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MenuLooking for guidance for where I can find investors for my app?
Hi I'm looking for investors in mobile apps. We are starting to see positive ARPU of about $0.20 which is good. I was wondering if anyone can help me to find investors?
Answers
As Ken suggested, there is a wide breadth of mobile offerings and although there are some great "mobile only" funds, each investor / fund has their own thesis that makes them interested in some but disinterested in others.
Also, if your revenue generating, you should seriously consider bootstrapping further. Revenue is treated very strangely in early-stage investing and *might* work against you.
AngelList is a great way to research investors but not effective in actually connecting with them.
Find investors who you are confident will be passionate about what you're doing based on prior job experience or what you know they are investing in.
Happy to talk in a call to help explain this further if you need more clarity.
First you need to do your research and think what is your strategy to approach them. You can find a trick I wrote here:
https://medium.com/@JDcarlu/1-trick-to-get-a-vc-bd36f9dbff5b
Apart from this, you could use Mattermark intelligence tool to find investors that have funded similar companies. (Its free for 30 days) Hope this helped :)
What kind of app is it and how are you measuring ARPU? Typically ARPU is average revenue per user per month. Depending on the type of app or game you are, there is a different standard. For example, casual mobile games tend to have $1-$2 ARPU while mid-core games like Clash of Clans has $8 ARPU.
Finding investors for your mobile app involves several steps. Here are some strategies and resources to help you connect with potential investors:
### 1. Leverage Your Network
- **Friends and Family**: Start with people you know who might be interested in investing.
- **Professional Network**: Reach out to contacts in your industry. LinkedIn can be a valuable tool for this.
- **Advisory Boards**: If you have an advisory board, ask them for introductions to potential investors.
### 2. Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists
- **AngelList**: A platform where startups can connect with angel investors and venture capitalists.
- **Crunchbase**: A database of investors and investment firms. You can search for those who have invested in similar apps.
- **VC Firms**: Look for venture capital firms that specialize in mobile apps and early-stage investments. Some well-known firms include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Accel Partners.
### 3. Online Platforms
- **Fundraising Platforms**: Consider platforms like SeedInvest, Crowdcube, and Wefunder, which allow startups to raise funds from a large pool of investors.
- **Product Hunt**: Launch your app on Product Hunt to gain visibility and attract investors who follow the platform for new and innovative products.
### 4. Startup Incubators and Accelerators
- **Y Combinator**: A well-known startup accelerator that provides funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
- **Techstars**: Offers accelerator programs that provide funding, mentorship, and access to a network of investors.
### 5. Pitch Competitions and Conferences
- **Startup Competitions**: Participate in pitch competitions like TechCrunch Disrupt, Slush, and Web Summit. Winning or even participating can attract investor attention.
- **Industry Conferences**: Attend conferences related to mobile apps and technology to network with potential investors.
### 6. Prepare Your Pitch
- **Pitch Deck**: Create a compelling pitch deck that highlights your app's value proposition, market potential, financials (including your ARPU), and growth strategy.
- **Business Plan**: Have a detailed business plan ready to share with investors.
### 7. Angel Investor Networks
- **Angel Capital Association**: A collective of angel investors who might be interested in investing in your app.
- **Local Angel Groups**: Many cities have local angel investor groups that you can present to.
### Additional Tips
- **Cold Outreach**: Don’t be afraid to reach out to investors via email or LinkedIn. Make sure to personalize your message and highlight why your app is a good investment.
- **Follow-Up**: Be persistent and follow up with potential investors who show interest.
By leveraging these resources and strategies, you can increase your chances of finding the right investors for your mobile app.
Related Questions
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As a startup, is it better to find a way to pay for services (i.e. design) or trade equity for it?
Before I get to your question, let me give you a tip: always aim settle questions of payment before the work happens. It is ten times easier to agree on a price beforehand, and having done that doesn't stop you from changing it by mutual agreement later. The problem with paying cash is pretty obvious: you don't have a lot of it. The problems with paying equity are subtler. The first one is that early-stage equity is extremely hard to value. A second is that equity transactions require a lot of paperwork. Third is that entrepreneurs tend to value their equity much higher than other people would; if not, they wouldn't be starting the company. And fourth, people like designers are rarely expert in valuing businesses or the customs of of startup equity valuation. In the past, I've both given and received equity compensation, and it's a lot more of a pain than I expected. In the future, what I think I'd try is convertible debt. That is, I'd talk with the designer and agree on a fair-market wage. E.g. 100 hours x $100/hr = $10k. The next time we take investment, the $10k turns into stock at whatever price we agree with our investors, plus a discount because he was in before the investors. Note, though, that this will increase your legal costs and your deal complexity, so I'd personally only do this for a pretty significant amount of work. And I'd only do it for somebody I trusted and respected enough to have them around for the life of my business.William PietriWP
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Among platforms for startup funding, AngelList is the 800 pound gorilla. Does it make sense to use simultaneously other platforms like Gust, etc?
