Communicating with Investors

Find them. Know them. Convince them.

The thing that limits investors is their time. They want to give it to startups, but only those who are worth it. 

1. Finding Investors

Leveraging local organizations is a good first step to identifying potential investors. If you’re in a big enough town to have a business school, entrepreneurial program, or Angel groups — these are a great place to start.

Airtable of free Angel and Venture directories. 

Crunchbase Directory of US-based Firms (Investing in Early Stage Companies)

Airtable of Venture Firms courtesy of our friends at Connect San Diego 

2. Get to Know Them

Understand who the investor is and what they’re interested in.  Do your research!  What have they invested in in the past? Are they a past founder, if so what companies? What technologies are they interested in?

Each investor you bring on will be with you for the life of your company. You’ll want to know whether or not the person is an asshole.

3. Convince Them to Meet

Once you’ve found the investor or firm you want to meet with, and you’ve done your homework to know all about them and what they’re looking for, it’s time to put together the email that will entice them to schedule a meeting with you.

Cold Emailing — Don’t Spam Investors.  Custom introduction 

Let them know your stage, have you launched? Are you growing?  Let them know enough to be interested, but leave them wanting to learn more. Think about this like dating. They don’t need to know everything, just enough to get the meeting.

What they want… a company no one knows about that’s the next Google.

4. Convince Them to Invest

This is where the Pitch Deck you’ve just built will come into play. Clear explanation of what you do. You are going to be the next big thing.

Show up clean and prepared. Know your key metric numbers off the top of your head.

Cultivate Your Investor Relationships

Communication!  Update with progress.  Communicate!