Looking for Angels or VCs

Ideas by themselves never get funded unless you are Mark Zuckerberg doing his startup after Facebook :) ... You almost always need a 1) working product and a 2) good number of users and 3) show growth. This is when you are ready for investors.

Good angel investors work by referrals, it's tough to get to them but if you put yourself out-there, go to event, network eventually you will get an in into some angel investor. For example my first angel investors in Yamli are from the Silicon Valley both early and ex-Googlers and both very prolific investors. One of them Georges Harik I met through an event I helped organize at MIT a few years before I did Yamli. Then a few months after we launched Yamli I asked George's cousin who was a classmate to do an intro and in-turn Georges introduced me to his co-investors. Basically you need to dig for it by yourself. Also look at other startups around you, and ask or try to find out who invested in them. If they like you they wouldn't mind doing an intro, those intros are usually the best. One thing is for sure you will not find angel investors on some online network waiting for you to come ask for money, you need to roll up your sleeves and dig for it yourself. Having the right parameters, such as good team, product and traction would make your life much easier.

If you are approaching Angels, it's necessary to have a prototype running along with users. When it comes to VCs, you gotta be way ahead, showing solid growth and a clear monetization path and potential exits.

Whether you are approaching either one, networking is key. That is an essential element during any part of the startup cycle... the way you impress the moment you meet will either make the path easier or much harder.

A good illustration would be a salesman selling any kind of product. He will at times possess hot leads (introductions, referrals) that will make him cross a good part of the sales cycle, establishing a meeting and then initial trust and a common ground, and then pave the way for a good pitch; the other times, he would have a list of potential suspects (cold leads), that he would introduce himself to, try to get to a meeting, where the above would carry on, in obviously a more difficult manner. With that said, it doesn't mean a salesman is not lucky if he doesn't carry hot leads; it becomes a numbers game, where he would have to meet more suspects, pitch to a wider audience in order to get some hot leads coming. The key to succeed in that is perseverance and eyeing your target along the way. If you think about it, the more that salesman meets suspects who say NO, the higher the chances to get to a sale and every NO should get him more excited. It takes NOs to get to a YES... and its a numbers game, you meet 10 people, 5 wouldn't even wanna meet you, the other 5 would and eventually one might say YES... think through the process, when you meet the first one your chances are 1 out of 10 (10%), if he says no your chances are now 1 out of 9 (11%), when the following says no your chances are now 1 out of 8 (12.5%)...

Happy selling :)