Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Insights and Opinions: Learning How to Meet Investors
How do you go about meeting investors? One key are is learning how to network. In our Insights and Opinions section this morning, Matt Crowley, a startup attorney and author of Getting in the Game: Guiding Your Startup Through the World of Venture Capital and Angel Investors, talks about networking skills.
Networking skills aren't obvious
Networking for business is a real challenge for most of us. As an experienced lawyer working closely with startups, I probably spend at least a third of my week at networking events. I am always nervous, because I am always meeting new people that I initially know nothing about.
I will tell you a quick story to make you feel better about your own networking skills. When I started courting startups, I used Meetup.com to start an entrepreneur group for my town. I met some unusual folks but one of my favorites was a PhD in biotechnology. The gentleman had created a cost-effective way to provide research data for the giant pharmaceutical companies. He had customers, but was a one-man band, struggling to raise money.
When I first met him I asked him what he did, which seemed like a pretty simple thing. It wasn't. He told me that it would take too long to explain and I probably wouldn't understand it. That was his opening line. Imagine being a potential investor and being told that. (Continued...)
Read the rest of Matt's advice on how to network to find investors.