Please realize that any investment of less than a million or two pushes you out of the Venture Capital zone and into angel investors. While most angel investors fly solo, a lot of them are part of angel investor groups like the Silicon Valley-based Band of Angels. They’re the best of the angel investors, in my experience, because they can offer something a lot more valuable than a check: expertise and connections in the industry. Trust me, you want access to their address book much more than you want money in the bank.For angel networks, you can rummage around in Google and see what you can find, especially since another rule of thumb with any investor is that they don’t invest in companies more than two hours drive from their own offices. (to be fair, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, just a good general expectation). That should get you started on Google.
Pay attention to the local business publications: when other companies get funded, find out who funded them. Investments typically have a “lead” investor and a bunch of “follows” and while that’s easily ascertained with VC, you can also find a lead angel, sometimes. They are, obviously, exactly who you should target. If you don’t have connections, try a site like LinkedIn to see if you have friends or colleagues in common. And go to LOTS of professional networking events.
from Tim.
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