Managing Your Investors – A Guide For Founders

A lot of entrepreneurs feel that once they’ve raised money, all their problems are solved, and they can get on with building their company. However, the reality is that managing your investors – the guys who have given you their hard-earned money – can be hard work. This is especially true when you have multiple investors on board – for example when you’ve raised money from an angel network, because each these individual investors has a different perspective. Each of them will give you ideas and suggestions which are diametrically opposite. They want to engage with you and share their gyaan, and you will often end up getting completely confused as a result of this.

Some of them will want to micromanage you; and others will worry that you haven’t met your milestones and have lost control of your future when they don’t see you making progress. Some may get upset when you don’t listen to their feedback, and feel that you are incompetent or useless, and have taken them for a ride.

However, you need to remember that this is your company – you have founded it, and you need to run it. You need to take control of the situation, and you cannot afford to get distracted by funders who feel that you need to listen to them just because they’ve invested in your company.

Good funders think of themselves as being enabling catalysts , who allow you to run the company the way you think is right , because they’ve reposed their faith ( and money !) in you. They are happy to provide guidance and support, and in order to help them to do so, you need to over-communicate with your investors , and share your highpoints and lows as well. This way, they are reassured that you are on the ball, and know what you are doing, so they can sit back and enjoy the ride !

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.