5 Tips in Finding Angel Investors in London
“5 Tips in Finding Angel Investors in London” by Ofer Tirosh, CEO of Tomedes.
As a business owner of a startup myself, I understand how hard it is to find investors when you’re just entering your niché market. There are several types of investors, but today, let’s focus on angel investors and what you can do to promote your business pitch and ideas to a multilingual audience. To start, let’s first define angel investors.
Angel investors are individuals who financially back small business startups. Sometimes they do this as a one-time investment, and usually, they gain ownership equity of your company in exchange for their investment.
London is considered one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. The UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) reported that about 57% of the angel investors in the UK are from London and the South East. If you want to know what you can do to create a multicultural business and plan for London’s angel investors, read on!
1. Research on Your Prospective Angel Investors
It might seem like a no-brainer, but many entrepreneurs fail to entice angel investors because they haven’t conducted adequate research. Part of the research process also includes self-evaluation if partnering up with angel investors is really for you.
Forbes wrote a guide on how to look for angel investors. It had questions for self-assessment like, are you willing to hand over some ownership and control of your company to angel investors? Are you ready to accept advice or decisions from angel investors? Having a good grasp of the objectives and goals of your business is vital as you need to pitch your ideas to several people.
Now, suppose you’re sure about finding angel investors for your business. You then have to research your competitors, create your business pitch, what qualities you are looking for in an angel investor, etc.
It might take some time, but it’s better to be over-prepared than underprepared when starting a business and pitch your ideas to potential investors. Startups of London wrote a blog post that listed seven mistakes that new entrepreneurs should avoid for 2021—for example, not taking finance seriously, not creating a market strategy, doing everything on your own, and more.
2. Partner Up with Translation Services in London
If you’re planning to broaden your angel investor prospects, then partner with translation services in London because some of them specialise in marketing and promoting to investors. So, they will assist you with your research on your target demographic and broaden your investors’ prospects.
By incorporating translation services at the start of creating your plan, you’re ensuring no mistranslation and improper localisation occur, which is why it shouldn’t be an afterthought. From my experience, people prefer more personalised content and services, which localisation and translation can achieve if done correctly.
Nimdzi and CSA Research agree that even though non-native English speakers are proficient in English, they are more receptive to information and content in their mother tongue. Nimdzi stated that due to the pandemic, many relatively new language services such as remote interpretation, Automatic Speech Recognition, remote dubbing, and more have become in demand. The resiliency of the language industry amidst the pandemic shows that translation and localisation are a necessity and not just a trend.
The CSA Research reported that from a survey of over 8,000 participants, about 40% would not purchase from websites in other languages.
Dr Donald A. DePalma says, “There is a longstanding assumption that enough people feel comfortable using English online, especially when buying high tech or expensive products. While they may want the products or experiences on the English-language site, most would rather think, act, and buy in their native language.”
3. Create a Multilingual Business Pitch
Because of the pandemic, digital pitching has become part of the norm.
Startups in London presented an example of a digital pitching platform wherein you can pitch your startup business. It matches you with an angel investor who is in line with your pitch. You can take advantage of this platform by creating a multilingual business pitch that will make your business understandable, especially to Limited English Proficient (LEPs).
Here is where your partnership with translation services in London comes into play because they can make your pitch more accessible to different languages and other services like interpretation.
American Express advises that you should make your pitch concise. And so, your research on your prospects and the niché will come in handy. From what I’ve learned firsthand, there’s something visceral about reading or hearing your native language.
Your pitch should effortlessly incorporate this while establishing a need in the niché that your startup will resolve. You can create a message map and provide information on the competitors in your industry. Not only that, making your presentation available in different languages shows your dedication and mastery over your niché.
4. Build an LEP-friendly Promotional Strategy
After you’ve created your multilingual pitch, start creating a promotional strategy for your broader audience. It isn’t enough that you have a pitch and then randomly send it out. You have to be tactical in how you approach potential angel investors.
As mentioned, due to the pandemic, social distancing had made it physically impossible to pitch, which saw the rise of online pitching platforms. However, that doesn’t mean you should be satisfied with it. From my experience, you have to be proactive. Build an online promotional strategy like actively networking via email, promoting through social media platforms, optimising your websites, etc.
Now, you might be wondering, why does it have to be LEP-friendly? It is because you will know that you’ve correctly translated or localised your content and that even the LEP has understood your company’s vision and goals and its products and services.
5. Network Your Startup to Like-minded Investors
Finally, this is a crucial part to consider when looking for angel investors. Since you will relinquish some of your company’s autonomy with your angel investors, you have to find like-minded individuals you can work with and get important advice. Sometimes out of hundreds of phone calls, you only get six or seven interested angel investors who liked your business ideas and your goals.
All entrepreneurs have gone through it. I’ve also experienced it. It’s better to find a few investors with the same goals and objectives than several who don’t.
If you still haven’t found investors, keep on networking. Approach potential angel investors by going over the list of UKBAA members. Currently, the UKBAA has 650 members and a total investment of £2.3 billion.
Here is where your tactics and strategy come into play. Because you’ve created a multilingual pitch and promotional strategy, it has expanded your target audience. They’ll see that you’re the kind of entrepreneur who goes above and beyond in promoting your company’s vision and goals in different languages, which is more personalised.
And so, keep on promoting your ideas, and don’t be discouraged. Eventually, you’ll be able to find angel investors who will help with your dream startup business.
Conclusion
As I mentioned, your angel investors could be business owners themselves, so they understand where you’re coming from. However, most of the time, they won’t invest in your company due to either finding it too risky or they know for a fact that they’re not in line with your niché, which is why they’ll have to decline your pitch.
Be open-minded and ask advice from your prospects on what you can do to improve your pitch. Talk with the translation services in London that you’ve partnered with and discuss the feedback. My final advice: don’t give up and keep on learning.
About the Author
Ofer Tirosh is the CEO of Tomedes, a translation company that offers translation services in London in over 120+ languages and 950+ language pairs. Currently, Tomedes provides fast delivery in translation and language services across the globe and has partnered up with more than 95,000+ businesses and private clients in business and marketing projects. As a tech-driven company, we incorporate state-of-the-art translation machines, linguists, and experts in their industry, such as business, marketing, finance, website building, and more. Through Tomedes, Tirosh has helped several startup owners create a multilingual pitch and promotional strategy for potential investors and clients. He firmly believes that if any company wants to maximise their potential, they eventually have to go global. However, you can only enter the international market by first going local through researching your target locale. He has written several articles for studyclerk.com in business, finance, marketing, and the language industry.
