One pipeline for applications, diligence and investor updates
STAN's startup applications were arriving through several channels and investor updates were being written one at a time. Stamina rebuilt the intake, the deal flow and the outreach around a single CRM.
Faster intake, fewer manual updates
STAN connects early-stage technology companies with angel investors across international markets. As the network added chapters, the volume of applications and investor updates outgrew the manual process behind them. Stamina rebuilt that process as one connected system.
- Applications arrive already structured in the CRM, so assessment starts instead of data collection.
- Each investment track runs its own pipeline, so a deal is never sitting in a generic stage that means different things to different people.
- Founders hear where they stand automatically as their application moves, rather than waiting for someone to find time to write.
- Investor outreach runs as sequences, which frees the team to spend its time on the conversations that need judgement.
- Leadership reads deal flow off a dashboard by programme and stage, with no need to ask for a status update.
About STAN
The Science and Technology Angels Network is a global angel network supporting early-stage technology startups. It brings together 49 angel investors across eight countries, and has closed 33 startup deals representing $1.9M invested.
STAN is headquartered in Yerevan, with a Los Angeles chapter launched in 2024, Paris and New York following in 2026, and a Middle East chapter in development. Its Expert Council, a multidisciplinary group of technologists and entrepreneurs, runs due diligence and provides guidance to both angels and founders. Deals are curated across three tracks: moonshot deep-tech projects, proven technology with traction, and women-led startups.
An angel network is judged on two things: how quickly a promising application reaches the right investor, and whether investors keep opening the updates. Neither is solved by working harder, and both get harder as the network adds chapters in new time zones.
Growth outpaced the manual process
As the network expanded internationally, applications, investor communication and deal management all became harder to hold together. Three problems sat underneath that.
Applications arrived through several channels
Submissions came in by different routes and in different shapes. Before anyone could assess a startup, someone had to gather the details and put them into a consistent form.
Communication ran on manual effort
Startups waiting on a decision and investors waiting on deal flow were both updated by hand. That work scaled with the network, and it competed with the actual investment work.
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No live view of the pipeline
Leadership could not see where deals stood without asking. Decisions about which programme needed attention came from recollection, not from the current state of the pipeline.
Mapped the investment workflow, then built the system around it
The order mattered here. An investment process already has stages, defined by how the team works, so the CRM was configured to match those rather than asking anyone to fit their work into a default pipeline.
Mapped the complete investment workflow
We documented the full path a startup takes, from application and screening through due diligence, pitching sessions and the investment decision. That map showed where a deal actually waited, which was rarely at the assessment itself. Most of the delay sat in the gaps between stages, where nobody owned the next action.
A pipeline for each investment track
Rather than one pipeline covering everything, each track got its own, with stages named after the real steps in that programme. Moonshot deep-tech, proven technology and women-led startups do not move through diligence the same way, and a shared pipeline forces all three into stage names that fit none of them. Automations handle task creation and notifications, so the next action exists the moment a deal moves.
Application forms feeding the CRM
Applications now route straight into the CRM from structured forms, with the screening questions asked at the point of application. That is why the share of qualified applications rose and not simply the total. Incomplete submissions no longer consume review time, and the Expert Council sees a consistent shape of information on every deal it assesses.
Automated communication with startups
Founders receive status and next-step messages as their application moves, triggered by the stage change and no longer written one at a time. This was as much about the network's reputation as about time saved. Founders who hear nothing for weeks tell other founders, and deal flow depends on that word travelling well.
Investor outreach and reporting
Instantly.ai was connected for investor outreach, with automated engagement workflows around it, and dashboards were built so leadership can see deal flow by programme and stage. Training covered the stage definitions in particular, because a dashboard is only ever as accurate as the stage a deal is sitting in.
Is your pipeline held together by people remembering things?
The bottleneck is rarely capacity. It is the handover, the moment when an application or a deal needs someone to pick it up and nothing forces that to happen. We map where those handovers sit, then build the system that closes them.
