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“Invigorating, exciting and emotional”

Feedback is so important. We take all comments and suggestions on board, but we have to admit when we get feedback like this we want to shout it from the rooftops!

We asked the businesses who pitched with us this week how they found the event and were thrilled with their comments:

“The event was great, strong group of Angels with plenty of time to chat to them before and after”

“The day itself was very supportive, friendly, professional and full of customer service”

We are ending the week with a great big smile on our faces.

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enought to be invited to record our next podcast on Angel Investing as part of Nick Bramley’s Impact Sessions.

If you’re a business looking at Angel Investment as a route of funding your SME, then we’re hoping you will give this podcast a listen and hopefully you find is useful.

If you have any questions following this podcast please just get in touch, we love talking all things Funding related!

Click HERE to watch the Podcast on YouTube.

Angel Investment is often referred to as “smart money” as it’s not just cash an Angel can provide, but also their wealth of expertise. Businesses often come to us with a desired Investor in mind, with a list of skills/knowledge they would like them to have. So a fundamental decision you need to ask yourself is do you need “smart money”, or just money, which lends itself to the Crowdfunding model.

We always encourage our SME customers to spend time with any interested Angels to get to know them a little bit more. Because at the end of the day, it’s both parties that have to be happy working together to create a successful growth team.

Like most businesses we are busy making plans for the New Year…and the middle of the year…and the end of the year etc etc – because in order to plan the beginning you need to plan the end.

Before you set off on your business journey you should have an end in mind. Is your “end” getting your company to a stage where you can sell and move on to your next business venture (or to the Bahamas)? Or is your “end” a goal for where you want your business to be in 5-10 years time?

Whatever your end is, the sooner you plan for it the better. Even if your business is no more than an idea right now, make your plans.

In a few weeks time we are running our BIGGEST event to date…..

To mark our final event of 2019 we will be having more businesses pitch to even more Angels as we end the year in style – oh and more drinks to bring in the festive season!

We will be capturing some of the event and are really looking forward to sharing it with our angelgroups community in the weeks that follow… watch this space.

It’s been an incredibly busy couple of days with pitching sessions in both Lincoln and York. We’re full steam ahead pulling syndicates together before the end of the year, so that businesses can kick start their 2020 growth plans!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Leeds!

Yesterday was our Leeds pitching session and what an event it was. We had 4 fantastic and innovative businesses pitch, all of which Angels marked an interest in – so we’ll be setting up follow on meetings for these this week.

Exciting times ahead for these businesses, we can’t wait to see where their funding journey takes them.

Well done to the businesses who pitched with us yesterday over at our Hull Angel Group – it was another fantastic session. Thank you as always to our Hull partners Andrew Jackson Solicitors LLP and Smailes Goldie Group for supporting and hosting the sessions. We’re looking forward to the next event!

What does 2020 look like for your business?

Have you considered what securing Investment would do for your growth plans? Maybe you’re looking for more than Investment, perhaps you need someone to introduce you to the right contacts and help you avoid the common pitfalls. On average, if a business receives Investor interest we find it takes 3 months from pitching to securing the funding. So, if you’re thinking of scaling your business in the New Year you need to consider this timing and plan accordingly.

On that note, we are planning our biggest pitching session to date this December! We are inviting our Angel members from across all of our groups to come together for our Christmas pitch event – and we’re looking for businesses with high growth potential to pitch.

If you’re looking to start your funding journey, just get in touch. We would love to hear from you and chat through your funding options. Alternatively, if you know someone who might be, please point them in our direction.

Make 2020 the year you achieve your business goals

A business came to us a couple of months ago who ran a luxury holiday villa rental company, seeking £1.2 million investment to scale and grow this already successful business. After pitching at just 2 of our events, one of our Angels then went on to invest as part of the overall raise – a significant amount. This deal was completed last week in full. This business is now in the position to achieve their growth potential and we can’t wait to follow their progress and achievements. Well done!

A quote from the business on their experience with angelgroups: “I particularly enjoyed the positive and friendly approach – both from the Angels and the participants – this was a breath of fresh air and a welcomed differentiator for angelgroups”

The most obvious answer being “to secure the funding they are looking for”, but our feedback might surprise you, it did us. For a lot of our SME clients they perceive the most value is from the feedback given by the Angels.

When a business pitches at one of our events, we ask the Angels to score the business in various areas, mark an interest – so they are included in all syndicate discussions and provide comments/feedback.

We pass on all comments to the business – good, bad and indifferent. We are of the firm opinion that all feedback is useful. It helps businesses to shape future pitches and focus on delivering key messages.

There is nothing worse (or so we’ve heard) than a business pitching to a room of Angel Investors, to then leave but receive little to no feedback on how their proposition was received by the Investors.

We believe that if someone decides not to invest then the business should know why. If it’s that the business was not in their sector of expertise, or they just weren’t excited by it, then altering their pitch is unlikely to change the outcome. However, what if the Investors were confused by what your product did, they didn’t see the opportunity or were distracted by the delivery? Would taking these comments on board give the business a better chance of securing funding the next time they pitched?

We find that refining a pitch following the good, bad and indifferent feedback to be really effective in gaining interest at the next pitching session. That is why we contract with our SME clients for a minimum of 2 pitching sessions, giving them a much better chance at securing funding.

If you’re looking for funding, we still have lots of pitching sessions before the end of the year – just get in touch.