Venture Capital Resources

How to raise capital for a business?

I am an Internet entrepreneur. I want to find venture capital for my start-up. Is there any website that offer useful resources? For example, venture capital firms directory, database of angel investors, guidelines on preparation of business plans, etc? I prefer something FREE.

Public Comments

1. this looks as though it has everything you've requested and it looks as tho it's free
2. To raise capital for a business, you should prepare a business plan, or at least a short two-page executive summary. In your executive summary, describe 1. location of your company, 2. management team, 3. what is your business, 4. a short SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis. Many entrepreneurs find preparation of business plan lengthy. Sometimes investment bankers or advisors ask for a hefty fee for preparation of a business plan. Actually you can just prepare a two-page executive summary to replace a business plan to get yourself started quickly somewhere. Besides, venture capital firms might not have patience to read a 40-page business plan. So I recommend that you just write up an executive summary to get yourself started. Then you can find venture capital firms directory. National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and many websites offers free venture capital firms directory. Contact these vc firms and see what happens. It isn't going to be easy. You will find that perhaps out of 1000 venture capitalists that you contact, none or only one replies to your email or phone calls. However, get yourself get to understand how VC works will give you an opportunity to know more about your industry and your own competitiveness. Sometimes VCs will give you feedback on what they thought about your company. You will realize a lot of more about your industry and your own products or technology that yourself doesn't know (which you thought you already knew very well). The most effective way to raise start-up capital is to find it through your relatives and friends (you can call them your Angel Investors, they are really angels to you, aren't they?) Especially, an Internet business will not require a lot of capital upfront unless you want to dump your money into advertising. I hope you good luck!