5 Unique Ways That are Useful in Getting Meetings With the Right Investors

In India, the current business atmosphere has a lot to do with start-ups. The Government of India has launched various schemes and programmes like ‘Start-Up India’ and ‘Stand-Up India’ to catalyze the youth power, and to make India the land of new business enterprises. There is an extreme wealth of creativity and business mind in India to make the Start-ups a success. But like all business ideas, the Start-ups also have their own challenges. One of the most challenging parts is actually talking to investors and getting investments.

Most venture capitalists and angel investors receive dozens of pitches every day and simply do not have the time to meet with everyone. To make it more difficult, it’s not uncommon for first-time entrepreneurs to need to speak with multiple investors before closing a round of funding. So as an entrepreneur, one needs to identify dozens of people who could potentially be interested in their company.

The good news is that there are now more resources than ever, to help start-ups in finding the best-suited investors for them, to facilitate meetings with them, and to obtain their funds. Here are some ways that are useful in getting meetings with the right people.

1. Build an Angel List Profile:

An Angel List is a great way to both learn about investors and let them learn about you. Creating a profile that includes specific information about the company, product, and team members, makes it easy for people who are interested in investing, to find you.

Once you have filled everything out, share your profile with your friends and professional acquaintances and request references. When people follow your company, it will show up before others they know, and hopefully pique their interest.

2. Create a Strategic List of Investors You Would Like to Meet With:

Given the odds of any individual meeting resulting in an investment, it is easy to want to cast as wide a net as possible. But given that there are innumerable investors in India and throughout the world, who have made angel investments recently, one can save themselves a lot of time and hassle if they focus their initial efforts on the 30-50 investors who are most likely to be a good fit for their company. (One can always expand the list later). Also, connect with other entrepreneurs, who have gone through this phase of searching for investors or those who have managed to develop their start-up handsomely, then and confer with those entrepreneurs about which investors should be added or removed from the list of investors, based on their experiences. Fellow entrepreneurs are invaluable resources for helping one in identifying potentially interested investors who are not yet on their radar, as well as for flagging investors who are known for being difficult to work with or who aren’t actively investing.

3. Explore Your Networks:

Investors normally receive a number of pitches, and so, they habitually support companies that have been introduced by a familiar contact. So once you have a list of investors you would like to meet with, go through it person-by-person and check if you have any mutual acquaintances. However, before asking your contacts to introduce you to an investor, make sure to have a discussion with the contact first, to enable them to advertise your start-up to an investor in such a way, so as to generate an interest in him. Ideally, the mutual acquaintance should feel like he or she is doing a favor to both you and the investor, by making the introduction.

4. Attentively select your own Introduction:

There will likely be some investors whom you cannot find an introduction to. In such a case, one simply needs to be more thoughtful and selective about whom they reach out to. Crafting emails that prove that one is not just sending out hundreds of cold emails to investors is very important. Be creative and pitch ideas in the most professional way, so that a likely investor can understand the viability of the start-up and can also satisfy himself that such investment can make money for him.

5. Provide Investors some motivation to reach out to you:

In the same way as companies want to find great investors, investors also want to find great companies—meaning that, the courtship goes both ways. So, one should make sure that they spend some time putting themselves out there. Even if their product isn’t live, one can still generate attention for their team and mission via thoughtful leadership.

Even with the best fundraising tactics, one should be prepared to get turned down by investors or, not hear back from them. While should not affect your morale, it shouldn’t prevent you from being diligent following up in a professional manner. If you don’t hear back in a week, send a quick follow up. After that, continue following up if and when you have news to share (e.g. a product launch, key metric that you hit, commitment from a notable investor). This also applies to investors you’ve met with but haven’t heard from since.

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