Want to attract top investors? Focus on what you can learn from them.

There is an expression I heard once that roughly translates to "If you come for the money, you will get feedback. If you come for the feedback, you will get money." I have found this expression to ring true.

The best thing you can do when meeting someone new is to ask questions, and to focus on what you can learn from the conversation. And then of course, to give back if you can be helpful by offering an introduction or other insight that you may have. The best investors have years or decades of industry experience, and their advice and connections are often far more valuable that any financial support they can offer. If you are lucky enough to get in the room with someone you admire, spend less time sharing about your fundraising needs and instead focus on sharing the vision for your company and getting their feedback. People who believe in you and what you're building are much likely to come onboard longterm.

To validate this point, I spoke with Kam Punia, a Shapr user who found his investors through the app.

“Shapr has been integral in our growth. Through Shapr, we found our first investor, who happens to be one of the people behind Candy Crush.

While Shapr has played a massive role in introducing shareholders for his business, it was Kam's attitude that turned these conversations into long term relationships.

Here's a little background on Kam: He is CEO of Pixion Games, a London based mobile game company focused on bringing addictive MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) eSport games to touch devices. This is Kam's first company and a dream come true. Over the past 7 years, Kam has worked his way up from intern to Director of Marketing at a Japanese games company, including managing over 40 game and toy releases. He says that these years gave him an insider view of what it takes to build a successful startup from the ground up.

Why He Started Networking

Kam realized that he would need to get perspective from others in his field to build a successful business. After hearing about Shapr and starting a profile on the app, Kam added #mobilegames to his interests, hoping to meet others willing to share their experiences over coffee. One of Kam's first matches was Nir Efrat, the former Senior Vice President of King Digital whose vast experience includes oversight of 400 game makers across four countries. Says Kam, Nir immediately reached out and just said “Hi. I am interested to know what you’re looking to build.”

Kam was excited to have the connection. His number one goal was to learn from his match and to get feedback on his ideas. The conversation flowed smoothly, and he found Nir start to ask questions about the team he was building.

“I was taken aback because it wasn’t about the numbers but the people. He wanted to know who he would be investing in, and what our vision was.”

After several meetups, Nir offered to help lead a round of seed funding for the company. He was the catalyst, as additional investors have now joined thanks to Nir’s involvement. One of those investors includes Alan Fung, the former Director of Performance Marketing at King. Alan was also a match on Shapr, who has now stepped in as an advisor and investor. As with Nir, Alan was focused on getting to know Kam, his vision for Pixion Games and how he could add value.

What Kam Did Right

Networking should always be about what you can learn from each conversation, rather than what you can gain. Kam was successful because he focused first on building relationships and learning from each meetup, rather than focusing on transactional needs.

By the way, thanks Kam for your nice thoughts on Shapr! He shared the following: "Shapr is the most innovative way I’ve seen of connecting. You can do it at your fingertips from your couch. There are a huge amount of possibilities and opportunities that have come from the app, all because you are able to meet individuals from different industries who are equally excited in sharing ideas.”

Thanks to his time spent building relationships throughout his career, Kam has been able to build an all star team of industry veterans from Konami, King Digital and Curve Digital and looks forward to bringing his ideas to life.

So what's your idea? Focus first on finding people who are interested in the same topics and who would love to be a part of the conversation. The money will come later.

#fundraising #investing #startups