Getting Investments In – Tips And Tricks For Young Entrepreneurs

A very common issue that most young entrepreneurs face, especially the first-timers, is an investment. This article thus, seeks to examine how to tackle the issue of getting funds for entrepreneurship and how easy or difficult it is, particularly for college students looking to be an entrepreneur. We shall also attempt to examine the validity of the claim that students from bigger colleges like IITs and IIMs find it much easier to get funds for entrepreneurship while students from tier two colleges get left behind.  

Get Set, And Go

A vital point to note is that a customer or an investor who wants to buy a particular product or service does not care whether the company was started by a student or a 15-year experienced entrepreneur. All they really care about is whether the product or service solves their problem and how much they have to pay for it. However, even though from a customer perspective it may not matter if you’re a student, an investor’s point of view is quite different.

A Class Apart?

Let’s discuss now if it makes a difference in being a student from a premier institute or not. To be honest, hailing from an institute of good repute not only allow you to access the better infrastructure and resources, but also gives you the head start in gathering investment. The institute’s repute goes a long way in getting you the foot in that door, or patching you to the right network and giving you an additional benefit of the doubt viz a viz a student from a lesser known institute. It is a known fact that some really big startups have been started by the students from IITs and IIMs background

The Right Time To Knock Upon Doors

Coming to the next question, when is the right time to raise investment? Do not go and raise investment only on the basis of an idea – ideas on their own are worthless and there are millions out there that erupt over a few conversations and fancy dinner and drinks in the night only to dissipate the next morning. Your idea must be validated, and you need to show it can be made into a viable business before you approach someone to put their money into that idea. There are exceptions to this rule. You may see a person get an investment on an idea alone. But do observe if they have a successful startup already behind them before they got someone to invest in their next big idea in the idea stage itself. A successful history of what they could do and achieve has been set as an example before the potential investor and hence he then would be willing to put in his penny for their thoughts. So, your past success and experiences determine your growth too. However, without a history and typically with student startups that’s not the case. However, the cases are rare and few between, depending on the history that person has behind them of successful ventures in the past. A success behind them makes the path ahead easier encouraging confidence in investors as a precedent has been set.

Tough Times Call For Strong Positions

Remember, the professional world is very tough today and professional investors are only willing to come into play actively when your product or service is ready and validated by customers along with a revenue model in place. So, it’s best to approach professional investors when you need money to scale it up. People are more attuned to give you money to scale up a business model which is working and making money, so they see their penny getting some worth out of it.