Oooh, please be careful. With startups, the odds are against you. Very very few of them will become the next Amazon. And, if they go out of business, you'll lose all the money you invested.

You might want to check out the Bogleheads forum (Bogleheads.org - Index page) - the people there tend to be fairly courteous, and they talk a lot about investing. Their philosophy is much more in tune with "slow and steady wins the race" and they focus on very sensible strategies to grow your wealth in the long term.

I've slowly been absorbing a lot of how they look at things, and am doing pretty well.

Before investing in any startups, I'd ask:
- Are you taking advantage of any retirement accounts you have through work? 401ks (in the US!) are awesome, because you can put money away and avoid paying taxes on it today. Plus, some companies will match your contributions (which is essentially "free money" for you). Pick a sensible asset allocation and use index funds if you have them.

- Do you have a Roth account? Roths are great because even though you pay taxes on your contributions today, they're tax free when you retire (yay!). And, you can always take out your contributions (tax-free, penalty-free) in an emergency.

For example, let's say over the next couple of years, you put in $2000. And it grows, and now you have $3000. Then, you lose your job. You can take out up to $2000 (the amount you contributed) with no penalties, no taxes, no strings. So it's like a super-charged emergency account, but you just have to be careful since, if it's invested, it could also lose money.

- Do you have an HSA? In most states, you can put money in and not pay state or federal taxes on it, you can often invest it (depends on where you have the money), and you can take out all the money (contributions and earnings) for medical stuff - including therapy(!) - at any time. Or, you can leave it in there to grow until you retire, then have access to it (but pay taxes).

- Do you have emergency savings? IE a savings account, preferably at an online bank that pays a decent amount of interest (nothing is super great these days, sadly). This is to help you through rough patches, job loss, etc.

These are much lower risk than angel investing, and more likely to have small, but steady gains over time.

I've also heard good things about the book "The Millionaire Next Door" (though I haven't read it) that talks about sensible ways to save and invest so that you'll end up with a million dollars, even if you're not making a huge salary.

Good luck!