Where do I find VCs?
I am making a new site, and I need some investors for it. The work is quite done, but I am unable to find people who would like to invest in the site.
How and where can I find investors?
Regards,
Amit
Venture Capital Website Investors
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Honestly, your question seems is so poorly researched that it cannot be answered in its current form. Please revise. For starters, you must write which country you're in. Then what kind of investors do you seek, and which size of investment? Keep in mind that most young websites do not obtain outside investment. – Jesper Mortensen 14 years ago
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As Jesper said, a bit of research before posting questions would help. Start reading http://venturehacks.com/ and you will notice, for instance, that they offer a free service called AngelList ( http://angel.co/ ) that helps entrepreneurs to find investors. – Filippo Diotalevi 14 years ago
2 Answers
The best place to find investors for a new site is almost always going to be friends and family. They know you the best and will be most likely to invest in your product. Moreover, some family members will also give out loans which you can use for cash. This is usually referred to as "friends and family" financing and is the most common.
Once you have a product that sells, you can approach an Angel Investor and see if they will invest in your product. Angel Investors are often better for initial funding as they have less Red Tape and will allow you more freedom in how to operate your company. Angel Investors can be found through work contacts, friends, asking around, and Networking functions.
Once you are off the ground a bit more with a product that sells, then approach a VC. VCs often won't invest in early stage companies because they are afraid of the risk, especially in the current market. For this reason, VCs prefer to invest in companies that have a longer track record of a product that sells (so called "mid-stage companies") though there are some exceptions to this rule. VCs often have sessions they host where you can pitch a product to them or networking functions, but they receive so many proposals, less than 1% of all proposals actually get funding, so it is imperative that you have a good proposal for them. That's why it makes more sense to be a middle stage company rather than an early startup which has just finished a product.
Note: This is not legal advice nor does it constitute an attorney-client relationship.
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Thank you for contributing. A few supplemental comments: 1) Investment from "3F" (Friends, Fools and Family) is one possibility, but keep in mind that this kind of investment can have a dark side -- amateurism, "dumb money", anger if the startup fails, broken friendships, etc. 2) Having revenue is certainly a great thing. But it's not the only / the dominant parameter for closing with Angels and VCs. – Jesper Mortensen 14 years ago
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Chances are the 3F's will expect a lot less for their investment and probably have better intentions versus a seasoned investor. – Frank 14 years ago
The guys at Venturehacks.com provide good advice for startups and they also launched a site last year called AngelList which you can use to find angel investors (Not VCs) that might be interested about your project.
