A Cash Connection for Entrepreneurs and Investors

When an entrepreneur finds the right investor (or vice versa), it's the business equivalent of a happy marriage. But in business, as in love, meeting someone special isn’t easy. Fortunately I found a nifty Web tool -- a kind of business matchmaking site – that's designed to help small business entrepreneurs and investors make that all-important cash connection.

The site is called Angelsoft.net, and no it's not about toilet paper. This seems to be a fairly robust collaboration platform designed for both entrepreneurs and investors. The site has two sides; if you're an entrepreneur, this is a good way for you to find either angel investors or venture capitalists who might be interested in investing in your idea.

If you're an investor, I think this will be an excellent source of new entrepreneurs who have that great idea that's going to make you billions. So let's take a look at each side of this house.

Matchmaking for Small Business Entrepreneurs & Investors

Let's say I'm an entrepreneur looking for an investor. I click on the Find Investors button on the upper-right side of the page. Using this website, I can narrow down the type of investors I'm looking for. Right now there are a potential 1,268 venture capitalists or angel investors who are willing to give me money.

Angelsoft.net is designed to connect small business entrepreneurs with angel investors or venture capitalists.

But I can narrow down the field by selecting from a series of drop-down menus. I'll choose only those people who are within 50 miles from me, and I'm looking for, oh $500,000 -- I'm not greedy. And let's say for this example that I'm in the telecommunications industry. So those choices brings us down to about 15 investors.

Next the site asks me to list the last milestone in my business. Do I have a full product ready to take to market? Maybe it's just a prototype or a product in development. Or my concept is only a concept at this point. Well, now it's down to only two people who are willing to give me money. I think that gives you an idea of how you can find a particular investor.

Now let's take a look at the other side of the coin; if I'm an investor, how do I find an entrepreneur? Fromm the home page, I click on Take the Tour as an investor, and it explains the Angelsoft premise. It's actually software that I license, and frankly, it's not all that cheap. It's about $1,000 a year per user -- that's for each investment group.

If I were interested I would give them my credit card and sign up for the number of users. If I had two users, that's $2,000 per year for the software. Still, I think it's a good way to find entrepreneurs who are qualified -- someone who you know something about. Angelsoft lets me capture the deal via the Web, and I can track the deal even after I have found an entrepreneur -- it's a way to work what they call the deal stage workflow. I can collaborate with my new entrepreneur, and there's also reporting built into this software.

Angelsoft.net is a powerful online tool that helps entrepreneurs and investors connect and exchange ideas and money.

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical small business marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses "get more done and have more fun."

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