SUPPORT FROM PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS
In order to support entrepreneurs in approaching investors, providers such as GRECA have established themselves, who actively support and advise in the search for potential, suitable investors. While the founding team can continue to look after the success of the start-up, trained scouts and financing specialists check the investor landscape at the same time. They select suitable candidates without the founders having to relinquish control. Providers such as greca.eu offer interested start-ups a specially developed form that rates the company’s funding readiness level and scopes out their investment criteria. Rating Assessment and Investor Matchmaking. Reports are then generated and are free.
ATTEND FOUNDER AND STARTUP EVENTS
One of the best ways to find potential investors is to visit various founder and start-up events. There are countless potential investors bustling about here, most of whom only attend these events for one reason: They want to get to know new start-ups in which to invest. It is therefore important for you to be at such events as often as possible and to talk to as many people as possible. Many high-quality contacts can be made here, with whom it is ideal to work together in the future. On the one hand, of course, there are the investors, but on the other hand there are also other start-ups with whom it is also easy to cooperate. The only important thing here is that you actively approach people and can convince them of your idea. After all, there are a lot of investors walking around that start-ups are looking for. So don’t take too much time with it.
On the one hand, there are such events on a large scale, such as “South Summit” in Madrid or “Viva Technology” in Paris. In addition, there are numerous other network meetings in almost every major city. Here young founders regularly get the chance to pitch their business idea to investors. So just keep your eyes open and visit as many events as possible.
PARTICIPATION IN COMPETITIONS TO SEARCH FOR INVESTORS
As just mentioned, there are regular meetings in many cities where young entrepreneurs and startups can pitch their ideas. Either this can be in front of the investors or in front of a larger crowd of spectators. In many competitions, the participants even get prize money and often also the attention of the media. For many start-ups, such competitions are the perfect opportunity to really get off to a flying start with their company after they have been looking for investors.
One of the biggest and most famous competitions is the TV show “The Lion’s Den”. Here the participants have the opportunity to present their company to five successful investors. Anyone who convinces them has the opportunity to get investments, sometimes in the millions. And even if it doesn’t work out, the program reaches millions of viewers. But of course it doesn’t have to be the big TV show: Smaller local competitions can also be an ideal way to start a successful business and help you find the investors you’ve been looking for. GRECA offers competitions every few months in its business partner regions, so keep your eye out for them!
How to contact investors?
Many founders think that it makes particularly good sense to simply send their business plan to an info@investor address without prior contact and wait for a response. But, that is rarely well received by investors and usually does not lead to the goal. It is much better to get in touch with an investor through a recommendation or at conferences. It is also worthwhile to be active on networks such as Xing and LinkedIn in order to get to know other entrepreneurs there through your own contacts. In general, it is important to have a good business network in order to get new ideas and, with a bit of luck, to meet a suitable investor.
