How to find investors for your business

We can always go down different paths to get investors to fund our startups. Yet, of course, we want to find just the right ones to do it. Our top 6 tips on how to find investors are here to help you find the most suitable type of investor for your business - and give you a bit of valuable insight on the matter, too.

What kind of investors are there?

The kind of investors that will help your startup most depends on a few factors. First, take a company’s stage into account. It’s not the same to raise funds while growing than when you dominate a sizable part of a market. 

How much you need to raise and the nature of your business also affects the decision around the kind of investor that suits your startup best. 

Let’s check a brief summary of the kind of investors available and the most appropriate timing in which to resort to each.

6 tips on how to find investors:

1. Use investor finder tools
2. Choose your battles
3. Consider all your funding possibilities
4. Exhaust personal finances and close connections
5. Establish outstanding relations with investors
6. Use crowdfunding platforms for exposure
   

1- Use Investor Finder Tools

We’ve got a tool specially crafted at helping you meet investors. Devoted to finding vetted investors and angels across all industries, there’s a 25,000+ total of angels, VCs, and investor profiles that have been aggregated and scrubbed for it. So, the best tip on how to find investors that we can give off the bat is to use those kinds of resources for a much more fruitful hunt. 

Slidebean’s investor finder can get you 5 investor contacts for free as a sample. And a full paid list of vetted investors can come to you within 48 hours. Let us know what your business is all about and confidently share all you can about the investment for which you’re looking. Investor search experts can locate key investors for your given industry in no time! 

With listed contact information, we even give you data on prior investments. Investors’ areas of interest and their working contact info finalize what could be a great startup match. And the list grows each month, too! 

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2- Choose your battles

What kind of investors are best for your startup? If you haven’t considered that thoroughly, for instance, this is a very important question to be asking right now. 

We might not be able to see the whole picture sometimes. We find ourselves in such a rush to get a specific kind of startup funding that we might not stop to consider our strategies. Keep that from happening to your startup, if you can. ‍

3- Consider all your funding possibilities

We should lift whatever clouds our ability to visualize more than one way to fund our companies. And, for that, research helps. Make an effort to broaden your business views. 

Dig up all your funding options. Analyze your possibilities and follow up on those that are more appropriate to your line of work, your market, niche, and interests. ‍

4- Exhaust personal finances and close connections

We’re at the earlier stages of your startup here. This is where your baby is born, let’s say. Amidst friends, family, personal connections and casual business is a good place to check for the beginning stages of a startup. 

Termed bootstrapping, seeking funding from a professional circle of trust, friends, and family is valuable funding to get a company off the ground. Watch that fireside chat video, if you can. It’s a really simple way of getting through our senses how starting a company is a matter of strategy, too. And, as Steve Barsh from DreamIt Ventures says, “being clever” about the funding we get. 

Certainly, use any savings you can afford to invest. And put funds together with founders. Use credit cards. But one of our top 6 tips on how to find investors is simply talking to the people closest to you. Reach out to those who know you, the kind of work you do, those who’ve worked alongside you in the past. And, above all, seek connections with the people who could best attest to your passion for your business idea.  ‍

5- Establish outstanding relations with investors

When you get your first investors, try never to take them for granted, especially not as you’re setting off. Make the best of their expertise, knowledge, and experience. Keep your lines of dialogue wide open. And also keep them in the loop of what’s happening with the company as it continues to grow.‍

Related read: Investors Types, which is the right for you

6- Use crowdfunding platforms for exposure

Popular for getting funds online, this option is a way to get lots of people involved in a particular campaign. Some might discard this chance as the investments are typically seen as rather low. Yet, consider the exposure these campaigns get and the diverse entries through which you can gather diverse forms of investment. A plus to this platform is that you can get people involved from all over the world. 

As for the diverse kinds of crowdfunding platforms, there are some that are rewards-based. People can simply get a kind of reward for their donations, which can help your company if you have merch or product samples that you want to get out there, especially as a means of testing, gathering reviews, and more. 

There’s also donation-based crowdfunding. On this one, people don’t usually even expect anything in return for their investment. 

And then there’s debt-based crowdfunding. On it, peer-to-peer businesses make loans available by matching businesses with investors, who get interested in their investment.  

Equity crowdfunding is another resource, which is based on investors who take up company ownership. The process is normally handled through shares.

You might have considered this, already, but you can also sign up for incubators or accelerator programs to find investors. Established companies are usually the ones behind these, such as investment firms, universities, or seed funds. 

The programs are competitive and call for a long time on boot camps, training with mentors, taking classes, delivering sample pitches, analyzing strategies, and tons more! You’re basically going through the program to hopefully raise the first round of seed funding. Yet, bear in mind that’s not necessarily the case. 

All in all, these are our top 6 tips on how to find investors. Always let us know if we can help with more! Our pitch deck design agency is always ready to help with your startup’s diverse needs. 

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