Finding Angels and VCs

I think LinkedIn.com is one of
the best ways to find angel investors in your area. With 3.5 million
members, including many investors, this is a great service and a great
way to get introduced through a mutual trusted acquaintance.

But in addition to LinkedIn.com, I have found value in owning a copy of
the 1998 Pratt\’s Guide to Venture Capital Sources, a 600+ page hard
bound book that probably cost about $50. Of course, this edition is
almost useless since it is so out of date. There are probably more
current editions. Vfinance.com sells a current database of venture
firms on CD ROM for $299.

It\’s much harder to find a directory of angel investors, and since they
are many times more likely than VCs to fund your startup company, it
can be frustrating if you are an entrepreneur looking for potential
angel funding.

Our solution? Let\’s all work together to create a free open-access
directory of angel investors (both organized groups and individuals)
and venture capital firms around the world.

We are launching a directory of venture capital firms called VCWiki.com and a directory of angel investors called AngelWiki.com.

FundingUniverse.com will
appoint a part-time editor to manage the volunteers who want to
participate in building these community resources. We will use Wiki
technology so that anyone can easily add their own information to these
directories.

Sites like this have limited value at first. But over time, as people
contribute what they know, they can become invaluable sources of
information for entrepreneurs. We hope they will become useful to you.