Do you need to find a national angel investor organization?

Usually individual angel investors fund companies in their locale.  They do this because they know that many times entrepreneurs need their advice and contacts as much as their money.  Distance just makes life more difficult.

That said, there are numerous national angel investor groups that have local chapters and members from cities around the nation.  Typically a group will consist of between 10 and 150 angels that meet to pool knowledge and resources in order to make wise investment decisions.  Most national angel investor groups fund early stage startup companies in virtually any industry.

Where else can I find a national angel investor?

Perhaps the most common way of finding an angel is through your personal network.  Simply start asking everyone you know who might be a potential investor if they would be interested.  If they are not interested, they may know others who would be.  You could also contact venture capital firms, local chambers of commerce, and local professionals to get referrals.

Finding national angel investor groups

Most national angel investor associations have an online presence.  A simple search will yield many of the largest such groups.  In addition, www.goBIGnetwork.com allows entrepreneurs to find investors from around the United States based on region, preferred industry, investment size, funding round, and investor type.  The Go BIG Network connects entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, job seekers, service providers, and any others in the startup community.

Using the Go BIG Network

You can begin by becoming a member and creating a profile.  It is free and easy to set up.  Investors browsing profiles can find yours and contact you if your business catches their attention.  This is the least you should do to get started.

A more proactive option to finding an angel is to purchase a subscription.  With a subscription you can view the contact information for all Go BIG members.  Using the Go BIG search function, you can find investors specifically targeted to your business based on industry, location, investment amount, etc.  When you find an investor that seems to be a good fit, you can contact them about your opportunity.

Alternatively, you can buy a “Request.”  Your “Request” is a brief advertisement similar to a classified ad that gets sent out to targeted investors.  This allows you to avoid the hassle of finding all the targeted investors in the first place and allows them to come to you instead.

Motivation for joining a national angel investor group

Most members of a national angel investor group have plenty of opportunities for investment before joining an organization.  However, significant time and resources are required to do the necessary due diligence on a large number of companies, and groups allow them to research more companies in less time.  The additional support and experience of other members also attracts angels to join a national angel investor group.

Membership requirements for national angel investor groups

Almost all national angel groups require investors to be accredited investors according to the SEC definition.  To be an accredited investor, you must have net wealth that exceeds $1 million or income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years with the expectation of similar income in the current year (or joint income of $300,000 in the last two years).  In addition, many national investor groups demand minimum amounts of time to be dedicated to the group by each member to go along with annual membership fees.

As you could guess from the wealth requirements, angel investors are many times former successful entrepreneurs or retired businesspeople.  Not only do they prefer to invest close to where they live, they also usually have preferred industries.  An angel investor is usually very knowledgeable and has wide ranging contacts in the industries they invest in, and they want to use their resources to help their investments succeed.