How to Find Angel Investors — A 34-Page, Detailed Guide
Finding angel investors for your startup can be maddeningly frustrating.
I get it. That’s why I have created this epic guide to help any founder find angel investors for their startup, even if you don’t have a huge network or a diploma from a fancy university.
This guide to finding angel investors is the culmination of hundreds of conversations that I’ve had with founders and investors over the years. It’s not some generic ChatGPT advice, but rather an in-depth and unique look at everything from how to manage your timeline to building relationships with angels investors.
My sincere goal is to level the playing field for founders that don’t have the privilege of a rich uncle, a country club membership, or an exclusive network of high net work individuals (HNWI).
Here’s what you’ll find in this massive, detailed, and actionable guide:
Chapter 1: Creating a Realistic Plan and Timeline for Your Angel Fundraising
The first chapter of this detailed guide is around creating a realistic plan and timeline for your angel fundraising round. It’s amazing how many founders of early stage startups I meet that expect to raise large amounts of money from angel investors in one or two months with no prior network.
Setting unrealistic timelines and lacking a solid plan is by far the biggest mistake that founders make when it comes to raising capital from angel investors.
Don’t set yourself up for failure, start with a detailed and realistic plan and timelines.
BTW: You can skip to Chapter 5 and dive right into outreach tactics, but I strongly recommend reading Chapters 1 through 4 because these are by far the most common mistakes that founders make by giving themselves too little time and targeting the wrong individuals.
Chapter 2: Different Kinds of Angel Investors
There are many types of angel investors. It’s key to understand how to tailor your approach to each, so you don’t waste your precious time doing the wrong thing.
Chapter 2 goes over the six most common types of angels, how they are different, and how you should target them.
Chapter 3: Finding Prospective Angel Investors
One of the biggest obstacles that founders mention is not knowing where to find angel investors.
It turns out that they are everywhere, but the tricky part is knowing where to look and how to identify ones that will be a good fit and not a waste of time.
Chapter 3 goes in-depth about identifying, cataloging, and categorizing prospective angel investor leads.
Chapter 4: Qualifying and Prioritizing Angel Investor Leads
Another common and grave mistake that founders make when fundraising from angel investors is treating every investor the same and thus running an inefficient fundraising campaign.
Chapter 4 will help you understand how to qualify and prioritize angel investor leads, so you focus your time on those that are most likely to write you a check rather than waste your time.
Chapter 5: Connecting with Angel Investors
Chapter 5 focuses on the most common question that founders have: how to connect with angel investors?
In this chapter, I go over five of the most effective tactics that I have uncovered during countless conversations with founders and angel investors alike.
Plus, this chapter includes email and message templates and step-by-step instructions on implementing the tactics discussed.
Chapter 6: Angel Investor Fundraising Logistics
Angel round fundraising is a process, and Chapter 6 goes over the common questions that founders have about tools, systems, and practices such as:
- What is the best tool for tracking your investor outreach?
- How to take in investment?
- Can anyone invest? (spoiler: no)
- What is the difference between a SAFE and a convertible note
- Etc.
Chapter 7: Most Important Lessons about Getting Angel Investment
Chapter 7 pulls everything together with the four most important insights that will help make your angel round fundraise successful.
If you have only a few minutes, read this chapter, which goes over the main mistakes that kill fundraising efforts. (Plus, a little bit of encouragement to get you over the finish line!)
Ready? Let’s go!
I sincerely hope that this guide is helpful for you by demystifying how to raise money from angel investors and by giving you a detailed and actionable game plan.
This is super important to me because I was once in your shoes, so please let me know if I can make this guide better in any way. I would very much appreciate your input.
Ok, now let’s go!!
Next > Chapter 1: Creating a Realistic Plan and Timeline for Your Angel Fundraising
About the Author:
Sergio is Managing Partner at Beta Boom, a pre-seed and seed fund investing in startups building the future for women, ethnic minorities, immigrants, and rural populations. His personal mission is to level the playing field for underestimated founders and empower them to build huge, impactful businesses.
