What is an angel investor
Angel Investors – AKA private investors – are wealthy individuals looking to invest some spare cash. They can be ex-founders who have exited their own companies and are now looking to help early-stage startups at the beginning of their journey, or seasoned professionals looking for higher risk investments.
Angel’s will invest at the early stages of a startup. It’s a bigger investment risk than other investment opportunities but the rewards can be tremendous. In some cases, you will find that angels are willing to invest in a startup at the idea stage, especially when they believe in the team and have invested in similar industries prior. In many cases, Angel Investors will also join the startups they invest in within a mentorship or advisory capacity.
Finding an investor right for your business
Finding an investor on LinkedIn whose ideologies align with your core mission is key when securing an investor. You should start by figuring out what you believe would make the perfect angel investor for you – think about how you answer some of the following questions. Are you looking for an investor or also an advisor? What level of investment are you looking for? Do you want the angel investor to come from a similar industry to yours? What does their current portfolio look like?
Once you begin answering these sorts of questions you will begin to figure out the type of angel investor you are looking for.
There also tools out there which can help you find investors who align with your company. The Beauhurst reporting tool is one example. It can be really valuable when it comes to learning who has invested in your competitors, but also how much and how recently.
Using LinkedIn to find investors
LinkedIn is a great tool to find investors. Simply searching angel investor will come up with thousands of results. You can then filter down to make your search more relevant. For example, selecting the industry and location. Many angel investors will have in their profile “angel investor” (this makes finding them much easier). Others may have the advisory positions listed on their profile which they have taken in the companies they have invested in. This allows you to see the types of deals they have previously done and decide if they are a relevant investor.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is if the investor is part of an angel group. If they are they may specify this within their profile. In instances like this we would recommend going through to the angel group profile and looking to see who else is listed as an employee of the angel group. This will potentially show you other angel investors who are part of that group. Finally, in the about section of the LinkedIn profile some angel investors will
Once you find one investor who suits the type of investor you are looking for, on the right-hand side of the LinkedIn profile you will see a tab labelled “People also viewed”. This is a good way to find similar types of profiles to the one that you are looking at.
How to message investors on LinkedIn without premium
If you do come across angel investors you think are the right fit for your startup you will want to send them a short message with an intro of yourself, a one liner on your company and a call to action. Either ask them for a coffee or some advice on your pitch deck. Without LinkedIn premium you can’t message people, however, LinkedIn does allow you to add a note to a connection request. When looking at a profile on a computer if you click connect it will come up with the option to “add a note”. Click this and it will allow you to add up to 300 characters. But keep your message short and sweet!