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EMEA Entrepreneurs

Don't look for Angel investment

Many people think that building a startup goes something like this:

  1. Have a great, unique idea that no one has thought of before, or come up with a unique variation on an existing idea.
  2. Build a pitch deck to describe your idea.
  3. Go find an angel investor to give you money
  4. Profit
  5. Build the idea.
  6. Profit more.
  7. Maybe give some money back to the angel investor

Others think that this is wrong and that you need to build an MVP for step 2 instead of a pitch deck, but otherwise it is more or less the same.

This isn’t impossible, but it is very unlikely. Most “angel investors” are rich friends and relatives. Most wannabe entrepreneurs I know do not have rich friends or relatives. See the problem?

Generally VCs invest in

  • Founders that they know or are related to, or that their network has introduced to them.
  • Founders that other VCs have already invested in.
  • Founders that have gone through some application process where only the top few percent get funded (e.g. ycombinator.com)

And even with the above qualifications, funding is far more common in the US than in EMEA. As always, there are some exceptions, but if your idea relies on funding then don’t jump into building and assume that funding will work itself out in the end. Also don’t discount bootstrapping.