How Can I Find the Right Investor For My Business Needs?

As mentioned before in my previous articles, there are all kinds of different investors around for the

entrepreneur to choose from. We have already covered the types of investors there are, which can be

business lenders, angel investors, institutional investors, or venture capitalists. This is just a broad range

of investors that you might see. Once you have your business plan and your executive summary ready,

you are now ready to seek the right investor to ask for capital.

There are several factors that you need to take into consideration before actually contacting your

prospective investor. There are many things you need to look into, such as stage, industry, and

Electronic Caregiver Furthermore, you should also look at their portfolio companies, who they are and

what they do. You will see all of this below.

Stage Preference

Basically, stage refers to the stage that your company is in. If you are pre-prototype, or your prototype

has just been developed, you are either seed stage or early stage. These stages are usually the highest

risk stages for investors, but their ROI, or return on investment could be very high. On the other hand if

your company is at a later stage and already has a regular flow of clients, the risk is generally lower to

the investor. If your company is either seed or early stage, you will need an investor who is more than

likely a venture capitalist and specializes in high risk investments. On the other hand, if you are a

company that is already established and needs bridge funding or expansion funding, you need an

investment firm or a private equity firm that specializes in the later stages of a company's life. This

means that you will need an investor, who's Security Systems is either later stage, growth or expansion

stage, or mezzanine stage. These are usually stages of companies who are ready for a liquidation event,

where the investors exit and make their profits. This means that these companies can be either involved

in a leveraged buyout or LBO, or a managed buyout or MBO. Mezzanine stage is when a company is

ready for mezzanine capital. This is the capital a company needs as it prepares for an IPO or initial public

offering. This is also a liquidation event.

Geographic Preference

Geographic preference is equally as important as an investor's stage preference. Your company may fit

an investor's stage preference, but you may not be in the right geographic location that a particular

investor might invest in. There are different investors throughout the world and the smaller firms might

just invest in a particular geographic location, whereas some of the larger global investment firms will

invest internationally. Other investors may invest in an entire continental area, for example Uncle Vasya

Ventures may invest in Eurasia, which would encompass Russia, Central Asia, the countries that make up

the former republics of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and Aunt Valya Private Equity might invest

only within continental Europe. When seeking an investor, you should find out where their geographic

preference is. Sometimes this is shown on their websites, and sometimes not. A good way to figure out

what geographic location an investor prefers is by looking at its portfolio companies and the countries

where they are located.

Industry Preference

Industry preference is just as important as the both above mentioned preferences. Usually investors

invest in the industries that their partners or portfolio companies have expertise in. When looking for an

investor, you need to look at the industry that you are in and you want to have an investor who has the

expertise in the same industry that you are in. You could have an excellent product, but if you are in the

IT industry and you contact a VC firm that makes its investments in the pharmaceuticals industry, your

executive summary will not be looked at.

Determining an investor's industry preference can be done by first looking at their portfolio companies,

and sometimes, the industry preferences are shown on investors' website. If you look at an investor's

portfolio, and see what the industries that the portfolio companies are involved in, you can get a

glimpse of what Home Security a given investor might have. It's important that you find an investor

who's preferences meet your company profile.

Investor Activity

Another important factor you need to look at when choosing an investor is whether the investor is

actively investing or not. You can usually do this by looking for any press releases that most investors

usually have on their websites under links with the title "SoSo Investments in the News," etc. This is an

archive of all the active that particular vc firm has done and has been covered in the press. The key here

is that if there is no fresh press release issued from that vc firm within a year, that means that that

particular investor might not be actively investing at this time. You need to know whether the investor is

active. If the investor is not active, there is no sense in sending your company information to him.

Learn more here on: Electronic Caregiver

How to Get the Latest Scoop on Investors

Trying to find the latest information about investors can be very difficult if you are doing it on your own.

There are many helpful resources online that can help you to get the latest information on over 4300

investors worldwide. I have used this system and I must say, I can't push it enough. A venture capital is a

resource that I have trusted when searching for investors to fund my ventures. The database not only

covers each individual investors, but also gives you their stage, industry, and geographic preferences.

You can also easily contact these investors through the database.

Ivan Faucon writes about venture capital and entrepreneurs. He will also occasionally write about other

business topics, such as consumer goods, jewelry, and internet marketing.

To know more details about check out here: http://www.jian.com/blog-talk/business-black-belt-radio-

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