Angel financing continues to fill the gap in start-up capital between family, friends, and the business owner. There are more than 300,000 angels active in the country. Angel investors–private high net worth individuals–continue to provide the lion’s share of all seed funding compared to venture capitalists.
The Center for Venture Research estimates that U.S. angel investors invested $24.1 billion in 73, 4000 small businesses in 2014. Many of the investments were in startup or very early stage companies.
[Related: Morehouse To Increase Pool of Minority Angel Investors]
Attending networking events and elevator pitch competitions are the best ways to find angel investors. Take for instance the Angel Venture Forum, which holds programming to help companies raise angel and venture capital effectively and efficiently.
The Angel Venture Forum is an ad hoc group of more than 30 active, experienced angel investors from more than 24 angel investor groups located throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Each of its colleagues shares a mission to discover, develop, and invest in strong opportunities – as well as provide a commitment to assist the companies in which they invest.
AVF sessions provide an overview of the issues important to angel investors. AVF is hosting its first session on July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC, dealing with “Funding: Understanding financial options and staging a smart capital plan for successful growth.†Raising external capital for your company is a big decision. The session will help entrepreneur seeking to raise capital to better understand the various financing options from equity to debt, dilutive and non-dilutive capital and the value of capital.
Others AVF sessions include topics on valuation and price (July 29), financials (Aug 5), intellectual property protection (Aug 12) 5), leadership (Aug 19) 6), term sheets and cap tables (Aug 26). The depth, quality and timeliness of the information provided to any potential investor is crucial and may be the difference between getting funded or not, says Valerie Gaydos, founder of Angel Venture Forum. “We invite (entrepreneurs) to attend these straight-up, practical & detailed instructional sessions which provide entrepreneurs with a clear roadmap of exactly what investors need and want in order to close your deal.â€
Entrepreneurs can attend some or all prior to submitting a business plan to AVF investors. In addition, AVF may add these programs to be available via webcast.
Gaydos is an angel investor and business development expert. She also is founder and president of Capital Growth, Inc. (CGI) which was founded in 1994 as a venture capital data and information publishing company. When seeking funding, Gaydos says one must be specific about the goal. “Don’t just tell me you need money. Tell me it’s because you want to beat a competitor who just introduced a product that’s going to compete with you. Talk sales, for instance.â€
She adds that the one thing she looks for most when someone is pitching their business is passion. Also, “knowing that you’re trying to solve a problem. That is the base and core of why angel investors will invest in a company.”
For detailed summary of the sessions, click here: http://www.angelventureforum.com/id2.html