How To Approach Investors For Funds: Investors' Best Advice

Investors often say that the best way to approach them for a meeting is to go through a mutual acquaintance. But what if you’re not sure who that is?

Tim Wright, general partner at Grand Banks Capital, said LinkedIn can be a good tool to begin.

’If you look at my LinkedIn profile, there’s thousands of names on it. In general, there’s somebody on there that’s somebody you know. The 'three degrees of separation' [phenomenon] is real and it’s very easy to follow,’ he said.

Charlie Cameron, founding and managing director of Hub Angels, said his pet peeve is receiving templated, impersonal notes.

’If you blindly send something to us that says ’Dear Blank, please look at this,’ it immediately goes right into the bin,’ said Cameron, who suggested entrepreneurs do their homework before reaching out.

John Heisson, partner at Morse, Brown and Pendleton, is heavily involved in the venture capital and angel investor community. He cautioned against the "buckshot" approach of firing out a pitch to huge numbers of investors.

’It’s not the right way to do it. You really have to be strategic,’ he said.

Cameron also warned against hounding investors at events.

PUBLISHED NOV. 12, 2015