Angel Investor Funding: Sometimes a Bad Idea?

Angel investor funding (venture capital, or private for that matter) for your business is a bad idea sometimes. Yes you read that correctly. For all you discouraged entrepreneurs that have been making presentation after presentation barely making ends meet, take heart. You have options. And not only do you have options, some of them are better for your business.

There are several reasons that taking on an angel investor can be bad for business. First, without angel investor funding you are forced to think of new ways to get ideas implemented on as little a budget as possible, and sometimes even smaller than that. So the lack of angel investor funding drives innovation or forces an entrepreneur to quit. The great part of this money shortage is that you have the privilege right away of seeing whether your business will get a competitive edge through your skill in organizing and innovating. Many if not most successful startups relied heavily on scraping by on a shoestring budget and thinking of new ways to achieve their goals cheaper until the funding started coming. Sometimes you might even come up with alternates or extensions of your initial core idea that are better anyway.

Another reason taking angel investor funding can harm a company is the amount of influence and returns some investors require. Unscrupulous investors may offer desperately-needed angel investor funding in exchange for the majority of future profits through heavily disguised terms. If you are a novice angel investor fundraiser, be sure to seek the advice of your attorney and possibly an experienced entrepreneur. But even the honest investors (and really, all the best ones) will want a significant voice in the direction of your company, because they want to ensure their “angel investor funding” is not thrown to the wind. If they are not particularly knowledgeable about business in general or your particular industry but they have the controlling vote, your business could be in danger. They will be able to force the company in a direction that you (despite being the entrepreneur who came up with the idea, began its implementation, and sacrificed so much for) are completely opposed to. Not only that, but most entrepreneurs taking venture capital end up with less than 10% ownership after all financing rounds are over, so negotiate wisely with that in mind.

You may think 10% of $10 million after five years wouldn’t be so bad. But consider how much you personally invested in both time and money and the reality that the vast majority of businesses fail within five years, and very few of the successful businesses are valued at $10 million in that time. With all of this in perspective, taking on an investor can seem like a different story.

You should also consider the debt to equity balance in your personal finances as well as those of the business, if they are intricately linked. The rule of thumb is that if you have lots of debt financing already, give away equity in your company. But if you already have done some equity financing, it might be a better idea to search for a loan. Most entrepreneurs will be able to get a small unsecured loan, help from family and friends, or use credit cards to get that first $25-50,000 out of the way. If you have good credit, you may be able to get a loan for up to $1 million.

To summarize, angel investors are good if they provide valuable contacts and experience along with their angel investor funding to your business. But realize that many businesses have started and operated initially without them by using loans, family, or credit, so pursue new ideas and financing options while relentlessly working on improving your business. You can be successful without it!