When you are nursing an idea that can grow into a game-changing business, you might often think of the variegated opportunities to get financial support that will provide driving your project home.
If the product you want to develop isn’t very complex and expensive, there’s a possibility to bring it to life using your own resources or resources of the team. If bootstrapping isn’t your story, look for alternatives.
Crowdfunding takes much time, effort and respective skills to be efficient. If your project idea can arouse the interest of the audience and willingness to support it, you will be lucky to achieve results. But if you aren’t tuned to waste time gathering money, there’s only two options: bank loans and angel investors Houston. Traditionally banks prefer to avoid risky investment, and if there’s no guarantee of success, the process of getting funds seems baffling.
The other thing that turns bank loans into an onerous procedure, the obligation to return money with interest even if your business failed. On this background the opportunity to get financial support from angel investors feels a privilege. Along with funds, you can count on help with marketing, business analytics, and monetization strategies etc. from experienced entrepreneurs.
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What Are the Conditions for Startup to Get Funded From Angel Investors
Let’s put ourselves in angel investors’ shoes and find out what they are looking for.
Passionate Team
First of all, they want to see that you or even better your team are truly dedicated to project idea and are ready to work hard to achieve goals.
Innovative Business Idea
But emotional involvement isn’t enough. Your pitch should be convincing that the product will be in high demand in the market. So, think over the arguments to defend the uniqueness of your undertaking thoroughly.
Potential Profitability
Investors are guided by rationality as a rule. Related to your project, they expect to see mathematics that says about 10x return of money.
Scale of Investment and Percentage in Return
You should be ready to explain how much money you need and what tasks will be solved with its help. As well you should provide a clear scheme of paying funds back.
And of course, there should be a cross between angel investors expertise and your business niche.
Which Paths Lead To Failure When You Look for Angel Investors
Neglecting angel investors’ professional interests is a reliable way to get rejected. If your project relates to FoodTech and you’re going to impress business experts who specialize in real estate, there is no way to get funded.
Poorly Prepared Presentation
As a rule, angel investors’ network expect you to concentrate all the core information about business idea in 10 slides. Avoid wordiness describing the product. Fewer words, more facts and meaningful features, should be your motto.
Unpreparedness to Defense
At the early or seed stage of the product angel investors don’t require you to have impressive business analytics and statistics. But they want you to do market research, examine leading players, learn more about potential risk and which actions help prevent it. If you can’t argue your position with numbers and facts, this entails lack of trust and, respectively, interest.
Houston as the Center of Investment Activity
Houston is getting popular among startup founders due to its powerful business guidance and financial resources. For example, in 2019 the city’s revenue from startup activity reached $3M. Annually the business community of the city helps more than 9000 projects to get in the market.
Every notable angel investor or a group of angel investors have their own preferences and requirements for novice entrepreneurs.
Houston-centered investors predominantly give money to companies that specialize ‘in the ground’ (oil and gas). The second place is devoted to projects ‘on the ground’ (real estate and infrastructure). As for services ‘in the cloud’, there still feels a lack of angel investors’ involvement. Though if your IT project develops healthcare services or the energy industry, it has better chances to be noticed. The Houston business community even discussed launching a Seed Accelerator related to these domains.
As you can catch from the previous text, the better your startup idea coincides with the field of interests and expertise of angel investors, the more real the chances to attract their participation in the project are.
Let’s delve into the issue and find out which angel investors Houston can fit your project.
Houston Angel Network (HAN)
The mission of this institution is well organized support for startups and their founders through mentorship and financial resources. For the last 21 years angel investors of HAN have spent $96M in order to help 366 businesses stand on the wing. The members of this business community take their investment decisions not collectively, but each on their own. If you count on their private equity, you should prepare for a pitching session presentation with 10 slides and be ready to answer the questions about core pros of your project.
They don’t work with startups related to real estate, filming and some other business niches.
Houston Alumni Angels
This group of angel investors in Houston is targeted at organizing educational and networking events for entrepreneurs with seed stage startups and recognized business owners.
Experienced businessmen can provide mentoring and financial support to the projects that respond to their experience and professional preferences. The scale of investment is changeable and varies from $50K to $2M.
Angel Investment Network
If you dream to get mentoring and financial support for tech startups, you can try to catch your lucky chance at AIN. Try to find someone to introduce you to Andrew Clark, David Steakley and Brad Wilson who are ready to devote their time to dive into contemporary solutions and write checks.
This network unites 200+ angel investors from different parts of the globe. Over $400 million has been raised for its members to date.
Tie Houston
Tie Houston is like a business incubator for future startup founders where they can expect business guidance and financial support. Thanks to the efforts of angel investors, 10000 startups were brought to life. The business community is interested in miscellaneous types of businesses and offers investment from $25,000 to $5 Million.
Texas Investment Network
The main advantage of this angel investors network is an opportunity to join for free. This concerns startup founders as well as business gurus. The investment they can offer to promising projects starts from $50,000.
This list of Houston angel investors isn’t exhaustive. There are a lot of private equity owners who can play a significant role in the success story of your business. Research their expectations via LinkedIn and if it matches your project idea, try to arrange a personal presentation. Be persistent, but not obsessive. And if all ingredients for the event coincide – your passion about business, innovative project ideas wrapped in a perfect presentation and the expectations of angel investors, you can hope to be a lucky intellectual and financial support addressee.
