Rob Coneybeer, Managing Director at Shasta Ventures explains how investors find startups to invest in as they are also actively looking for promising disruptive startups to put their bet on.
Rob started his career as an aerospace engineer and auto engine tester, then became an investor in early stage technology companies. In the depths of a tech downturn, Rob took a risk to launch a new venture firm, Shasta Ventures. Over the years, Rob has supported more than 100 founders in their quests to build lasting businesses that deliver breakout products and services.
Transcript:
How do investors find startups to invest in?
We find startups in a couple of different ways. One way that we find startup is that a lot of deals are referred to us, a lot of opportunities are referred to us. Typically those are entrepreneurs we've worked with in the past, there are attorneys that work with companies, there are different types of advisors, board members that are involved with the companies. So there are many many different ways. You could be friends with founders etc., and typically investors have been in an industry for a while, so they just get to know a lot of people.
If a founder is looking for an introduction to a specific investor and they want to find a way in. What they can do is to use a tool like LinkedIn or they can ask their friends, find out who knows who and then ask for a warm introduction to the specific investor. So that's one way that we find opportunities. The other way that we find opportunities is, we might be looking at an area or a space and we hear about companies, and when we hear about companies typically will reach out to one of the top executives at the company, we’ll work to get an introduction the same way through Linkedin or something else to get a warm introduction and we'll reach out and get to know the entrepreneurs. So those are the two typical ways that we get introduced to companies.
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