one of your deals exits at a profit, you earn a share of the carry. How much you earn depends on where each investor came from. You don't pay carry or platform fees when you invest in your own deals.
| Tier | Your Share |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 100% |
| Tier 2 | 50% |
| Tier 3 | 25% |
In addition to carry at exit, you earn a share of the platform fees paid by investors as they participate. Think of it as a built-in management fee, paid out as your investors write checks.
Revenue share unlocks once your Tier 1 investors have paid $6,000 in platform fees on a given deal. That threshold exists for a simple reason: below that level, the deal isn't large enough to generate meaningful economics for either side. Once you clear it, you earn on every dollar that follows.
| Tier | Counts Toward $6K Threshold? | Your Revenue Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Yes | 20% |
| Tier 2 | Yes | 20% |
| Tier 3 | No | 10% (and does not count toward threshold) |
Your carry doesn't stop at your own deals.
When the investors you've brought to Play Money cross $100K in total investment across the platform outside of your deals, you earn 25% of the SPV carry on every investment they make. That includes deals sourced by other Deal Leads.
Once activated, community carry applies retroactively to investments that counted toward the threshold. On your own deals, you already earn 100% of the carry on the investors you brought. Community carry applies only to other Deal Leads' deals. Note: 0% carry deals don't count toward the $100K activation threshold.
Structure
Deal leads and founders pay nothing. All Play Money fees are paid by angels.
10% per investment, capped at $1,500 for larger investors
You set the default for your community. We can support as low as $500.
Standard bank, IRA, Solo 401(k), or donor-advised fund (DAF)
Founders can withdraw capital raised without closing the vehicle
Operations
Play Money manages 100% of back-office operations for every SPV. Deal leads simply need to get the founder to complete the intake form and share the deal with their community. No registration required, no paperwork.
Continuity
Each SPV is a separate legal entity with its own EIN and bank account under our Delaware Master Series LLC entity, Clutch Capital LLC. The SPV is fully independent of the Play Money platform.
We maintain complete, exportable records for every SPV. Any SPV can be reassigned to a new administrator with a single signature and data file transfer.