‘Shopify Mafia’ Aims to Become Bigger Force in Angel Investing

Every week, the phones of more than two dozen current and former Shopify employees ping with alerts for a new group chat on Signal, the encrypted messaging app. The chat—dubbed Shopify Angels by its participants—has become a gathering spot for a new generation of investors connected through their past or present work for Canada’s most prominent tech company. They use the chat to share slide decks from startups seeking funding (and to engage in the occasional lighthearted banter and gossip).

“The goal is to teach anyone coming through Shopify how to invest as angels or at the seed level,” said Fahd Ananta, a former Shopify product manager who is a member of the group chat and now runs his own investment fund, Roach Capital. “People have come upon some capital and developed a lot of expertise at the company and they want to find startups to put money behind.”