An angel investor is someone with the financial means to invest in companies, but who prefers to get involved with unique startups. These are business experts who have to meet all of the investor criteria of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but they also want to do much more than just put money into an organization. An angel investor can be extremely important to your startup, and there are several helpful ways that an angel investor can help your company succeed. Here’s 3 ways that you’ll want to take note of:
# 1: Angel Investors Understand How to Market New Ideas
Murray Newlands is a marketing expert who is also an angel investor and he is one of the many angel investors who believe that innovation is not very easy to market, but it is essential to the success of any startup. Newlands once said in an interview that he loves “innovating and developing new ideas with other people.” This need to innovate with new contributors is often what drives angel investors and it offers a startup the chance to take full advantage of the investor’s experience, as well as the investor’s funding.
#2: Angel Investors Can Offer Unique Perspectives
John Rampton, who refers to himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” has a deep-seated interest in online marketing. But Rampton’s interest in the success of online marketing is very personal as he used the Internet as way to overcome a serious physical obstacle that stood between him and success.
When Rampton was younger, he was involved in a construction accident that broke both of his legs. “I had 3 surgeries and was told that I would never walk again,” Rampton recalls. But through determination and innovative treatments, Rampton learned to walk again. While he was recovering, he started becoming a serial entrepreneur who would create successful online companies with other people. He was even able to develop successful online businesses with people who knew little to nothing about selling online.
When you work with an angel investor, you are given the chance to work with someone who has a very different view of the world than you do. In many ways, that unique view could be the ingredient your business has been missing and your key to success.
#3: Angel Investors Have Contacts
You do not get to be a successful entrepreneur without making plenty of contacts that can be used to develop and grow other companies. Angel investors are dynamic business professionals who have the business contacts your business needs to hit the ground running. It can take years to establish the kind of professional network your business needs to generate a profit, but an angel investor can offer that network from day one and get your business off to a very fast start.
Angel investors offer a lot of opportunity to a startup and much of that opportunity comes from the investor’s experience, and not their money. When you are ready to develop a successful startup, then get in touch with an angel investor and put yourself way ahead of the competition before your business even gets started.
Image Credit: Flickr/Official GDC
