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The Fine Art of Meeting With an Angel Investor

Practical advice on when and how to pitch private investors for your business

When it comes to raising money for your startup, don’t expect any miracles: Angels don’t descend from heaven. In most cases, angel investors will already know you or be introduced by a mutual friend. This is partly because they need to have confidence and trust in you to take a risk on you and your business, but also because they simply like hanging out with entrepreneurs. Angel investors like being mentors, and they typically like to experience the entrepreneurial life vicariously.

Why do they want to hang out with you? Angel investors learn about you by being as interested in you personally as they are in what your business does or sells. If they don’t already know you–that is, they’re neither your friends nor members of your family–they’ll ask around about you behind your back. They’ll see what kind of car you drive and if and where you take vacations. Their impression of you, as well as your business experience and your management skills, are all critical to their decision to invest. They’ll also talk to mutual associates to get the inside skinny on you–if people they know and trust say you’re a genius but lousy with money (or something equally frank), they’re likely to listen closely.

By Asheesh Advani

Full Story: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,321650,00.html

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