I first thought about my business in early 2008. I needed investments, so I had a lot of interaction with all kinds of investors, as well as imaginary investors and consultants to find investors. I spent a lot of time communicating with them, and most of it was wasted. I want to share the accumulated experience of communication with investors and give some advice to other start-ups.
So, in early 2008, I had a business idea and a desire to quit my busy job and start working for myself. The business idea was such that it required certain capital expenditures, and there were no funds of its own - so without investors there was no escape. So when I started the prototype development, I started looking for investors. I first pursued my search by those who were heard: Venture and sowing funds, business angelic associations, start-up party. All this took quite a long time, but the result was 0.
Why? Then I realized that any unlaunched business would almost certainly not be financed if the investor came "man from the street" — because of the banal lack of trust in such a person — the investor does not know him and can not check the financial statements of his project to make sure he really knows how to earn money. The unlaunched business will not be financed by professional investors, since many other start-ups turn to them for financing, so such investors probably have more interesting projects for financing, which are at the stage of making money, and therefore trust in them is higher.
First tip
If you have only a business idea or an unlaunched prototype system, do not waste time looking for investors in organizations that are professionally involved in financing start-ups. Or rather, it is very useful to communicate with venture funds, business angelic associations, to perform at start-up parties, etc., but to do it is necessary to get criticism of your project, advice on its development, search of possible clients and partners — but at the same time to understand that chances of what you will find investors there They are negligible. You can find investments from professional investors with a ready-made project that already generates some cash flow, or with a highly visited site - but not exactly when the project is at the level of an idea.
Where, then, should investors be sought?
Second tip
Search for investors among your acquaintances, i.e. in the words of startups, "angelic investors". There are a lot of well-off people who don't think the amount of investment they're willing to risk is a very small amount, especially since after the crisis, other ways of investing money, like real estate, have become risky too. There may not be such people in the first circle of your acquaintances, but they are likely to be among the second. These people are unlikely to understand the technical details of your project, but if you describe it well enough in a language they understand, show your adequacy in business and, above all, establish mutual trust of 100% (it is easy to do if you have common acquaintances) - then the chances of obtaining financing will be very good. So don't get too lazy and tell all your former colleagues, Twitter friends and Skype that you want to start your project and are looking for investors - it will be much more effective than telling your startups to other startups. Personally, I found investors for my project that way.
If it didn't work with acquaintances?
Third tip
Think about who could enter your project not with money, which is always hard to part with, but with "in kind" - assets that may not be used entirely by their owner and therefore it will not be a pity to invest in the project (for example, servers or other equipment). I know a few examples when projects started in this way.
Fourth tip
Do not neglect the capabilities of startup support provided by the state, because it provides support without entering the capital of your company, unlike investors. Startups, for example, can rent space in a technology park on preferential terms - you only need, again, to be able to clearly explain the usefulness of project and not be lazy to write competitive documentation. There are also federal support programs that startups can use, for example, this fund, which provides funding to start-up technology companies.
Fifth tip
Think about whether you really need an investor, or can you do it on your own? The criterion here, in my opinion, is - will bootstrapping, in which the project will develop without an investor, be too tough for the project? In other words, will your project suffocate a lack of funding? There are a lot of such examples - projects with ingenious ideas die when the team works on them on a residual principle, in their free time from basic work.
In general, the main thing is a good idea, the skills necessary for its implementation and your faith in the project, and there will be an investor. As popular wisdom says, "look for let you shake" or "who is looking - he will always find":)