If you have got an app idea on your mind, then the next thing you need is to find a way to fund it. Collecting money for your app is not a simple task as you think and this is the reason why you need an investor to take care of your app development project.
When it comes to professional developers, it is quite easy for them to thrive in the app store without being part of any big business. All they need is to find the right investors for the app idea. If the investor finds the idea to be interesting, then they will definitely invest in your project and pay for the marketing efforts too.
Additionally, your investors will even pay for your team until the time your app starts making money.
So, the question in the first place is to know how you can have people invest in your idea. This can be achieved by following a few tips and they are mentioned below:
Tips to Find an Investors for your App Idea
Evaluate the Market
Before you go ahead with looking for an investor, you need to analyze the market first.
You need to know about the competitiveness of your product. You can start this by evaluating the market demand first.
You need to get approximate figures about the market status.
You can do this by conducting surveys based on your potential customers, on their geographical location, based on the number of internet users, and the information you get from the search engines.
Understand your Niche
When it comes to investing in your app, the first and the foremost thing is to let the investors know about its need. To let this happen, you need to carry out some research at your end just as mentioned above. If your app idea looks like the one that already exists in the market, then no one will find the idea to be unique. In that case, it will be not easy to find one who can invest in it. So take your time to research the market and try to find the need to have such an app build. This need has to be described well in your elevator pitch.
Brand your App
Having strong branding will make your app look professional. When it comes to pitching the idea, it is easy to pitch one which is completely finished rather than working on a vague idea. You need to gain the confidence of the investors by letting them know that you have got everything in place by building strong app branding. You need to come up with a working domain name, have a website mock-up build and show how the app will look like in the mock-up. Coming up with an out-of-the-box app idea can only work well if the investors will feel that you are serious about it and you need to show this by putting up some efforts from your side. There is nothing wrong with hiring the right people for your content marketing campaign to build app awareness.
Know the Kind of Funding you Need
It may happen that you may not have any idea about how you should come up with the money, but when you are approaching the investors for raising fund, you need to know how to do it. You need to know that investment comes in stages and you need to be clear about the kind of money you are looking for. When you just have a vague app idea to work on, then you will be into the pre-seed stage of investment. At this stage, you will not have much revenue to start with and you cannot expect much from the investors too. So set your expectations to reality when it comes to money expectation. You need to have a clear idea that no one is going to invest in your app idea if it is in the raw stage and is yet to prove its worth.
Find the Right Investors
Once you have done your homework and done the basics, you will need to find the right investors who may be interested in investing money in your app idea. At the first stage, you can approach your friends and family members or some individual person as your investor. Once you have overcome this stage, you can start looking for people who are interested in investing in mobile apps. Such people are interested in investing during the seed stage. This is not that easy and finding such people is very tricky. When you are approaching such potential investors through your contacts, try to get an introduction for you from someone.
Develop a Strong Persuasive Pitch
You have a tiny window of time to convince your potential investors when having a meeting with them. As they are very busy people, you need to know well how to utilize that time instead of stretching it and wasting it. Opting for a strong persuasive pitch is what you need when you have very less amount of time to interact with the investors. You can always have more time to elaborate your idea once your investors find the pitch to be interesting in the first few minutes.
Ask for Advice
Instead of going ahead and contacting investors with the app idea and begging for money, you can choose to take a different route. Sending emails to the investors asking for money may seem to be a desperate move. So instead of that, you can take the opportunity to ask for advice. Instead of asking for money if you reach out to the investors in terms of getting advice, you will be able to build a strong relationship in the process. During this process, the investors will be able to get a better idea about your app concept and will be willing to put in their own money at the end of the process. During this process, the investors will be able to take a look into your business model and point out potential faults in it. When you will go-ahead to get them corrected, they will understand how much value you offer to their words.
Come Up with an App Demo
One of the best ways to impress your potential investors is by coming up with an app demo. App demo talks more about your app and for investors; they will have something more than just a vague idea. This will help them know more about what you have in store. If you are not able to put in a good amount of time in its development, then you are seriously taking a risk. If you are not well aware of this step, better hire experts who can take care of it for you. You can even have a designer design the pitch using Photoshop and come up with a flat mock-up for you. This may not be that kind of effective but will do the job.
Come Up with a Pitch Deck
Another big thing after coming up with a strong persuasive pitch is to have your pitch deck. Having a pitch deck is all about describing your startup and the app idea to the investors. When developing the pitch deck, you need to be sure that it is built around 10 slides and should not take more than 20 minutes. The slide should include your startup vision and value you put upfront through your work. You should take this opportunity to let the investors know what your target market lacks and how your app is going to fit in there and fill it. How you are planning to use the money of your investors should be explained in this pitch deck. Another important thing that you should include in the app is to show your potential investors about the potential revenue model you have planned with this app launch. Show them what you have planned for the app development process and how you plan to reach the revenue model. You can even introduce your team for better authenticity and talk about your sales and marketing strategy. Show your investors your true identity through your unique app idea.
Look for a Partner More than Money
Getting proper funding for your app project is definitely great but, you need to consider about finding someone who can add more value to your project. You need to find an investor who can help you grow stronger with time. Their expertise or knowledge in the field or connection in the industry can do wonders for your business idea. So rather than just looking for someone to invest money, check for the add-ons too.
Practice your Pitch
If you think pitching ideas is that easy, then you are wrong. To make it happen and leave a mark on your investors, you need to practice well. This can only become possible with practicing again and again. Before you plan to meet your investors, take your time to put things together and give the presentation to your family and friends. This way, any mistakes in your speech or body language can be corrected and you will be confident enough before the D-day. Again, during such sessions, you will get a number of questions from the audience, which will help you anticipate what you can expect from your investors when you are facing them. All these efforts will ensure that you are not left blank with thoughts in the pitch room.
So That’s it. You are all set and good to present yourself to your investors.
List of Popular Platforms To Fund Raising your App
Here are some of the well known platform where you can go for fundraising and get a rock solid investment to build a super rich fully featured application
Angel.co –
It is the oldest & most established crowdfunding platforms; focuses on startups, angel investors, and job-seekers looking to work at startups.
Kickstarter –
A crowdfunding platform for creative projects such as movies, music, art, theater, games, comics, design, and photography.
GoFundMe –
For-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses.
EarlyShares –
Dedicated exclusively to commercial real estate crowdfunding opportunities, including multi-asset funds and discrete properties
Wefunder –
It Offers’ minimum investment starting as low as $100 – though many offerings require at least $500 or $1,000
EquityNet –
Majorly emphasis on consumer products and social enterprises
PeerRealty –
It focuses exclusively on real estate, mostly commercial and multi-family residential
CircleUp –
Connects investors with consumer-facing startups such as fitness, food and beverage sectors.
Fundable –
Provides hands-on help with onsite profile building, pitch construction, and even business plan development with its wheelhouse is software, hardware, and consumer products startups.
Crowdfunder –
Skew heavily toward innovative consumer products, consumables, and social/nontraditional niches.
SeedInvest –
It specializes in “highly vetted investment opportunities.” The platform claims to accept just 1% of applicant companies.
LocalStack –
Involved in consumer-facing enterprises, such as brewing, food production, and apparel manufacturing.
Final thoughts
Funding plays a crucial role in deciding the future of your app idea as well as your business growth. In short, it can make or break you. A number of start-ups have lost their base just because they couldn’t find the right funding. On a Contrary, Many have done well just because they got the right support from the huge investors. So working on your pitch is impressive and so just put in your app efforts to make it impressive enough for the investors. Look at the pitch through their vision and you will get success for sure.
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