Answer extracted from The Angel Next Door podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How is Signed.com priced and what are its tiers?
Signed.com operates on a tiered pricing model split into three levels: a free tier for investors managing a small number of investments, an angel-level tier for active investors, and a higher institutional tier for larger portfolios. The pricing is based on features rather than the dollar amount invested — a deliberate choice that removes the perverse incentive that discouraged users from entering accurate on-paper valuations and founder equity into fee-based systems.
Why feature-based pricing matters for honest data entry
Zach Holman realized early on that gating premium tiers by investment size created a hidden tax on transparency. When investors feared that recording a higher valuation or founder equity stake would automatically bump them into a costlier tier, they naturally avoided entering accurate data — undermining the entire value proposition of the platform.
By shifting to feature-based pricing, Signed.com removes that friction. An investor with a small portfolio but ambitious founder equity exposure can use the same core tracking features without penalty. The tier you choose depends on the tools and automation you need—like AI-powered parsing of investor updates or K-1 tax tracking—not on the raw dollar amount at stake.
The three-tier structure
The free tier serves entry-level portfolio holders, making it accessible for anyone starting their angel journey without imposing minimum investment thresholds. The angel tier unlocks additional collaboration and reporting features for investors managing multiple companies actively. The institutional tier is designed for those with larger, more complex portfolios requiring advanced analytics and enterprise-grade support.
As Holman explained in the podcast episode, this structure reflects his own experience managing approximately a couple hundred company investments—a scale where spreadsheet-based tracking becomes unmanageable and feature richness becomes worth paying for.
"I've invested in a couple hundred companies. I think it's really hard to do that just in a spreadsheet form and trying to figure things out and where to go from this."
Zach Holman — Founder of Signed.com and early GitHub engineer. Holman joined GitHub in 2010 and spent five years there before the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2017. After GitHub, he moved into advising companies including GitLab, which eventually led him into angel investing — a practice he has pursued for seven to eight years, deploying capital across developer tools, fintech, and sports ventures including Oakland Roots SC and Cagliari in Serie A.
For deeper insight into how Signed.com addresses the specific pain points of portfolio tracking—including automated K-1 organization and tax document audit trails—listen to the full episode on Listenly.
Key takeaways
- Signed.com avoids investment-size-based pricing to prevent users from hiding their true equity holdings or on-paper valuations.
- The free tier is available to all investors, regardless of portfolio size, removing barriers to entry for angel investors just starting out.
- Angel and institutional tiers unlock features like AI-powered data parsing, tax tracking, and collaboration tools rather than simply raising the cost ceiling.
- Feature-based pricing directly addresses the portfolio tracking problem that afflicts investors managing dozens or hundreds of companies.
See also
What is Zach Holman's approach to investing in sports teams as an angel investor?
Zach Holman has invested in Oakland Roots SC by cold-DMing the club's chairman and joining as an investor, and has joined the ownership group of Cagliari in Serie A, demonstrating a hands-on approach to finding and pursuing sports investment opportunities.
How should angel investors structure their spreadsheets before migrating to a tool like Signed.com?
According to Zach Holman, the key unlock is organizing data around transactions rather than lump-sum entries — maintaining one sheet for company background, another for individual investments, and a separate sheet for fund data to ensure clean data migration.
How does Signed.com help angel investors handle K-1s and tax organization?
Signed.com is building features to help investors track which of their portfolio companies and funds issue K-1s and which do not, and to create an audit trail of tax documents for easier filing and organization during tax season.