I am currently pitching to an investor who approached me to create business plans and ideas. He wants to help his (and my) home region, which is a very depressed area. Since the initial talk, conversations with his representative have been scarce and brief. I have created an agricultural business plan that I am certain he will like, based on our conversations, and I have sent it to him, but every time I request a meeting it either falls on deaf ears or I am told that we will have a meeting when his schedule is less hectic. How can I get through this and communicate with him more effectively? This is my first time dealing with angel investors. At this point, I would rather hear him refuse to invest than be put off much longer. By the way, all communication, other than the first meeting, have been with his representative.
As I have seen similar cases a lot of time, in most cases it means that he is not interested anymore, or at least, no so enthusiastic about it as you want him to be.
So instead of trying to find new ways to him. just move on. You can keep in touch with his reps once every two weeks, but check other options. If the idea is that good, you will find someone else that will be interested.
Good luck
Well, do YOU really want to go with this business opportunity? That's they key, what do YOU want to do, not this alleged angel investor. I would be weary when "investor" approaches me first and them asks me to do a lot of work. Why? I think you need to figure out what YOU want to do first, evaluate business potential of the idea at hand and not bend over backwards trying to change your communication style.
Now, back to communications with investors. They almost never say no, but silence is very common. Silence can be interpreted in several ways:
- they are simply not into your business plan
- they are way too busy to respond, which is very common
- they want to keep getting updates from you for several months before they meet you again F2F (common)
http://www.anagard.com/blog/2015/01/13/venture-capitalists-advice-to-startups-how-to-successfully-raise-funds/ You can read in my article more about this topic and focus on communication segment of the paper.
Good luck, and call if you have more questions.
