Finding investors is one of the biggest challenges of starting and growing a business. Typically, companies will start small raising a seed round and move to increase the amount they raise with subsequent funding rounds.
When entrepreneurs have an idea for a business or product, they often seek investors to fund the development of the product or operations on a small scale. Typically, all you need is a business concept, a product or service, and a plan. With the initial capital, entrepreneurs can prove their concept or adjust their plan to address actual market conditions or opportunities. Prospective investors will want understand the potential market demand for the product or service and proof that business can achieve profitability before investing their capital. Ideally, you should have a track record of at least a year.
How To Identify The Most Appropriate Investors
- Work with friends and family. Most entrepreneurs rely on funding from friends and family. This can be the best option for getting your business up and running without proving yourself to an outside investor.
- Look for private investors in the community. Often, your community is the best place to identify investors to supply the capital to grow your business. Cities and small towns often develop business initiatives because small businesses empower their communities. Additionally, look for local business leaders and investors. Work with any pro-business organizations and seek out significant community influences to help you network and develop business relationships.
- Seek out angel investors. If you’ve exhausted the previous funding options or your business has your startup may be ready for angel investors and other private investors in your industry. Research areas where your industry is thriving and contact business leaders and angel investors there.
- Work with venture capitalists. Finding venture capitalists is usually the final stage in a new company’s funding growth, but it isn’t necessary for all businesses. If you run a stable, successful small business, you likely don’t need to apply for funding with a venture capitalist. However, if you have a successful business idea that would benefit from extremely fast scaling and high amounts of capital, working with venture capitalists is a good option.
Remember while entrepreneurs are focused solely on raising the necessary growth capital, its also critically important, if you can you, to bring in investors with strategic insights or relationships that can help grow your business in addition to providing the necessary capital. Given that early stage investors typically are invested for long periods of time, it’s important to find ones that bring more than capital.
How to Find Investors Using Cyndx Raiser
With Cyndx Raiser you only need to take the following steps to identify a list of prequalified potential investors:
- Enter the name of your company and a potential competitor.With Cyndx Raiser, you’ll be asked to include a Primary Competitor in addition to the fundraising company to help find relevant investors in the space. If necessary, you can also add more competitors (Secondary competitors, optional) within your search to better target investors who may be interested in your company based on their historical transactions.
- Enter your raise amountEntering your raise amount will help find the right investor who has invested in companies. You can also enter an exit amount if you are seeking potential acquirers.
- Choose between the options of looking for with or without grants and debt funding
Cyndx Raiser will compare your company to millions of other companies around the globe while analyzing 132K+ investors to find who’s financing similar companies at your level of funding
You will be provided with a curated list of potential strategic and financial investors.
Let Cyndx Help You Identify the Right Investor
Cyndx empowers entrepreneurs by providing them with the tools to make better-informed decisions throughout the funding process. We recently introduced Valer, a corporate valuation tool that complements our existing offerings, Raiser which rapidly identifies relevant investors and Finder, a deal sourcing platform.
Together, these three products contribute to a more efficient capital raise process, saving valuable time and money—two resources that are particularly precious for founders.
