I wouldn't pay for angelsoft. If you think fundraising is done by submitting an online application to hundreds of angels and paying $250 to do so... all I can say is a fool and his money are easily parted.
But like I said in my post, I don't know how effective it is. I will update my post in a couple of weeks with more information on its effectiveness.
if you don't know any investors (if only by name) you're not networking hard enough.
Seriously though, I just started this whole raising money thing a few days ago. So I am learning.
Speaking of networking, I am going to a happy hour tonight in DC.
My startup is based in Boston. We have some MIT and Harvard professors on our board of advisors, but we don't have other connections to networks and investors, and our advisor board hasn't been able to give us good leads. We've engaged in fund-raising efforts through letters and applications, as well as by going to relevant conferences, sometimes on the schedule, sometimes just passing out stickers on the side (or the street when they kick us out). We talk to a lot of people and have a vibrant but fluxful volunteer community. How do we find investors? (or grants; we're currently a non-profit, but we have revenue models and would be ok with employing a for-profit partner model) thx (diN0bot @t bilumi org)
There's a few guys and girls, three or four - that I'm actively seeking. I found them from networking with cool startups and seeing who they recommended. [If you're curious, I'm looking for some guys at Index and Cambridge Angels]
I think then you have to really get "out there" and go to every business/startup/investment meetup/conference with a fistful of business cards. I've met some really interesting people who have offered various introductions.
I dont want to make it sound like you should "use" people for their contacts. Meet awesome people who are interesting and help them out - and just hope they'll repay you the favour. :)
Linkedin & YouNoodle are really great for this stuff - just be as sociable as possible.
I'm in Manila, business plans are set, know-how is embedded (;)), but I'm trying to learn how to best protect my ass around this corrupt gov. and middle-gov officials.
Take it off the list until you know.
I have a 1-yr startup and we fight tooth and nail to go to career fairs and conferences for free. $250 is not something we spend lightly, especially on something that doesn't give us a good chance of meeting people in person. It all depends on your situation, though. Ours could be quite different.
> "I signed up and paid $250 to have my application submitted to thousands of potential investors and investor groups. It has only been 3 days, so I don’t know how effective it is, but so far, I really like it."
It's like posting your resume on monster.com. Sure, you will have a better chance getting a job from people you already know and have a relationship with or by going to job fairs but does that mean you should post on monster.com?
FYI: As of right now, 16 investors have looked at my application on angelsoft and I got 3 thumbs up and 0 thumbs down. Whether all this translate into actual investments or not, I don't know. But stay tuned, I will report back. I will even come back and post the results here, so you don't have to visit my blog :)
These angel cartels work in phases -- you start with a big pool of hopefuls, then if they "like" you, they start to require that you give more presentations, and attend more parties and whatnot. At each phase, the time investments get larger and larger, and ultimately, you have to put in a lot of effort for a relatively small amount of money.
Meanwhile, you'll find that you're competing with "startups" that aren't startups, or that are in completely different fields (some of the top-rated presentations at our sessions were for real-estate investors!) Very few people get funded by these things, relative to the starting pool, and those that do get funded tend to be "startups" that have relatively conventional business models (like the aforementioned real-estate people).
My impression is that angel cartels are gathering places for modestly rich people who want to get their feet wet in angel investing. Given that you really want your first investors to be experienced and helpful, these things probably aren't a good match for an early-phase tech company.
Friend, email me as soon as possible so you can get the money to be rich! You only need to pay $1000 USA dollars before you get 100000 time that back LOL!
It is so easy. millions@investorsglobalsoft.co.ng