How to get investors for online websites?

netpox

Hello,
 
I have a new startup social network. Only 4 months old and now about 15,000 members with 200 new registering each day. Website gets about 30,000 page views per day and growing. I have many ideas on how to improve the site and add new content but money is the issue.
 
How do i go about getting some investors to look at my site and see if they would be interested in any kind of investment. I would need money for programmers and advertising expenses.

redeyeroy

Best place to look is www.fundinguniverse.com. They have a huge network of angel investors. Give them a try.

robertj

Best place to look is www.fundinguniverse.com. They have a huge network of angel investors. Give them a try.
Did you use this site (funding universe) ?  How did it work?
 

redeyeroy

I haven`t used the site. The owner is a friend and he is helping us find funding for a larger project than what is typical of the site.(this is where I heard of the site) As with all funding nothing is guaranteed  but they seem to have a good program. I can say this, I totally recommend the owners.

netpox

Best place to look is www.fundinguniverse.com. They have a huge network of angel investors. Give them a try.
You have to pay on that site! I`m not going to pay money to get investors. That doesnt make sense. 

Consultnow

Social networks are very tricky to get funded as the market is expected to enter into a consolidation stage really soon.  The best way to generate investment interest is to provide a feasible and valid method of monetizing the venture that lies outside of advertising.  These are the networks that have the best potential as it relates to funding.
 
An associate of mine that runs the blog www.developmentstyles.com has worked with several social networks lately ranging from hobby based to highly capital based.  He gives some info on fundraising on the blog you may want to reach out to him.

hardknocksmba

If you are doing 30,000 page views a day, or nearly a million a month, after only four months and the site is not based on copyright violations or the like, you are doing something right.
The question is how much money you need. Anything up to, say, $500,000, puts you in the angel investor zone. The best bet there is to find a local angel investor network. Pretty much every area in the US now has some kind of organized or semi-organized group of angel investors that will get together and hear pitches from local startups. There are more (and more sophisticated) angel investor networks in the traditional start up capitals like Boston and Silicon Valley, but no matter where you live there is probably one near you. Do a search on Google or ask around to find out what your local option is.
I am a registered investor with some of the online groups (GoBigNetwork, FundingPost) but I`ve never invested that way (as opposed to offline, where I have several times). That`s mainly because there is no screening and all the proposals that reach me seem to be pure crap, although there is the additional factor that an investor is investing first and foremost in people and it is hard to get a feel for the essential people qualities online. A lot of people have concluded that it would be really cool to connect investors and entrepreneurs online, going back to the original Garage.com iteration back in the original dotcom boom days, but no one has ever made it really work for either investors or entrepreneurs, so far as I know.
If you are adding registered 200 users a day (and, again, if the value proposition is something other than links to illegal DVD or MP3 downloads or the like) I`m not sure you want to spend money on paid advertising. You seem to have good word of mouth working; I would work on turbocharging that and save the money for bandwidth and programmers.

andyngo76

Sorry that i have to ask this again but...usually with these Angels...what is the repay back terms for these fundings like this??  Thanks in advance!!!

robertj

Andyngo76,
It`s difficult to give a single general answer because there are many variables. However, "professional" angels will be looking for a liquidity event - which may be a later stage VC round or some form of sale; either public or private. These folks look for double digit returns.
When one deals with different investors - one may have other ways to meet their objectives.

robertj

Mark,
While everything you said is important and valuable - I would like to bring special attention to the sentence: First of all, make sure you meet the criteria for venture capital investments in general.
I would like to expand that statement and add:
Be sure you and your project are Capital Ready.  Know what you will need, what will be requested and what questions will be asked. Obviously Capital Ready means something different if you are going to the bank for a small loan vs approaching the San Hill Road boys seeking 10 million - but the goal is the same.

alcopeda

It is difficult for me giving a best website for purpose of investors. Try to find yourself online search investors or local classified.

leonella769

Are there really investors available to fund website. Moreover what they will get in return. Are you planning to share profits.

biz78

I went here when trying to find investors so give that a shot, click the link, spoke to some investors but ultimately it was my lack of planning which led to not getting funding. Investors do not want to invest in operations that cant make a ton of money, so getting a hot dog stand may tend to be difficult.