Looking to Raise Money?

The 10 Hottest Events for Entrepreneurs

-By David Drake
If youve got a small business or startup that needs investors, attending angel or venture capital investing events will provide you the opportunity to meet with and market your ideas to potential investors. These events will also provide you the opportunity to learn from the successes of others who have been there and done that, not only what things they did right, but also what mistakes they made and overcame or are facing and looking for solutions to. Heres a list of the top investor events for the month of April 2013 where you can find investors that can cut a check for your business.

FundingPost Venture Capital and Angel Events

1. Atlanta, March 28; 2. Chicago, April 11; 3. New York, April 18; 4.Las Vegas, May 2 FundingPost has hosted over 220 sold-out venture events in 22 cities over the past 12 years. The Soho Loft is often speaking at their events. This years events will focus on earlystage venture investing learn what it really takes to get investors to write you a check and pitch them on the spot. Very efficient events with Angels and VCs. The Feb. 7th event in NYC was a reverse pitch event at CS First Bostons 23rd and Park. 500 people had picked 9 out of 36 VCs and angels they wanted to The 2010 FundingPost VC & Angel Network event in Chicago was sold out and attended by top notch VC firms and angel investors.

meet one-on-one. At arrival all entrepreneurs received tickets just like in the train station. When your number was called on a screen you went to your numbered table and had a oneon-one with your pre-selected investor. Nifty! 5-8. Innovative Boston, April 3 5 Investing Symposium (IIS) 2013 at Thomson Reuters

IIS is the premier capital market and startup event that is part of 2013 theThomson network of

Reuters PartnersConnect

events with The Soho Loft. 2000+ participants last year composed of institutional investors, media, General (GPs) and Limited Partners (LPs) congregated at Thomson Reuters. Out of 4 conferences one gathers leading Angels and VCs to be pitched by attending startups; while another discusses Secondary VC firms, angel investors and entrepreneurs during a networking and cocktail event at the Thomson Reuters and PartnerConnect East 2012 event.

Market Strategies. Yet another gathers LPs & GPs and the Top US Crowd Funders of the world including, but not limited to, upcoming firms like SeedInvest, CrowdCube, EarlyShares, Crowd Valley, SoMoLend, CrowdSchools, CircleUp, Seedrs, Bolstr, Collaperty, WebFinancial, and Gate Technologies. You will even meet a spiritual crowdfund leader Bishop Sampson, writer of Kingonomics. They will cover the top 25 crowdfund campaigns that netted over $1,000,000 each. You definitely must not miss this one! 9. 2013 Angel Capital Association Summit Navigating Change for Angel Success San Francisco, April 17 19 Connect with several hundreds of the most active and sophisticated angels and angel group leaders in the world, such as Keiretsu, ArchAngel, European Business Angel Network, and World Business Angel Network. These investors are top participants in the estimated $20-

billion-per-year angel investing profession in the US alone. 500 Angels participated last year in Austin. In the Age of Angels, this is where you will find them and the super angels. This is the highest concentration of angels you will ever find anywhere. This is where angels go to evolve their networks but also showcase their Tim Draper, a serial investor and cofounder of DFJ (Draper Fisher Jurvetson) Venture Capital Firm was one of the keynote speakers of the PartnerConnect East Conference 2012.

companies and investments. Catch an angel if you can! 10. NAPEC Innovation Conference New York, April 22

A gathering of 500+ innovation experts and pioneers in business and finance, all in one place in NYC! This is a great opportunity for leading and potential innovators to share their ideas. You will have speakers like Mohamed Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in microfinance; as well as Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian, CEOs from PIMCO. Innovation will be the focus at this event which will have a low-cost under $90 tickets and easy access. New York City events tend to get really big so prepare to study who you need to meet prior to the event.