News About Startups, Entrepreneurs & Angel Investors
You have a powerful idea for the next big thing, but before you sell it to anyone, you have to get it all down on paper. It’s time to make a business plan. How do you know if you’re headed in the right direction? Washington State University created an infographic that provides 10 guidelines to help prospective entrepreneurs organize their thoughts and wow potential investors.
What’s your Number 1 business plan tip?
If you’re an experienced angel investor looking for new opportunities, you may find what you’re looking for by investing with a group instead of individually or with a few friends. According to an article published on Phys.org, the benefits of working as a group include better deal flow, diversified portfolios, due diligence and evaluation, along with social interaction with other investors. If you’re just getting started with angel investing, participating in a group gives you the ability to learn from more experienced investors, helping you limit the risk of going in blind or unprepared.
Here’s some help on how to crack Twitter.
The Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource are tracking companies that are valued at $1 billion or more by venture-capital firms. The club is becoming less exclusive as venture capitalists funnel large sums of capital in the best startups. Today there are more than 30 such companies in the U.S., Europe and China.
If you are an entrepreneur seeking funding for a new business, there are a number of funding sources available for consideration. However, not all funding options may be suitable for you. When determining which type of funding is most appropriate, it is important to determine how much control you are willing to give up and what sort of payment schedules are realistic for your new venture. Although many entrepreneurs are hesitant to give up partial control of their new business, angel investors are a smart way to raise capital quickly.
This infographic will help you understand the difference between vanity metrics and those that actually matter.
As a marketer, which trends are you anticipating in 2014?
Prominent VCs and angel investors may dominate the headlines with their big sticker investments, but personal loans and credit – along with investments from friends and family – make up the lion’s share of funding for startups in the U.S.
According to recent data only 0.91 percent of startups are funded by angel investors, while a measly 0.05 percent are funded by VCs. In contrast, 57 percent of startups are funded by personal loans and credit, while 38 percent receive funding from family and friends.
The Angel Resource Institute (ARI), Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and CB Insights have released the Q2 2013 Halo Report, a national survey of angel group investment activity, which finds median angel round sizes down to $590K per deal, median pre-money valuations remaining stable at $2.5M and 74% of deals are syndicated. When angels co-invest with other types of investors the median deal size is $1.95M.
US angel investment continues to be dispersed nationwide and the most active angel groups in the quarter are:
The SEC has lifted the ban on General Solicitation and permits startups, private companies, venture capitalists, and hedge funds to openly advertise that they’re raising money in private offerings.
We hope this list will come in handy on your startup journey and help you to avoid some of the pitfalls that brought down other startups.
Have you been part of a failed startup. If so, what were the main reasons that it didn’t make it?
Angel Investors can mean life or death for small companies, and can give your business the urgent capital that it needs to grow and develop. There are a few things that you can do to help attract investors to your company, but the main thing is to make sure that you make people believe that they will get a solid return on their investment. There is no way that people will pump money into something unless they are reasonably certain that their money is safe, and that it will grow in the future.
What type of investor do you want?
