Investors on Linkedin - How to connect

4 min read

When you’re looking for an investor, you need to go where they hang out: Pitch events, angel network meetups, startup accelerators demo days, and…. Linkedin.

Linkedin is simply the best place to quickly connect with pre-seed investors. But it’s a busy place.

Good quality investors are constantly being hassled and sold to. So you need to have a plan before you start connecting with investors..

When somebody asks to connect with you on Linkedin. It looks like this :

Profile picture
Name
Common connections
Message
The person's headline

You have a few seconds to decide whether you will accept or not the request.

And you know that if you accept the wrong contact… you will immediately get spammed!

Step 1 - Whatever you do, do not sell anything in your headline!

Let’s take the 3 above examples:

Health insurance plans for businesses
VA success manager for XYZ
Driving your profits | Growing your revenue

I’m sorry, I have absolutely nothing against these 3 people. But I will not accept their request because I know they will instantly be trying to sell me something.

Other no-no’s are:

Sales & Marketing executive
Consultant in XYZ
Digital marketing specialist
XYZ Engineer

We are not looking for a job here, we are trying to find your next investor.

Step 2 - Add your business name in your headline

Investors may not connect back immediately, however in order to ignore your request, they will see your headline.

This is the perfect opportunity for some 1st touch marketing.

Put the name of your business in your headline

You are the: XYZ at/of [Name of business]

It may surprise you, but investors are not all waiting patiently for you to contact them. They have their own agendas and sectors they are currently working on.

It may take a few touch points for an investor to want to speak to you. This is a great time to get started.

Step 3 - Create your business page

Having your website is great, but it will force a potential investor to leave their favorite app to learn more about you.

Spend a few hours and create a business page that represents what you do. Think about this like a duplicate website. Similar content but in a different template.

Step 4 - Update your personal profile attaching yourself to your business page

Some people don’t connect themselves to their business page until something interesting happens.

This is a mistake.

Why would an investor pour money into our business if you don’t even believe in it enough to attach your name to it on Linkedin?

Step 5 - Slowly start connecting with relevant individuals

There are limits to the number of connections you can make everyday, so go slowly and connect with people who could be interested in what you’re building.

We’ve created a with 6,481 linkedin connections here to help you get started.

Connect, but do not send any messages yet.

Bonus Tip: don’t just connect with investors. Connect with other founders in your sector and local business people. This will all help strengthen your network.

Step 6 - Consistency is key (as usual)

Not everybody will want to connect back. Do not be disheartened. It takes time, but if you do this everyday, you will progressively grow your network with a constant flow of new connections.

Step 7 - Write your first Linkedin post

Once you’ve in the flow of things (I would give it 7-10 days). It’s time to write that first post.

I know, it can be quite daunting...

But you’ll soon find out that building relationships with investors has a lot to do with consistent communication.

It’s just like making new friends. The more you interact with an acquaintance, the more they will remember and trust you, and the higher the chances are that you will become good friends.

The first step of this communication dance is introducing yourself.

So this will be your first post.

“I am ABC and I am building XYZ.”

Simply explain what you are trying to build, add the relevant tags and a good picture and you’re done.

The key here is to do a regular update post every few weeks.

Your current connections will be happy to see your progress. And your curious new connections will be able to verify that you are committed to this project.

You’ll be doing this on Linkedin for now, but you’ll quickly develop a whole communication plan for all your investor relations (more about that later…).

List of pre-seed

& seed VC firms

2024 Startupmag.co.uk © Kohdao Ltd. Unit 8B Raleigh Gardens, Brixton, London, SW2 1AD, UK.
Registration 06261702. Data Protection No: ZA891746.