Why Should Business Angels Develop Their Own Startup Platforms

Due to the growing popularity of crowdfunding, investing in new businesses has become easier than ever before. Still, many business angels have trouble finding worthy ideas that they want to support. Before making any kind of investment in a startup, Chris Dixon always looks for some social proof, while Ashton Kutcher feels secure about investing in promising businesses through his partnership fund. Here we’ll explain why the development of your own startup funding program is a good idea for both experienced business angels and newbies.

The key benefits of launching your own startup platform

The golden rule that most business investors strive to follow is “never invest in a startup unless you’re 100% sure it can become the next Google or Apple.” Of course, before discovering a Google-level company, you may have to sift through hundreds or even thousands of business ideas first. To make this task easier, business angels can rely on their own startup investment platforms. Here are the major advantages of having your own startup platform:

• Building a community. An annual event for tech ideas exchange and startup pitching, Web Summit has a multi-million-member audience—people who not only attend the conference but also recommend it to friends and then invite investors, partners, and colleagues to attend. As a business angel, you can achieve the same result by creating a platform for your target community.
• Sharing expertise. Finding a “one in a million” business idea is not the only goal you should pursue when launching your platform. Prove your commitment, expand your professional network, and, most importantly, raise awareness about your activities through expertise sharing. Gain the trust of your community, and then open your doors for stunning ideas.
• Learning from mistakes. You might be surprised to learn that many smart business investors love seeing startups’ mistakes. It’s always a winning strategy to focus more on startups that make mistakes and learn from them than on those that are clearly “all talk and no walk”. Encourage people to share their stories of failure at your events, give them challenges that can help you understand whether they will be able to cope with difficulties, etc. Fuckup Nights is the best example of a startup platform focused on mistakes rather than accomplishments.

How do you organise contests and pitching events for startups?

If there’s one good thing about having your own startup platform, it’s obviously the opportunity to set the rules instead of needing to comply with the rules that others have set for you. In other words, through the pitching events and contests that you organise on your startup platform, you can communicate your own vision of a successful startup and encourage the right candidates to come to you. Based on the practices of successful business angel startup platforms, we’ve compiled a list of the ingredients needed for organising highly targeted startup events:

Topic

Pioneers Festival is one of those investment-oriented events where the organisers know how important it is to focus only on relevant topics. Targeting startups that work with R&D-based technologies, Pioneers Festival taps into a very specific market segment. By narrowing your focus to several distinct areas, you get more opportunities to find the right business ideas.

Format

Again, you’ll get the business ideas that your event targets. Therefore, ensure you’ve developed crystal-clear participation instructions. From slide format to the duration of a single pitch, every small detail should be considered. Here are some basic instructions that you can use as a sample:

1. Use only 4×3 slides to support your pitch.
2. The maximum number of slides you can use is 12.
3. Use contrasting colors on your slides to ensure no important data gets washed out.
4. Videos can be provided only in .mov and .mp4 formats.
5. Ensure you send your slides no later than 48 hours before the event starts.
6. Your pitch shouldn’t last any longer than 18 minutes.

Master deck

You don’t want to have a situation where a presenter can’t find his or her presentation during the pitch because of projector errors. Be sure to use the latest version of Keynote, PowerPoint, or any other presentation system you choose. Create a title for each presentation to simplify navigation for presenters, and carry out testing before an event. Don’t spoil anyone’s big day.

Judging

To spice things up, many angel investors who organise pitch events employ public voting tools or hire professional judges to evaluate the pitches. If this is your situation as well, look for a contest management system that will help judges or public voters score pitches. Even if it’s a small event with only 10–20 participants, automated contest evaluation modules will help you avoid scoring confusion and determine winners much more quickly.

Audio-visual support

Your pitching event will be pitch perfect if you find an audio-visual system that can be perfectly aligned with your venue requirements. Ensure there’s a perfect screen view for every guest, presenters are always well-lit, and the right number of microphones are used.

Pre-event training

If you’re an owner of a startup platform, the organised pitching event is your baby. Everything seems super understandable and intuitive to you. However, whether it’s a presenter or a judge, people who arrive to the venue for the first time might not know where to find a microphone or how to use a clicker. Organise short pre-event training for participants and the panel of judges on site to avoid any confusion. If your event is too big and you won’t be able to talk to everyone personally, be sure to send emails with instructions two to three days before the start of the event.

The pros and cons of having your own startup platform

Is it better to create a platform for startups and have the ideas flowing in or to just continue your startup scouting? Well, there are always two sides to every story. Here are the key pros and cons of creating your own platform:

• Derive value through differentiation. Quite possibly, you won’t find a platform that will fully satisfy your taste for business ideas on your own. So why not create your own format?
• Recycle your stories of success. If you have a record of successful projects, you can create a startup platform based on the lessons you’ve learned.
• Build connections. Networking is a super important part of the startup events that you’ll create. Ensure it works for you.
• Additional expenses. For business angels, startup events are always about gaining financial profits. By launching your own platform, you risk spending too much on organisation without deriving any value in the end.
• Time inefficiency. Your startup investment platform will require a great deal of dedication and time. Go for it only if you’re ready to sacrifice no less than 30 hours per week.

Conclusion

Business angels help startups find outlets for their unique ideas. Launching a startup investment platform is a huge step for every business investor and signifies the new opportunities and targeted search.