Seeking investment for your startup or business is a big step, and can be really daunting when you don’t know where to start. ‘Capital’ can take many forms so it is important to find out what the options are, so you can head down the right path for you.

Experienced venture investor and CEO of ANU Connect Ventures Nick McNaughton says that the best capital to grow your business is your revenue, but that is hard to do when you haven’t built your product yet.

Nick is leading a workshop with the Canberra Innovation Network on the 22nd of November all about raising capital and finding the right investors.

Let’s look a little closer at the paths leading to Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists (also known as VCs).

Angel investors are high net worth individuals who are personally wealthy and invest some of their own cash, when a venture capitalist invests other people’s money.

“Angel investors typically do deals in the $25k-$250k range; Venture Capitalists do deals in the $1M-$5M (or more) range. It takes longer to get capital from VC’s than Angel investors,” explains Nick.

“I would argue you are not ‘taking’ money from an individual. You are introducing them to an interesting investment opportunity that may realise a significant return for them.”

But how do you actually find these investors to start the conversations? Nick believes you have a key tool right in front of you: LinkedIn.

“LinkedIn allows you to search and target individuals based on very specific criteria,” he says.

“For example if I was a founder of an AgTech start-up based in Canberra I would use LinkedIn to search for ‘Angel Investor AgTech Canberra’ – I just did this search and 7 names popped up. This is a great starting point to go and have a conversation with them.”

Raising Capital and Negotiating Terms is a full day online workshop that is a key learning experience for anyone contemplating raising capital from angel or venture investors.

In this workshop, Nick McNaughton will guide you through the process of actually finding potential investors for your startup, and you’ll learn tools and techniques to systemise your investor search.

“Investors want a well credentialed management team, defensible IP and a fast path to cash flow breakeven. This then leads to a fast-growing business which may in the future return more money than they invested,” explains Nick.

“Ultimately, investors want a positive return on their investment!”

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