Understanding your audience is one of the most important skills to master before pitching to investors. There are many types of investors out there, and identifying the right fit is crucial for success in funding.
To avoid any sort of liability and possible lawsuits, I suggest starting investor qualification by making sure the individual is an accredited investor. There are a number ways to qualify as an accredited investor, linked you will find the qualification guidelines.
Most entrepreneurs start their search for investors by searching for local venture capital and angel groups. These are institutional investors. An institutional investor is an accredited investor that represents or is associated with a group such as a venture fund, investment bank or an angel investment group.
Institutional money is not always the best place to start looking for funding. Here is what you should consider: Are you looking for seed funding to start your company, or capital to scale it?  If you are looking for funding to start your company you might have to take a different approach with your investors, and go after mainly what we call “friends, family and fools”.
If you have a company in or near revenue, investors are looking to invest into scalability. This is a great opportunity to go after your local angel groups, early stage VC’s or maybe even VC’s.

Check out the Angel Capital Associations list of angels, or contact me today for a more focused list.

– Stephen Silver