Angel Investors
Bill Warner Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Entrepreneurs often talk about needing angel investor money to launch their companies. When asked about their financing plan, they are heard to say, “I am going to raise $500K from angels.” When asked what their strategy for approaching angels is and who they are going to approach, they often go silent and have a blank look on their faces. To many entrepreneurs, angel investors are a general term for a form of start-up investment, but they don’t clearly know who angel investors are.
Technically speaking, angel investors are wealthy individuals that are accredited by SEC guidelines, who dedicate a small portion of their overall net worth to investing in high risk start-up company investment. Angels are successful business people who have a spot in their hearts for entrepreneurs. Most angels are quite mature in their careers and have accumulated a considerable wealth of business experience as well. They love the challenge of start-up companies and in many ways want to contribute their experience and know-how to other entrepreneurs. It’s a chance for them to “give back” to the business community some of what has made them successful. They like helping entrepreneurs and want to help them become successful.
Most angel investors are likely to have had considerable exposure to early stage companies both as a participating entrepreneur as well as an investor. You may know some already. They could be friends, family members, college buddies, country club associates and business associates. There are hundreds that you do not know, like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other successful business people. When identifying who angels are, start with your own contact list and determine who may be qualified to invest in your company, and who may know other people who could invest and then give you a referral to them. Going after people that you know is probably the fastest track to success if you are looking for angel investors.
You may know that angel investors fly in formations. There are dozens of angel investor organizations throughout the area that look for good investments for their members. Mature groups like Academy Funds, Atlantis, Charlotte Angel Partners, Inception Micro Angel Fund, NCIdea, Piedmont Angel Network, Southern Capitol and Tri-State Investment Group represent hundreds of angel investors that have invested in dozens of local companies. Angel networks like the Blue Ridge Angel Investor Network, ECU Entrepreneurial Initiative, Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, Wed3 and Wilmington Investor Network introduce good start-up companies to their members. Not all of these organizations are now actively investing in companies, but many of the people they represent are. Even local venture capital firms sometimes act like angels by investing in selected start-up companies, like Aurora Funds, InterSouth Partners, Pappas Ventures and River Cities Capital.
Angel investors hang out at many of the local networking events like venture capital events, technology events, biotech events and gatherings put on by local businesses and associations. These events are great opportunities to meet angels informally to get them interested in your business proposition. Get tapped into the local media links to find out when and where these events are. It’s also a good place to go if you are interested in becoming an angel investor. You get to meet experienced investors and have a chance to learn more about it from people who have actually done it. You probably know more qualified angel investors than you think you do, but you most likely have to expand your list of angel investors in order to find the ones that will be interested in your company.
So, once you have completed your business plan, determined how much money you need, practiced your presentation, you are now ready to approach angel investors to raise the capital needed to launch your business. But, where are they? You have heard about the angel organizations in the area. You have read about the venture capital firms as well. Where do you start looking? Here are some tips to finding angel investors:
- First decide what you want from an investor with respect to industry experience, management experience and scope of influence. Your first investors are going to be your business partners and are people who can help you get your company started with their contacts and advice. When you have a good understanding of the kind of help you need from your investors, you will be able to easily qualify them. Not every investor you meet is one that you need on your team.
- Establish a list of people that you know that you think could be an investor in your company. They should be accredited investors if at all possible. Think through all your business associates, friendships and family members, identifying those that could be investors, or those who might be able to introduce you to investors. This approach is often described as a “friends and family” round of investors. The reason it make sense is that you are dealing with people who know you and trust you, and therefore are more likely to agree to become an investor in your company. Of course, the downside of this approach is that your friends and family may lose their money if your business is not successful.
- The sophisticated angels are territorial and many of them roam in packs. Go to the Angel Capital Association website to find the names and contact information for the angel investor organizations in your area. Many also roam alone or in small private groups. They are hard to find. You need to make a habit of doing a lot of business networking. The more business people that you meet at networking events the better your chances of finding angel investors. Let people know you are raising angel money to maximize your chances of getting a referral to them.
There is no silver bullet approach to this. Finding angel investors takes a lot of hard work and months to accomplish. You will need to attend a lot of events, meet a lot of people, shake a lot of hands and give your elevator pitch hundreds of times to find just a handful of people that are willing to invest in your company.
Filed Under:
Bill Warner is the Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.
Bill,
This is a great article. Another great way to search for appropriate angel funding groups is to use the newly released group finder on http://www.angelsoft.net. You can search by your region and automatically be taken to the web site of each group - and also apply using the common application form.
Mark LaRosa
VP of Sales
Angelsoft
