Securing Angel Investors for Startups

What are some resources to meet Angel Investors for funding a business?

Answer: Of course, the angel investor category can include family, friends, and business associates. Also, the type of business venture and amount of capital needed can influence where to look for angel investors. For example, your local accountant, lawyer, banker, or another business contact may have a reference to a local investor(s) who would be interested in your business venture. Also, you can consider networking with local angel investor and venture capital groups that meet on a periodic basis. In addition, venture capital brokers are often engaged to make contacts with angel investors and venture capital firms and help present businesses to investors.

Generally speaking, an angel investor is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business startup, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. How to search for angel and other investors varies based on the type of business, amount of capital required, strength of the new business idea, commercial potential of existing products and or services, and other factors. For example, in some cases, an angel investor is a family member or friend. In other cases, it may be a referral from your banker or CPA. In other situations, a professional broker who knows the local investor market, is engaged to locate likely investors for a particular new business venture. In addition to having a comprehensive business plan and investor proposal for your investors to consider, you can develop a strategy to search for angel investors by using the information below, which includes this basic list of considerations:

1. Know who you’re looking for
2. Look close to home
3. Network, network, network
4. Realize that many angels don’t fly solo
5. Use the connection services available on the Internet

Finding angel investors and other seed capital sources takes time just like most other aspects of planning and implementing the startup or expansion of a new business or product development and launch. Where you locate small business investors depends upon how much capital you need and other factors. Small business financing can be in the form of a loan or equity and come from a variety of sources, including the business owner(s), relatives, friends, business associates, business partners, banks, leasing companies, federal and state agencies, angel investors, and venture capital firms. The amount required, available collateral, and other factors will affect the source of financing, but small amounts typically come from home-equity lines of credit, credit cards, savings accounts, relatives, friends, professional associates or business partners, while larger amounts typically come from banks, leasing companies, government agencies, angel investors and venture capital firms. While we may not have any direct experience with particular brokers or groups, you can find listings for groups in your area and other resources through websites like the following:

Published: June 3, 2013
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Fran Tarkenton

Fran Tarkenton is an entrepreneur and NFL Hall of Famer, and the founder of Tarkenton Companies. Successfully starting and running more than 20 companies spanning a wide range of industries, Fran is a passionate advocate for small business owners and entrepreneurs. The product of all of Fran’s experiences is Tarkenton, which has partnered with major enterprises for more than two decades, bringing a combination of strategic thinking, operational excellence, and fast-paced action to complex business problems. Fran is the driving force between GoSmallBiz.com, Tarkenton Financial, and Tarkenton Private Capital.