Now that you have written your business plan, have your preliminary financial data in place, you need money to make it happen.

How do you find that money? If you have saved up some, you can use that, or you can go to friends and family and get some money from them, if they support your concept and think you can do it. (F/F/P phase)

There are two other sources to go to as well, Angels or Venture Capitalist.

An Angel is a person or group that typically gives a startup up idea from $25K to as much as $1M (that much is typically an Angel Group) to begin developing the Proof of Concept or the product itself. You should go to an Angel Funding Source if you need less than $1M, and typically less than $500K, to get your product built, or if your plan requires a Proof of Concept, the Proof of Concept built.

If you go to an Angel or Angel Group you need to look at some factors before starting to talk to them. Do some research and find out:

1. What the person/group you are interested in asking money from typically invests their money in.
2. If they accept Venture Capital as a future source of funding.
3. If they are willing to add more cash down the line to help reach that "next" milestone.
4. If they have contacts with people that may be interested in providing more money should the need arise.
5. If they have contacts that may want to use your product/services.
6. How much control/hands on activity they want to have with your company. (Do they want to sit on your Board of Directors or Board of Advisors, do they have any say on how the money is spent within the company?)
7. And if you are going for a lot more money in the near future, if they work with or know any Venture Capitalist that like your industry/product type.

It is the recommendation of TDBell Enterprises, Inc., that you work with your Angel Investors as an Equity Play, meaning they get a small portion of your company for the money they invest. We do not recommend that you use the money as a loan.

A Venture Capitalist is typically a person or company that has gone to from one to many people, companies, retirement funds or other large pools of money and created a Venture Fund that is geared to one or more industries/products/services. These funds typically finance a company from $500K to over $200M, taking stock in the company as "collateral".

Like going to the Angel Investors, you need to look at a few things when you go to a Venture Capitalist:

1. Has the person/group invested in companies in your industry?
2. At what stage of the company (Proof of Concept, Development, Revenue in place (and if so, at level of revenue is required), etc.)
3. Are they going to be Sole Investors at this stage, or are they going to have other groups joining in this round with them.
4. How involved are they going to get with your company? (Do they want to manage the company, etc?)
5. Do their portfolio companies need your product and will they introduce you to them if they do?
6. How much of the company stock do they want?
7. Will they add more funds to the company should it be needed? (And if so, at what cost to you?)
8. How much reporting do you have to do to them?

After you have looked at the available Angels that you can find, the available Venture Capitalist you can find, you need to decide which path is the best way to go for your company and your "style".

If you are confident that you will need Venture Capital level funding, after you narrow your search down to the Venture Capitalist you are going to target, and have answered the above 8 (and a few more I