Is your startup looking for an investment? Perfect! That means you’re probably wondering how to get in touch with an investor. Or more specifically: ‘how to get in touch with an angel investor’. See, there are several ways of getting an investment:
- Venture capitalists
- Private equity companies
- Crowdfunding platforms
- Angel investors
When you’re a startup and you don’t have a great track record yet, the first 2 options are dismissed. Venture capitalists won’t talk to you until you can show at least a 5-figure monthly revenue. Private equity companies won’t be bothered unless you’re making at least a few millions per year.
That brings us to the next option: crowdfunding. Although there are multiple crowdfunding success stories, the reality isn’t as great as it may seem. Over the past few years, I’ve talked to quite some crowdfunding platforms to research the opportunities.
They confessed, successfull crowdfunding campaigns usually start with an investment of 30% from their own network. This helps you to gain some momentum and boost your social proof. This makes sence, since I wouldn’t invest in a crowdfunding campaign if it’s only at 1% of their achieved goal. ‘Something bust be wrong with this company’.
30%. That means if you’re raising $250.000,- you already need a $75.000,- deposit from your own network. That’s quite a lot.
But let’s say you were able to cover the first 30% and you’re ready to conquer the world. I have some bad news for you: you’ll have to put in a LOT of work to get the other 70%. Again, crowdfunding companies confess you need to put in at least 2-3 months of fulltime work to activate and update potential investors. This means you’ll be out of business for 2-3 months. Unless you’re able to skip a 2 months of sleep, this means your current operations will suffer a lot.
That brings us to angel investors. Angel investors are usually former entrepreneurs who exited one (or several) of their companies. They know what it’s like to set up a business, and they can be of great value to your startup. Another benefit of angel investors is that they won’t be pushing you to exit your company quickly, they like to see you build it. Additionally they’re more than happy to open up their network and bring you a strategic advantage.
So we’re looking for angel investors. Where do we start?
How to get noticed by investors
There are many ways to get in touch with angel investors. There are pitch events, social drinks and of course your own network. However, there is a much quicker way which will save you a LOT of time and money.
It’s called the Dux-Soup method.
Dux-Soup you said?
Correct.
Dux-Soup is a tool which enables you to get massive attention from from angel investors. This tool automatically visits LinkedIn profiles of people of your choice. In the past, I’ve used this a lot to get in touch with Angel Investors. I would have Dux-Soup open the profiles of MANY angel investors at the same time.
It’s actually pretty simple:
- Download the Dux-Soup tool
- Open your LinkedIn account
- Search for ‘angel investor’
- Click the ‘Visit profiles’ button.
What happens next is beautifull. Since LinkedIn notifies you whenever a person checked out your profile, these people will be aware of that. Now you get noticed by the angel investor, it’s time to get their attention.
How to get attention from investors
Simply having a notification ‘Person X checked out your profile’ isn’t enough. You have to make your profile stand out. To increase the impact of your ‘notification’, there are 3 things you should do:
- Change your LinkedIn Title
Below your name you’ll see an option to add a title. Make this title outstanding and interesting to potential investors. A great title which the founders of Uber could have used would be: ‘Booking Taxis with the touch of a button – We’re open for investments’
- Have a clear profile description
In your profile description it’s your job to Pitch your startup in a few sentences. Don’t make the mistake of telling everything, keep it to a few sentences followed up by an invitiation to get in touch with you such as: ‘Does this seem interesting to you? I love to talk to new people, feel free to send me an invitation!”
- Add a video pitch to your profile
Add a video pitch of your startup to the top of your LinkedIn profile. If you’re only going to do one of these 3 tips, I would recommend you to do this one (of course you should do all of them, but you get the point). Not only does this communicate your startup to potential investors, it also helps your own network to know what you’re looking for.
They might see your video and know a person you should talk to. Having a video of your pitch on your LinkedIn profile is absolutely powerfull! Have a look at the ultimate pitch guide to create the perfect (video) pitch.
Did your startup get an investment already?
How to get in touch with an investor
So now you have an optimized LinkedIn profile, and you have angel investors checking our your pitch, it’s time to make a move.
Connect with investors on LinkedIn
Of all the people who checked out your LinkedIn profile; add them on LinkedIn. Add a message to your invitiation which explains you came across their profile while browsing LinkedIn, and you thought they had an interesting profile. Once they accept your invitiation it’s time for the next step.
Send a message to your fresh connections. You’ll notice that after using the Dux-Soup tool on a high frequency, investors will start to add you on LinkedIn as well. Combined with the people you added on LinkedIn yourself you have quite some interesting people you can reach out to. Send them a personal message which shows that you actually studied their profile. An example:
‘Hi John,
Thanks for connecting on LinkedIn. I came across your profile when I was browsing LinkedIn and I noticed you have quite the track record. Really interesting! I noticed you started quite some companies yourself and you’re doing really well. Especially your company XYZ seems like an amazing concept!
I’m currently launching a startup myself and I would be genuinly interested in your thoughts on this. I would love to get in touch with you and ask you a few questions.
Alongside, we’re currently raising an investment as well. Our helps people like you and me to [benefit]. We’re ready to launch and are looking for an investment to increase our sales & marketing power. If you like I can send you the pitch deck so you can have a look at it.
Have a great day John!
Best regards,
– Your Name’
Conclusion: Get in touch with angel investors
I’ve met many angel investors over the past few years. Often times this wasn’t even to raise an investment, but to learn from them. Even if an angel investor decides not to invest, they’ll be happy to leverage their network to bring you in touch with the right investor (or a potential partner). However, getting an angel investor to invest of your startup will be a big step towards succss.
Angel investors can be of great value to your business. They love discuss business opportunities and helping starting entrepreneurs. Get in touch with them!
