How to find Angels in my area

What a great idea Steve-- to reach out to the local Angel community, test your pitch and begin to build some relationships that might be able to support and fund the launch of your business.

I reccomend that you take a look at Springboard Capital LLC. This is their discription:

Founded in 2002, Springboard Capital is an equity investment fund specializing in early-stage venture investments. Springboard normally invests between $350,000 and $800,000 in each of its companies. Because Springboard typically syndicates its investments with "angel" investors and similar angel investment organizations, Springboard focuses on investment opportunities ranging from $350,000 to $2,500,000.

As an investment fund comprised of over fifty private individuals, Springboard is flexible to consider investment opportunities in a wide range of industry sectors. We focus on those opportunities that align with the experience of our investor partners.

Be sure --even for a test run that you have your "story" down. You don't want to have yor first impression be so raw you don't get another chance at all. There are lots of friendly faces here, and on different sites on the internet that can provide great feedback on tightening up your pitch!

Good luck!

Another good place to search for angels on your area is angelsoft.net. You can search for investors in your area on the "find investors" page.

In Seattle we have Alliance of Angels (AoA). You check if AoA has any chapters in your city.

Very few angels will actually take the time to give you proper feedback. They just don't have the time. Some are nice enough to do so, but unless they invest, they can't devote too much time to really understanding your business.

There are much better other resources to give you feedback. Some are friends, customers, your own intuition after running the business for a little while.

In any case, to find an angel in your area, google for something like "early stage equity investment in [area name]" but keep in mind that 90% of them live in Bay Area, LA area, NYC and Boston. Some are in Chicago and Seattle.

Here are 200 investors from AngelList who are interested in Florida

http://angel.co/florida/followers

There are a few ways to get in front of angels.

• www.meetup.com has a range of groups that you could go along to
• this week in startups, if you could get on to this through one of the segments, you will stand a better chance of being approached.
• Attend events like breakfasts (no idea why breakfasts) put on by your local government. If they are serious they are trying to find you as well.
• We have state and federal government events like chamber of commerce, small business Victoria and a range of other events.
• Go through your lawyer or other clients. Our lawyer knows a lot of people and puts on events and races so we can meet and have cool ideas that need his advice ... plus some great wine. Some of my clients have made it and are now bored, or put on events where their contacts are in that position.
• 10 years ago I met a 4 year client/angel at my parents Christmas party.

... really, start at meetup.com or start your own ... move on from there.

Check out Springboard Capital. They are an early stage fund located in Jacksonville, FL. and specialize in pre-revenue firms.