The FiBAN Code of Conduct ensures that all members invest responsibly, act fairly towards other members of the community and startup founders, and create a safe and collaborative environment. It emphasizes confidentiality, professionalism, fairness, solidarity, startup-focused investing, integrity, and zero tolerance for harassment or misconduct within and in relation to the FiBAN community.
As a member, you will often receive sensitive business, financial, and technical details from startups. These are provided under trust. You must not share them with outsiders or use them for your own benefit or competing benefit (e.g., starting a competing business). The information is only for deciding whether you want to invest.
Members are expected to conduct themselves with honesty, responsibility, and professionalism. This also means avoiding any form of connection with illegal activities (such as tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, or insider trading), as such conduct is fundamentally incompatible with the integrity, trustworthiness, and ethical standards expected of an angel investor.
If you suspect that money offered for co-investments comes from suspicious or illegal sources, do not participate. Also, you should report potential illegal financial activity to the authorities. This protects both the network and the startups from reputational or legal risks.
When investing, members should act fairly toward startups, co-investors, and other stakeholders. For example, don’t misuse your position to secure special advantages for yourself at the expense of others. The goal is a fair investment process that respects everyone’s interests.
FiBAN is a community built on collaboration. Members are encouraged to share investment opportunities with each other rather than keeping everything to themselves. The principle is reciprocity: sometimes you’ll share deals, sometimes others will.
In syndicate investing, risks and returns should be distributed equally among investors. The lead investor often takes on additional work, such as negotiating terms and coordinating the process. While it is not required, in some cases it may be helpful to explore fair compensation models for the lead investor’s extra contribution. This can make it easier to find a willing lead and ensure that the investment round moves forward smoothly.
Your main goal as an angel is not just to make personal profit, but to help the startup succeed. By supporting growth, mentoring, and fair practices, your returns come naturally when the startup succeeds. This includes fair investment terms for investors as well as for founders. We recommend that, as an investor, you keep this in mind.
FiBAN is first and foremost a community for startup investing. Members are welcome to network and may naturally share their expertise or services when relevant, as many angels are also entrepreneurs and professionals. However, members should avoid excessive promotion, aggressive sales tactics, or misusing FiBAN’s contacts. In particular, it is not appropriate to pressure startups you have invested in to buy your services, or to leverage your investor role as a sales channel. All use of FiBAN’s network should ultimately support startup investments, syndicates, and the healthy growth of the ecosystem.
You are responsible for your own investment decisions and acknowledge that startup investments involve high risk. FiBAN does not recommend or guarantee the quality or success of startups, nor does it carry liability. Every member must conduct their own due diligence and accept the risks that come with startup investing.
Members must avoid any behavior that could be considered harassment, discrimination, or inappropriate (e.g., offensive jokes, unwanted comments, abuse of power or status). Respectful conduct is expected at all times.
Harassment or inappropriate behavior has no place in FiBAN. If you witness such actions, please address the situation respectfully but firmly, and clarify that this behavior is unacceptable within our community. Creating a safe and supportive environment means standing up for those affected and ensuring they feel heard and respected. FiBAN provides a notification channel where anyone who has experienced inappropriate behavior is encouraged to report their experience so that the matter can be handled with care and seriousness.
As a member, you promise to align with honesty, fairness, and responsibility. Whether you’re dealing with other investors, the FiBAN team, startup founders, or partners, you are expected to treat everyone with respect and uphold FiBAN’s and angel investors’ good reputation in the ecosystem.
For reporting inappropriate behaviour within the network, please visit FiBAN’s anonymous notification channel.
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