The video explains how to use LinkedIn as a tool to find and connect with potential startup investors. It emphasizes using keywords and filters to identify relevant individuals and leverage your network to gain access to them.
What this video covers
In a sense, you want to have a well-researched target list of people that you’re going to go after, and LinkedIn, without a doubt, is a great tool that you can use to get access to the best people and get in front of them so that you can get access to that money that you need in order to grow. In today’s video, we’re going to be breaking it down for you, giving you the step-by-step on how to use LinkedIn and take it to the next level. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
It’s very important to mention here that you’re going to have different types of access or exposure depending on the scope or the size of your own network. Obviously, the smaller the network, the less access to people that you’re going to have, but you can always get the Premium account on LinkedIn, which is going to give you greater access to the people that you want to get in front of.
The first thing that you want is to have a great profile. On the profile, what you want is to make sure that you’re putting a bio about yourself, that you’re putting in every single company that you’ve worked for, all the skill sets, any diplomas, any certificates, the universities that you attended. Think of this as your CV.
Typically, on LinkedIn, you have a good degree of exposure and visibility when we’re talking about first-degree connections, which are the people you’re connected with, second-degree connections, which are the connections that you have in between yourself and your own network. Then the third-degree connections are probably the ones where you have less visibility. And, obviously, the fourth-degree connections don’t even exist.
On LinkedIn, one thing that you can do is become part of groups. You can go into groups of angel investors, groups of venture capital firms, groups of private equity firms, or groups that are specifically oriented to your own segment or your industry because there, you’re going to have a ton of investors that you can tap into and that are going to have a specific interest in what you’re doing. You could either comment on some of their posts.
You can put posts that are relevant to them about the industry and about your company so that they can see that you have a great thought leadership approach on whatever you are doing. You want to be top-of-mind with people. You don’t want to spam. You want to add value, and that’s why you would be using some of those groups.
Typically, the risk-takers are the ones that are the CEOs that have built a business, that have a fund, as well, to invest in companies like yours.
When you’re creating your network, and you’re on LinkedIn, you always want to be top of mind. Obviously, what you want to be doing is posting on your own account: articles that have to do with your company, blog posts that you’ve created, you can use articles on LinkedIn itself that you can create to distribute amongst your network.
Next, you want to keep updating your profile and remain active. Obviously, anything that is new about your business, accomplishments, milestones, you want to make sure that you’re putting it on your profile so that it’s up-to-date because every time you’re putting an update, it’s going to be shown to your own network, and that’s going to be a plus. Again, this goes back to being top of mind. You absolutely want to be top of mind.
Keep in mind, as well, that LinkedIn limits your connections. You can only have up to 30,000 connections. That’s the cap right now. Also, if they see that you’re sending a lot of friend requests out to people, they can ban you from the platform.
