How to Find and Research Startup Investors

Published in

The Serial Entrepreneurs

5 min readNov 25, 2016

Many founders are looking for investors to put money into their business idea but do not yet have the right contacts to get going. In this article we will explain to you where to start looking for the right investors as part of your journey, with a short overview of your options.

The Three Best Places to Research Investors

Most investors get at least 20–30 new leads a day to filter through and have to be quite selective about what they pay attention to. If you haven’t done your preparation properly and made sure they are a good fit for your business and that you have researched everything about them, then you’re unlikely to get past that first stage.

Start here and work outwards:

AngelList
LinkedIn
Crowd-Sourced List of European Investors
Warm Referrals
Other options

1. AngelList

AngelList is the number one place investors congregate to talk about themselves, post the deals they’ve invested in, make connections and source new deal flow. As a startup, you should go to AngelList and look for investors with expertise in your sector; perhaps they have invested in similar businesses before, or maybe they have started a business themselves in this sector and they would be knowledgeable.

2. LinkedIn

Similar to AngelList, a lot of investors and entrepreneurs are active on LinkedIn. You will be surprised how many people will be open to you making contact with them. There is a pro version of LinkedIn available, and with this you can directly message any investor or entrepreneur that you like. Nine out of 10 times you’ll get a reply, but make sure that your message is not waffly or overly long; get to the point quickly about why they should care about what you’re doing.

3.Crowd-Sourced List of European Investors

Another great way to find investors is this publicly available crowd-sourced list of European Investors. This is Google Spreadsheet contains a huge amount of investors together with their email addresses and websites. Listed are: VCs, Angels, Angel Groups, Accelerators, Company Builders, Crowd Funding platforms, and providers of loans to startups. The best way to use all the information in this spreadsheet is to simply make a new copy of this spreadsheet and start sorting on the type of investors you’re looking for.

4. Warm referrals

If you are ever going to contact a professional angel investor (see this article for more details) or Venture Capital firm, you really need to be referred by somebody. They see so many deals every month that it’s very unlikely that you’ll get to meet with them unless you’re the next big business. Consider contacting one of the startups they’ve invested in and speak to the founder; if you can convince them your idea is good — then they’ll put in a good word for you with their investor.

5. The other options

While these are the best ways to start, don’t be afraid to be creative and get attention in other ways:

Social Media
Crowdfunding
Business Angel Networks
Hustle

Social Media

Read what investors are saying on places like twitter, linkedin, their own blogs and medium. Take part in the conversation and add value. Not only will you get to know more about what interests them, but you start to establish some credibility in your field and that you might have something useful to say.

Crowdfunding

These are resources where a lot of “casual” angel investors are gathering (see this article for an explanation of “casual” angel investor). It’s definitely become a viable option for many businesses to seek out investment through platforms such as Seedrs, CrowdCube, and SyndicateRoom. The issue here is that these investors are not going to invest a lot of capital in the business and they don’t know much about the sector (as they don’t do this for a living) — so they won’t have the connections and expertise that you would need. You also need to bring at least 50% of your own external investors into the platform before you get started, so it’s no good if you’re right at the beginning of the process. Lastly, these aren’t necessarily individuals who can follow on with more money in later rounds or introduce you to the type of investors you would need at that stage.

Business Angel Networks

These are groups of angel investors who get together at events to hear pitches from startups and do a bit of networking. It helps them get more deals to see than they would on their own and everyone always like to invest with others they trust so they’re decision can be validated. They vary greatly in quality and it’s important to choose the rights ones if you’re going to spend time with them. DO NOT pay to pitch at these events in any circumstances — if this is their business model then avoid them at all costs. Some are just full of people who pretend they’re investors because it makes them feel good, when in reality they’re just bored accountants who might make 1 investment every 3 years for £3,000. To meet the professionals — start with high quality networks like The Harvard Business Angels, London Business Angels, and AngelLab.

Hustle

Think creatively and don’t give up… if you’ve something valuable to say and you really believe in what you’re doing.. make sure you focus your energy on getting to speak to the right people.

As an example, I know one entrepreneur who really wanted a deal with an investor they liked and stood outside for a week with a sandwich board and their business logo + tagline to get their attention as they came to work each day. Did it work?…. it sure did!

Understanding How to Get Startup Investment

Getting investment is, for many startups, an important milestone in their journey. However, many startups fail to get to their startup investments soon enough for them to scale their business. These startups fail to use specific strategies that that will ensure they get the attention of investors and stand out from the crowd. They struggle to understand the investors’ motivations to invest and, as a result, waste valuable time.

If your are in the process of raising investment this might help: