A couple of weeks ago we shared 8 practical and eye-opening tips for finding UK angel investors. These were some of the tactics that came out of an “idea swap” workshop we recently facilitated with our community of founders.
In the workshop not only were ideas shared on how to find UK angel investors, but also how to identify key people to facilitate introductions to those investors.
Getting investors to respond to a founders’ outreach, email, or phone call is one of the hardest parts of fundraising. Investors are busy people, and tend to only respond if you entice them with what your investment opportunity offers them. But, a “warm” intro from someone they trust within their network is a great way to get noticed and strike up a conversation with them.
Our founders have been busy working their networks, reaching out to contacts who could potentially facilitate those all-important warm intros. Through their experiences, they’ve picked up some neat tactics to make sure those introductions actually happen, giving them a better shot at scoring that crucial first meeting to pitch their business and investment opportunity.
We’ve shared their insights on who to approach to facilitate warm intros, and some key tactics they’ve used to ensure the warm introduction actually happens with you below.
5 sets of people who could facilitate introductions to UK Angel Investors
- Accountants – One of our founders shared that their accountant helped to facilitate introductions to UK angel investors. Accountants are a good place to start. They are aware which of their clients invest, who’s actively investing, and they know who has a tax liability to offset. There’s no reason why other professional services such as an outsourced legal team could also facilitate introductions to UK Angel Investors as well, they may not have the insight an accountant does, but they are often as well connected.
- Business advisors – Another founder shared that one of the advisers to their business – who was an exited founder themselves – helped facilitate an introduction to an angel investment network. The benefits of establishing a board of advisors is something we have spoken about previously, and these – often well connected – individuals can help facilitate the introductions to the UK angel investors you’re looking for.
- Your network – It’s a recurring theme, but your network is so important and should be tapped into to facilitate introductions to UK angel investors. With LinkedIn it’s easy to see who is connected to the investors you’ve identified as ones you would like to approach, so instead of approaching them yourself, it’s worth asking mutual connections to facilitate the introduction for you.
- Current investors – Another founder in our community shared that they started with their current investors to facilitate introductions to other UK angel investors. They knew their current UK based angel investor was actively investing in businesses, and was well networked, so it was a natural place to start. UK angel investors often invest through angel investment networks as well, which means they often have a number of angel investors in their network that they can approach if they are asked to.
- Friends with audiences – One founder established a couple of investor connections by messaging close connections who have built large audiences themselves e.g. via an app, mailing list, or from somewhere they work like an agency. They then utilised those audiences to spread the word that they were raising funds which in turn resulted in two intros to investors. It’s a clever idea, and demonstrates the network effect of tapping into your close network
How to Increase the Likelihood of Warm Introductions to UK Angel Investors
After our founders shared their insights on who they approached to facilitate a warm intro, some of the founders shared their frustration about warm introductions not taking place. It’s not uncommon, people are busy and things slip, but our discussion led us to some tactics they use to make sure the warm introductions actually do happen.
Provide a Short Blurb
When asking for an introduction, our founders said they try to make it as easy as possible for the person facilitating the intro. They recommended doing this by providing a concise blurb about yourself, your company, and the investment opportunity that the introducer can simply copy and paste into an email or message and send to their investor contact. Reducing the time spent facilitating the intro helps to increase the likelihood of it happening.
Ask for the Introduction Soon After Meeting or Connecting
Another insight shared by our founders is that people are often most motivated to help when you have recently connected with them. So it’s good to ask for an introduction while you’re top of mind, as they are more likely to want to please and so follow through and make the requested connection.
Mention Mutual Connections
Personalising the message you send to your connection who can facilitate a warm introduction, and also the message that is sent to the investor will increase the chances of the warm introduction taking place, and subsequently a first meeting with an investor being set up. A good way to do this is to highlight any mutual connections you share and the common ground you have.
Craft Hyper-Personalised Messaging
When putting together the blurb about you, and your company, and the investment opportunity, really personalising the message to the person it’s being sent to will increase the chances of it being sent, and also it being responded to. Our founders suggested doing thorough research on the recipient, and why they are the ideal angel investor for this specific investment opportunity. The general consensus was to avoid sending generic messages, and spend more time tailoring your outreach to each individual investor, to increase the likelihood of the warm introduction happening.
We hope these insights have provided some inspiration and motivation on where to look to find people that can introduce you to UK angel investors.
If you want to understand more about different types of investors, and how to build a hit list of investors to approach, read our step-by-step guide to finding startup investors.
