First time entrepreneurs mostly rely on friends, family and savings to take their business to the next level. To increase your chances if raising seed money, its important to have a proof of concept and a business plan(not necessarily a 30 or 40 page document). If you intend to raise seed money for your idea or new startup, these ideas and tips will be helpful.
- If possible, start with your own savings and borrow from friends and family first — bootstrapping.
- Find someone to personally vouch for you and get you the first meeting
- In principle you can reach business angels through ‘business angels clubs’ or ‘business angels networks’.
- You can join your local chamber of commerce, which provides local networking opportunities with other small business people.
- Participating in an incubator program, where they provide office space, business guidance, mentoring and possibly some cash
- Look within your own network, friends and family, They proabaly already trust you and you can trust them with your ideas.
- There are several organizations whose sole goal is to manage donations for entrepreneurs. Find them and source for some of the donations.
- You might want to seek out Angel Investors in your area. You can pitch your business directly to these well funded individuals
- Bring in early employees to continue development for free (in exchange for equity) and thus avoid the need for any cash.
- Look for some teams offshore who would like to build products for startup with some equity stake.
The best advice when contacting angel investors in your area, this way you can set up a meeting with them and make the pitch in person. Much better chance of getting funding this way.