It was truly a light-bulb moment for me. I was having dinner with friends not too long ago here in Utah. They are both executives at startups. One friend is a VP of technology at one startup and the other is a Chief Technology Officer at another startup.
I learned in our conversation that they are both keen to make angel investments. Then it hit me: new founders put so much focus on other, successful founders when seeking angel investment that they neglect this huge and wonderful pool of potential mentors and investors: non-founder startup executives.
For example, why wouldn’t you reach out to the Chief Marketing Officer of every local startup that has raised a Series A or later? Even every VP of marketing? Why not reach out to every Chief Revenue Officer and VP of sales? CTOs and VP or engineering and technology?
These executives are a wonderful, untapped resource for mentorship, connections, and potential angel investment.
Imagine your startup is selling to other businesses or enterprises. You reach out to the CRO and VPs of sales in all Series A+ startups in your area, and you have a chat with a half dozen sales executives. They give you great advice about how to improve your sales, make some connections to customers, and one or two write you a small angel check. That’s a win, win, win!
In smaller markets in particular, your local network of non-founder startup executives can be a goldmine of mentorship, connections, and potential angel investments.
Now, go get ’em!