.png)
.png)
Need to find startup investors? This guide offers tips and resources to help you find the right investors for your startup's success.
Starting a business is a very challenging task but finding the right investors can be twice as hard. While it's critical to have a solid business plan and a product that the market wants, it's equally important to find investors who believe in your vision and can provide the resources and support needed to bring your idea to life.
In this article, we'll discuss some key steps to finding start-up investors, the sources you need to look at to find them, and some of the best outreach strategies.
By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to finding the right start-up investors to help you bring your business to life.
Don’t worry, our resource list has you covered with a wide array of both paid & free resources to get you the startup investors you need.
Crunchbase is hands down one of the biggest investors & funding databases out there to date. Their platform offers information on every single type of investor including VCs, Accelerators, Private Equity Firms, etc., and gives you the ability to filter investors based on the industries they invest in.
Got a crypto startup that’s seeking investment?
Filter all the investors that have invested in blockchain in the past year and export their details as a CSV.
Got a health & wellness start that’s looking for investors?
Filter for Health & Wellness.
You get the gist.
LinkedIn is the social media platform for ANYTHING business related.
99% of all worthwhile investors out there are on LinkedIn. And what’s great about LinkedIn is that you can also direct message just about anyone. (Unless they have their connection requests as closed)
The process for finding investors is relatively simple.
You just have to enter the type of investor you’re after in the search bar and voila, you got your list.
Now unlike Crunchbase, you can’t differentiate by previous investment behaviours but you’ll get a good list of startup investors nonetheless.
I came across OpenVC a few months ago by accident on ProductHunt and I was very surprised about the quality of what they offer.
OpenVC is essentially a free database of Venture Capitalist firms split by their investment thesis.
Meaning that you easily filter out VC firms for, say, firms that invest in women-led companies.
In addition to the above, they also make deck submissions extremely easy, all you need to do is click the Submit Deck button.
A resource worth checking out.
Twitter is another platform, just like LinkedIn, that investors like to engage with as it houses not only investment company business profiles but also individual profiles of a wide variety of investors.
It’s really easy to identify them to as notable investors will typically include the word “investor” with their bio, meaning that all you need to do to find them is just type something like “VC Investor” in the people search tab.
And voila.
You’ve now got yourself a list of investors from a wide variety of locations that might potentially be interested in investing in your startup.
Apollo can also be used as a platform to find startup investors too. It’s very much like LinkedIn in terms of its data and platform usability, but what I like about Apollo is that they also offer verified emails of the individuals you’re after, as well as their socials.
Finding investors is super easy.
All you need to do is open up the people search bar, type in “Investor” and that’s it.
You now have a long list of investors from a wide array of industries and their emails are just a click away.
Finding your startup investors is only 50% of the struggle. The other 50% lies in reaching out to them both consistently and in a way that captures their attention and gets you the meeting you need to pitch them.
Cold email is one of the most cost-effective ways to get potentially interested investors on calls with you. Keep in mind that a successful cold email campaign will typically consist of numerous follow-ups as investors are typically overburdened with investment requests. Following up consistently & relevantly over a prolonged period will help you stand out from the crowd by showing that you’re serious about your startup.
Additionally, here’s a quick guide on how to run scaled cold email outreaches to further increase your chances of securing investor calls.
As mentioned, Twitter is an excellent resource for finding startup investors, but what is also excellent is the fact that you can cold dm many of those investors too.
Now keep in mind that your message will likely land in the message requests tab, but you never know.
They might check their requests and follow up with you.
LinkedIn Outreach is also an excellent way to onboard startup investors. It’s most advisable to treat your LinkedIn outreach efforts like you would treat your email outreach, with well-thought-out personalized templates that also have a ton of follow-ups to go with them.
Here's a full video on how to master the art of LinkedIn outreach both for client & investor acquisition.
Now that you know where to find startup investors & how to reach out to them, you’re probably thinking about what you should them.
We’ve got you covered with these two outreach templates.
Note that they intend to get you on an introductory meeting with the investors, and not close them on the spot.
Hey there, (investor name/company name)!
(Your name) here from (Your Company Name).
Noticed that you recently invested in (a company alike to yours), and thought you’d be interested in checking us out.
We’re a startup looking to (add your mission statement)
I’ve attached our pitch deck to this email.
Let’s hop on a quick call to discuss your participation further sometime this week.
Book a time: (add calendar link)
Hey there, (investor name/company name)!
(Your name) here from (Your Company Name).
We’re a startup looking to (add your mission statement)
After reading your investment thesis, I reckoned you’d be a great fit for our pre-seed round as we’re (add something relevant to the investor’s investment thesis)
I’ve attached our pitch deck to this email.
Let’s hop on a quick call to discuss your participation further sometime this week.
Book a time: (add calendar link)
I hope this guide gets you a step closer to securing the investment your startup needs. For more information regarding the latest outreach methods, I strongly recommend you check out our Growth Hacking Course, the Growth Hacking Bootcamp.
