Ep. 190 – Seed Funding: Angel Investment Criteria, Part 7

SIBP-Blog-NEW-4If there’s one thing an angel investor wants to know before they even consider trading their money for a piece of your business, it’s how you plan to turn that investment into value. This means having a solid plan in place for making the best use of any funds you raise, and knowing the difference between productive uses of funding and needlessly burning through cash. They want to see the maximum return on their investment, and that means you need to have a great plan for turning a small pile of money into a big one.

In this episode, host and business coach Tom Ryan continues his discussion of the basics of seed round funding. As always, Tom is joined by co-host and producer Jason Pyles.

• Show opening, and the problems of doing math on a podcast

• Recap on the seed funding series thus far (1:30)

Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson (3:00)

• Recap on qualities investors look for using Asheville Angels criteria (4:00)

• Use of funds, financials and business plans (5:00)

• The importance of storytelling in the valuation process (7:00)

• Investors want you know how you will turn their money into more money (8:00)

• Good uses of funding:

  • Developing new IP
  • Creating new products and services
  • Filling strategic gaps in team
  • Growing sales and traction
  • Marketing and outreach

• Bad uses of funding:

  • Ideation or concept development
  • Overhead
  • Anything non-essential for building value

• Next episode: Liquidity events and exits

• Sign off, and how to contact the show

• Bonus: Venture Deals and Tom’s pink shirt memories


Tweet Tom at: @TomRyanAVL

Do you have a question about your business? Tom would love to help you:

Leave a voicemail: (801) 228-0663

E-mail your questions: SuccessInBusinessPodcast@gmail.com

Like this podcast on Facebook

Follow this podcast on Twitter: @TomRyanSIBP

Get every episode free: Subscribe in iTunes