The best thing an Investor can invest in your startup is time and then money 🙂
Every Startup is like a dream, which the Co-Founders are extremely passionate about and they believe they can give it all they have, but to make the dream big, not just the Co-Founders and the team, but many more people will have to fall in love with it, Viz. Customers and Investors
All Start-ups need a good investment to grow and expanding drastically, being the Co-Founder of a million USD funded start-up I would like to share a few things about choosing the right investor for your startup.
Chose Investor who understands your business
Investor and Start-up relationship is like a marriage, which is a long term bonding, if you are an IT start-up chose your investor from a similar background.
I spoke to a young CEO of a Bangalore based IT startup who had an Investor from Real Estate Background, undoubtedly he had a lot of money but he didn’t understand the business well enough, so they fail to understand how the business works, have unrealistic milestones. ( PS: The big funded company’s domain is up for SALE now)
Chose an Investor who can Mentor you
Unless you have good experience in the domain, try to choose an Investor who can guide you and mentor you with the abundant knowledge that he has, I know of an Indian based start-up who had a very good investor from Singapore he was technically sound and hand amazing network in Singapore, He not only helped the team by giving technical guidance but also helped them market in Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of ASIA.
Don’t choose Investors who set unrealistic milestones
The agenda of big VC sharks is to have ownership of the startup eventually, Do not go with an investor who says” you have to do X to get your investment “, that means they don’t believe fully in your idea, go with an Investor who fully has faith in your product.
Don’t let them make organizational changes
Your start-up is your brainchild and I’m sure you exactly know how you want it to be, I spoke to a Noida Based start-up who told me ” My SEED funding of 500000 USD is ready, but my investor wants me to get a CTO of his choice “, even before funding they want their people in the company, PS: The CO-Founder himself was an IIT Grad, had done PhD from IISC and had worked under big banners.
Look for an Investor with network
Find an investor who can help you not only in getting you through with right kind of people to make and sell your product but also help you with more rounds of funding.
Find someone you can trust
Finding an investor is like finding your Co-Founder, you both need to trust fully, Find someone who can solve your current problems, the ones who tell you what’s going wrong and you can tell him the same are the most amazing ones.
Believe in your idea, a good product or concept will surely attract a lot of investors, it’s just about finding the right one, your Idea is worth more than you believe.
