Hello, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about
how to find startup investors via LinkedIn. Before we get started, make sure that you
hit that Subscribe button, and this way, you will never miss out on any of the videos that
we roll out every week. Finding startup investors is essential. For any company that is looking
to grow and to build meaningful, you’re going to need great people. It’s not about
the money; it’s about the people that can give you access to their networks, their skill
set, and expertise to take things to the next level.
In a sense, you want to have a well-researched target list of people that you’re going
to go after, and LinkedIn, without a doubt, is a great tool that you can use to get access
to the best people and get in front of them so that you can get access to that money that
you need in order to grow. In today’s video, we’re going to be breaking it down for you,
giving you the step-by-step on how to use LinkedIn and take it to the next level. So
without further ado, let’s get into it. So how do you find LinkedIn, or what is LinkedIn
all about? Ultimately, LinkedIn, as we all know, is a great professional network. Every
single professional that you can think of, most likely, they have a profile on LinkedIn.
So, ultimately, you could use LinkedIn and use different keywords to come across the
specific person that you want to go after. LinkedIn, again, is the tool where every single
person that is active right now in making investments in companies is going to have
a profile there. It’s all about knowing how to use LinkedIn, how to use keywords,
and how to use certain types of filters to get access to the person that you want to
go after. It’s very important to mention here that
you’re going to have different types of access or exposure depending on the scope
or the size of your own network. Obviously, the smaller the network, the less access to
people that you’re going to have, but you can always get the Premium account on LinkedIn,
which is going to give you greater access to the people that you want to get in front
of. The first thing that you want is to have a
great profile. On the profile, what you want is to make sure that you’re putting a bio
about yourself, that you’re putting in every single company that you’ve worked for, all
the skill sets, any diplomas, any certificates, the universities that you attended. Think
of this as your CV. Also, you want to put the bio at the top,
as I mentioned, so they don’t have to go through all of your profile because when you’re
messaging an investor, or you’re trying to get exposure to them, the first thing that
they’re going to do is go to your profile. The last thing that you want is to showcase
a profile that is not professional, that is not serious because if you’re not serious
about yourself, they’re not going to be serious about placing an investment in your
business. Another thing that you should do is definitely
build your network, so you want to have as big of a network as possible on LinkedIn because
the bigger that your network is, the more exposure you’re going to have. All your
connections are going to allow you to have exposure to their connections.
Typically, on LinkedIn, you have a good degree of exposure and visibility when we’re talking
about first-degree connections, which are the people you’re connected with, second-degree
connections, which are the connections that you have in between yourself and your own
network. Then the third-degree connections are probably the ones where you have less
visibility. And, obviously, the fourth-degree connections don’t even exist. Again, the
more contacts that you have in your own network on LinkedIn, the greater the exposure and
greater visibility that you’re going to have.
Then you want to do your research. You want to make sure that some of the credentials
that people are putting out there, too, that you can actually validate those, and you can
verify those because there are a lot of scammers and con artists out there. Whoever is putting
whatever, and you’re thinking about doing a deal with them or thinking about reaching
out, make sure that is true. You have no idea how many poachers I’ve actually encountered
in the journey of building and scaling companies, so with that being said, make sure that you’re
verifying some of those claims. Especially if they’re making big statements, that’s
something where you can do a public search on Google or whatever that is, to make sure
that whatever is being said is actually true. On LinkedIn, one thing that you can do is
become part of groups. You can go into groups of angel investors, groups of venture capital
firms, groups of private equity firms, or groups that are specifically oriented to your
own segment or your industry because there, you’re going to have a ton of investors
that you can tap into and that are going to have a specific interest in what you’re
doing. You could either comment on some of their posts.
You can put posts that are relevant to them about the industry and about your company
so that they can see that you have a great thought leadership approach on whatever you
are doing. You want to be top-of-mind with people. You don’t want to spam. You want
to add value, and that’s why you would be using some of those groups.
Then you want to create a story, and, obviously, the story is on your own profile. But, again,
the way that you’re using certain keywords on your own profile is going to allow investors
to find you when they want to find founders that are in your specific sector or your company.
Here, you’re going to be using certain targeted keywords to your own profile, to your own
expertise and skill set, and then also to whatever your company is doing. If your company
is all about – just to put an example, your company is about agriculture and agriculture
technology, you will be using those keywords left and right because the more that you use
them in a way that is not spamming, by the way, the more that the algorithm of LinkedIn
is going to push you up to the top when people are conducting searches on the search bar
of LinkedIn. Then you want to go for risk-takers. The risk-takers
are typically not the ones that are doing the 9:00 to 5:00 type of job. They’re not
the ones that are calling themselves angel investors on LinkedIn because those are going
to give you absolutely nothing. They’re going to be the ones that are going to be
a pain in the neck and a ton of due diligence for a very little amount of money that they’re
going to be giving you. Typically, the risk-takers are the ones that
are the CEOs that have built a business, that have a fund, as well, to invest in companies
like yours. So, people that are not doing the 9:00 to 5:00, but basically, people that
are working on their own terms that are great leaders and people that you could learn from
and that you also respect and admire. When you’re creating your network, and you’re
on LinkedIn, you always want to be top of mind. Obviously, what you want to be doing
is posting on your own account: articles that have to do with your company, blog posts that
you’ve created, you can use articles on LinkedIn itself that you can create to distribute
amongst your network. Again, what you’re doing is being top of
mind by having a lot of content being pushed there – not a lot of content. Maybe you
can create one post a day, one post a week; whatever that is, you are essentially getting
it in front of your network. If your network clicks a Like, or puts a comment, or shares
it on their own account, then that means that you’re now getting access to their own second
and third-degree connections, and that is giving you even more exposure. Again, being
able to post is going to give you great access to others.
Also, remember that the algorithm of LinkedIn is going to track your level of popularity,
so if you’re posting stuff and nobody cares, nobody is liking it, commenting, or sharing,
that could affect you negatively. So, whatever you’re doing, always do it not from a spamming-type
approach, but always from an approach of adding value, being top of mind, and coming across
as someone that has done their homework and has that great level of thought leadership.
Another thing that you could do is to capitalize on references. You can use the references.
People can write testimonials on your own profile. They can talk about their experience
when they worked with you at a previous company or when they were in school with you. That’s
going to be social proof for other people that are actually going into your profile.
Then other people can endorse you for certain skills. So you should absolutely use your
network to give you that type of social proof, those references, those testimonials, and
those endorsements that are going to be pushing you to the top and increasing your credibility
toward others that are going to be landing on your profile for the very first time.
Next, you want to keep updating your profile and remain active. Obviously, anything that
is new about your business, accomplishments, milestones, you want to make sure that you’re
putting it on your profile so that it’s up-to-date because every time you’re putting
an update, it’s going to be shown to your own network, and that’s going to be a plus.
Again, this goes back to being top of mind. You absolutely want to be top of mind.
Keep in mind, as well, that LinkedIn limits your connections. You can only have up to
30,000 connections. That’s the cap right now. Also, if they see that you’re sending
a lot of friend requests out to people, they can ban you from the platform. Be very careful,
be very mindful, establish meaningful connections with the people that you’re bringing to
your own network, and don’t do anything that can put you in trouble. This way, you’re
going to get access to great people. You may get your investors this way and get the money
that your company needs to actually thrive. So hit a Like on this video. Leave a comment
and let me know what you’re up to. Also, Subscribe to the channel so that you don’t
miss out on all the videos that we’re rolling out every week. And if you’re raising money,
send me an email at alejandro@pantheraadvisors.com. I would love to help you out with your fundraising
efforts. Thank you so much for watching.