Early Stage

If I contact hundreds of early stage investors, I should find one that will invest

Early stage investment raising is not a quantity game, it's a quality game. The last thing you want to do is start spamming or mass-mailing hundreds of early stage investors in hopes that one will respond. In fact this is a really bad idea. The worst kind of invitation an investor can get is one that is completely blanket and generic. Odds are, they won't even take the time to read it. You're wasting your money and everybody's time if you send out mass contacts. Personalize every single contact to each investor--this is key! And, no, just changing the name doesn't count as personalizing. Be sure to thoroughly research each investor and make it very evident in your messages that you did this.

People go with what they know

Your goal should be to find the investor that is the best possible match for your investment type. Invstor.com provides a system for you to search for and contact potential investors for your business. The system allows you to find specific investors in your area by performing searches based on a number of criteria including geographic location, industry focus, and funding stage. You'll be able to find a handful of potential investors this way. Remember, quality--not quantity!

You'll have a lot less luck finding an investor to put money into your sub-orbital space shuttle project if his or her last investment was a fast food franchise--You get the idea. It seems like common sense, but the reason we have to include this section in the first place is because it's still a very big problem! Just ask any investor and they'll surely tell you that they receive countless blanket proposals and throw every single one away. Entrepreneurs feel like they can save some time by writing one really good proposal and sending it out to hundreds of investors. But, as you can see, this theory quickly backfires.