What Every Angel Investor Wants You to Know: An Insider Reveals How to Get Smart Funding for Your Billion Dollar Idea

2 Early Stage Investing and Why Angels Are Your New Best Friend

Early-stage investors come in many forms. But most entrepreneurs look to three basic types of investors when they need seed-level financing: friends and family, angel investors, and venture capitalists (VCs). A few prepared and lucky entrepreneurs have the resources to bootstrap their startups—that is, using their own money—but almost all startups need outside funding to build their core teams, develop their minimum viable product, and find their first customers.

An angel investor is an individual who, using his or her own money, provides early stage startup capital to a new business and expects a percentage of ownership equity in return with the expectation of a sale or “exit.” ...