Most founders appreciate investors, who beyond their capital investment, can be a value-add to the company.
Indeed, investors can be key advocates of companies. They believe in your company enough to invest their hard-earned cash, and as such are financially aligned with your success. This alignment makes them go long ways to help you succeed.
Startups on Republic often attract thousands of investors, with an average of 1,100 investors since the beginning of 2019. That’s a lot of individuals with the potential to bring value! Think introductions, advising, recruiting, providing feedback and spreading the word.
But as a founder how can you “extract” such an untapped value from your investors? We’ve set out to make it easy with Social Capital — Republic’s newest product that lets you access this value easily.
How it works
You can now access enriched information about your investors on your manage campaign page (republic.co/{your_offering}/manage/investors).
This information your investors have shared specifically to help you. Use it like your investor CRM!
You can browse the full list, or search the investors by specific criteria, for example those with the expertise in marketing. Once you find whom you are looking for, you can contact them via a direct message.
For easier access, we’ve divided the dashboard into 4 sub-tabs, reflecting the types of information these investors share with you:
- their expertise,
- their network,
- their reviews,
- and their demographic profiles.
Expertise
Your distributed consulting force.
Republic investors come from diverse backgrounds. They are founders, lawyers, marketers, engineers, writers, designers, software developers, and so on.
In the Expertise tab, you will find your investors who have “shared their expertise” with you — in other words, they are open to helping you in their area of expertise.
If you need help with a particular problem, look for investors with the relevant expertise and reach out with a direct message.
Review
The power of “why”.
When people invest in your company on Republic, they have the option to leave a review explaining why they chose to invest. These reviews can provide useful insight that may be incorporated into your fundraising strategies.
Knowing why people believe in your startup helps you understand your strong and weak points in your pitch. Emphasize your strengths and address your weaknesses when you pitch to the next batch of investors.
In the same tab you will find the “source” column which explains where the investors first learned about your deal. Knowing how your deal was found helps you identify the best marketing channels for your raise.
Last but not least, reviews can be posted publicly and shared , which may spotlight your offering to new investors
Tip: make your outreach more personable by leveraging the comments shared by the particular investor.
Here’s what it looks like for investors:
Investors can choose by tags and write a review.
Network
Leverage your investors’ social capital.
With hundreds or even thousands of investors backing your company, it’s likely that some of them have useful contacts for you.
Social Capital questionnaire asks investors to share any personal connections that may benefit your business. On this tab, you can view:
Company they work for now, and worked for in the past,
Their role or title,
Their industry,
Other companies in their close network,
Whether they know any investors.
Your investors could introduce you to a new key account or other angel investors. Many startups have raised follow-on rounds after Republic thanks to the introductions from their Republic investors.
Demographic profile
Know who your investors are.
It can be valuable to understand who your investors are. Knowing them may help you refocus your marketing strategy, or run targeted surveys. On this tab, you can view and search by investors’ location, income bracket, gender, age range, marital and employment status.
How to get the most out of it
Build trust.
To get the most value out of your investors, first build a relationship with them. The foundation of that relationship is trust that is built by communication. Respond to questions, post regular updates. Share your wins, roadblocks, and what you need help with.
Be considerate.
You may get lots of help for free, but if you receive extensive help from someone, consider offering advisory shares or even contracting or hiring them.
Be grateful.
Remember that some investors have dozens of startups in their portfolios. While they have offered to assist by filling out their profile, it’s not a guarantee they will help out. Make them feel appreciated. Be compelling in your ask, by explaining how their help may help your company grow.
Be mindful.
Remember that investors have their busy lives, jobs, families — just like you do. This is goodwill on their part — don’t expect them to respond to every message.
Respect privacy.
Republic investors share their profile with you only for the purposes of adding value to your company and their investment, and helping your company grow. Please keep this information confidential.
Please be extra careful about how you use the personal, sensitive information and don’t ever share it outside Republic. |
What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts. Email me your feedback and ideas, and help us make this tool better for you.
— Peter Green
Co-founder and Head of Product
This educational article is provided by Republic to help its users understand this area of the market, it should not be construed as investment advice as it is impersonal, disinterested and was produced by Republic for Republic’s users, without remuneration received or expected.
The discussion will appear here.