Short answer: Of course! Many angel groups require you to submit through Gust because it offers a consistency and makes reviewing applications easier. But not all use Gust same as not all use AngelList... I haven't met an angel who frowns upon using multiple platforms. I would encourage you to leverage your twitter and Facebook or Instagram to meet angels and get in their radar (don't hassle or stalk) just try to get exposed a bit to them by being part of the same meetup group, follow the same blog, membership... Subscribe to their own blog.. And when you submit funding request considerations do please send a follow up email or a call or basket of fruits if you have contact them before.Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb SuperhostHV
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How does one raise funds for a business subsidiary without selling ownership of the "brand" identity?
In my experience, every step you take to complicate your company's structure and ownership rights reduces the likelihood of investors providing your venture with seed funding. To attract seed funding, investors expect a single-minded laser focus on the entrepreneurs' assessment of his or her best path to validating their business and growing it into a very large business as quickly as possible. So the very idea that you are reliant or considering taking multiple paths to success is likely to act as a red flag for most experienced early-stage tech investors. Also, until there is significant traction achieved, an investor is expecting to own everything generated by the business. There are rare occasions where a particular asset, brand, domain or other component of the business can be spun-out (usually in the case where it's a distraction from the core business but there's inbound demand from a buyer), but when I say rare, I mean this happens so infrequently that it's not anything that should be reasonably expected in the course of planning. Speaking candidly, this entire strategy creates a perception (accurate or unfair) that you are undecided on a number of the key questions you need to be sure of before you have a good chance of raising seed funding. I'd be happy to talk to you about what you're doing and help provide some clarity based on what I hear. I encourage you to review my references as I have been helpful to many other Clarity members on these types of issues.Tom WilliamsTW
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Interested Angel investors want to fund my innovative idea, whats next?
Simple: The right investor is someone who wants to invest on standard terms at a good valuation relative to your current stage. Extra bonus points for someone who has relevant industry connections that could accelerate your business and is willing - at the right time - to make introductions for you. But you should have really quite low expectations of most angel investors. Certainly they should have NO operational control of the business. Although I want to be as helpful as possible to companies I invest in, it's entirely for the entrepreneur to drive me, not the other way around. There are very few exceptions to this rule, for example when angels who actually do have very recent and relevant experience want to back someone who is inexperienced and need oversight in order to feel comfortable investing early. But this is a real rarity. Finally, to answer your question about what entrepreneurs do when they receive funding, they should spend it in the best possible way to accelerate the success of the business. I'd be happy to talk to you in a call to provide more clarity on the matter and also discuss when is the right time to accept investment. If you have people willing to back you, that's great. You want to make sure you have a clear plan and set expectations accordingly.Tom WilliamsTW
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How do you get exposure on AngelList to attract angel investors?
What of the following things does your startup have? > Founders who have graduated from prestigious universities / previously exited companies to known acquirers / worked for a known companies (with known being a brand-name company such as Google, Amazon, Facebook etc) > Three or more months of statistically meaningful growth (e.g. for easy sake, double digit growth of a number in the thousands) > At least one investor who is active on AngelList (defined in the ideal state by at least one investment in a company who raised their round through AngelList and ideally whose social graph is connected to "high signal" members of the AngelList network) If you have none of these things, then at least, have advisors and referrers who have a strong AngelList profile. And another option is to seek out the AngelList scouts and pitch them directly. They are more open to this than anyone else and I've seen companies with very little traction and very little social proof get featured because a scout believes in the founder and/or the story. Without any or most of the above, it will be difficult to stand out or build relationships via AngelList, in my opinion. I assume now AngelList operates on a concept similar to the LinkedIn "degrees of connection" model, whereby an entrepreneur can now send unsolicited messages to investors so long as there is a degree of connection between the investor and the company. I get a few unsolicited emails a week from companies whose advisers or investors aren't people I follow but that because of the way they determine "connection strength", these unsolicited emails still gain my attention. I assume this is the case for all investors. So the more that you can build your list of advisers and referrers, the more connections you can solicit. That said, AngelList's inbound email system is almost entirely ineffective for "cold" emails to really high-profile investors. Happy to share with you what I think to be your best options for raising profile for your company.Tom WilliamsTW
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