Marianne Hudson

Marianne Hudson is one of the most recognized figures in organized angel investing in the United States. She founded and led the Angel Capital Association (ACA) — described as the world's leading professional and trade association of angel investors — serving as its Executive Director from 2007 until she retired from the full-time role in June 2019. She has since held the title of Founder and Executive Director Emeritus. Under her leadership ACA grew into a network representing over 14,000 accredited investors across North America.

Her path into the field began at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, where she served as Director of Entrepreneurship from roughly 2001 to 2007. There, rising interest in angel investing led her to launch a formal initiative — the Angel Capital Alliance (2003) — which spun out of the Kauffman Foundation to become the independent, non-profit Angel Capital Association in 2007. Earlier in her career she was Vice President of the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center (1991–2001) and worked in technology-based economic development organizations in Ohio and Kansas, giving her more than 25 years in the entrepreneurial-support field.

Hudson holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in Public Policy from Rutgers University. She is an active angel investor in her own right — investing through three angel groups and two online accredited-investor platforms — and is a member of Women's Capital Connection and Mid-America Angels in the Kansas City area. She also sits on the boards of the National Angel Capital Organization (ACA's Canadian counterpart) and the Center for American Entrepreneurship, and has written a long-running angel-investing column for Forbes.

Among her signature accomplishments, Hudson led the ACA team that negotiated the "Angel Amendment" to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, preserving the accredited-investor definition so that most angels could continue investing in startups. She and ACA members are also credited with helping raise the share of women among angel investors from about 5% to 23% over 15 years. In 2019, at the ACA Summit in Chicago, she received the Hans Severiens Award, the field's top national honor for advancing angel investing.

• Invests as an individual accredited angel primarily through organized angel groups and syndicates rather than as a solo lead — she has described making investments through three angel groups and two online platforms.
• Focused on seed and early-stage startups typical of angel-group deal flow, spanning technology, life sciences/health, and clean tech.
• A strong proponent of portfolio diversification — her writing repeatedly stresses that angels should make many small investments over time rather than concentrating in one or two deals, and should expect most returns to come from a few winners.
• Emphasizes due diligence, mentorship, and adding value beyond capital; in her essay "An Angel Investor's Job Description" she frames angel investing as active, hands-on work with founders, not passive check-writing.
• A vocal advocate for broadening who gets to be an angel, particularly increasing participation by women, reflecting her career-long focus on democratizing early-stage capital.