How Can a Company Find Investors?
When your company is ready and prepared to raise capital, the next step is finding investors to support your company’s growth and success. It’s not always easy to find accredited investors, but referrals and networking, including platforms such as LinkedIn, are good places to start. Localvest can accelerate your networking and referral efforts, helping you raise capital faster. But first, it’s important to establish the right approach.
1. Cultivate an abundance mindset
Approach your investor search with the belief that you will find people who want to invest in your deal. Cultivating an abundance mindset means recognizing that wealthy individuals are always looking for great deals to invest in. It’s unlikely these individuals will ever want to stop investing their money in great deals. It might take time to find the right investors, but you will find them!
2. Rack the shotgun
Don’t approach your investor search with guns blazing. Instead, rack the shotgun. This means recognizing that your deal is not going to be the right fit for every investor and accepting that this is ok. Focus your time and attention on the investors who express genuine interest in your deal. This is where the abundance mindset comes in handy. Make yourself known to investors and connect with them, but give them time and space to decide whether or not your deal is the right fit knowing that you will eventually find the right investors for your deal.
3. Money moves at the speed of trust
People are more likely to invest money in people they know can trust. When approaching your investor search, start by identifying trusted individuals in your network who might be willing to introduce you to investors. Approach these introductions as opportunities to establish trust and build a relationship.
Once you’ve identified and connected with the right investors, focus on cultivating interest in your deal. This is when a Localvest Deal Tile or a 1-sentence version of your pitch comes in handy. Don’t send your pitch deck when you first make contact with an investor. Save all the details for a future conversation. When investors express a genuine interest in your deal, that’s when you can schedule a time with them to discuss the details of your deal.
Before you meet with an investor, shape your pitch according to who you are pitching to, and prepare to ask investors the following questions:
- How do you evaluate an investment?
- What investments have you made that went well/badly?
- What does your ideal investment look like?
- Why are you interested in making an investment in my business?
- Do you have any questions that I haven’t answered already?
Asking these questions demonstrates that you care about making your deal a good investment and will help lead investors to a decision point. After you meet with potential investors, keep them updated on the progress of your deal. Updates should be brief and quantitative. Present an ask if you have one and give investors the time and space they need to decide if they want to invest. Remember, a great deal will always attract money and referrals. If your deal isn’t gaining traction in your investor network, don’t be afraid to rework your pitch or tweak your deal.
Are you ready to find investors? Localvest can help.
Our platform can help you increase the visibility and distribution of your deal. With SmartShare™, once you share your deal, Localvest will track views, clicks, and engagement activities, making it easy to understand which investors are driving engagement. Our deal performance metrics also make it easy for you to see what’s going well and what could use some improvement.
Share:
