Capital Raising Feedback

[Brian Choi]

Hi all -- I'm wanting to be part of capital raising and I'm wondering about your experience. Would you mind sharing your experience of first capital raising? How did you add individuals to your database? 

Looking forward to your responses!

[Spencer Gray]

Family then friends then friends of friends, their friends. Getting coffee, breakfast, lunch, second lunch, dinner with anyone who will meet with you to talk real estate. 

Meet ups, conferences, networking in general.

You can see, however, that all of this requires an incredible amount of time. So at some point you'll need to build as many systems and automations as possible to generate investor leads, nurture your base, and convert them to wealthier repeat investors. 

No matter what anyone says, it's not easy and it takes time and persistence. 

Soft commits are worth 25-50 cents on the dollar.

The first raise will seem near impossible, the second will be an incredible challenge, the third will be significantly larger and easier than the first two. 

This is all about raising capital and completely separate from your ability to execute on the project or qualify an experienced operator to partner with who can successfully execute. 

[Evan Polaski]

@Brian Choi, friends and family will always be your first source.  And continue along that line as Spencer mentioned.  

But I will add, you also add people to your database through marketing.  When you are starting out, you better have a very compelling story to convince complete strangers to invest (very hard, but not impossible).  You easiest capital will come from your existing network.

And partnerships.  I have heard of many deals where the GP group is 8-10 partners, and that is almost always because of equity needs, and sometimes balance sheet needs.

[Brian Choi]

Thank you so much for sharing! 

[Paul Moore]

Hi @Brian Choi.  I wholeheartedly agree with my friends above. However I would add that if you start creating consistent, high-quality educational contact and skillfully get it out there, you can start building a following of people who will want to invest with you.

It’s another version of a lot of hard work, as was stated above. You may want to check out Matt Faircloth‘s BP book on raising private capital. Good luck!

[Jeffrey Donis]

Hey Brian! 

Hope you are doing well. 

What we first did was had a system to keep track of all of our investors. This is a relationship building business so you want to make sure that you are building relationships with all of your investors. You can do that by following up with them which can get a bit hectic after you build a large database. 

We used a CRM to keep track of everyone we talked to and to keep notes on what we discussed. 

The best places to find people who might be interested in investing (opinion) is conferences, networking events, meetups, and your power base. Telling people what you do is a start! 

You have my number so feel free to reach out if there is anything I could do to help.

Thanks!

[Steven Pesavento]

I have found that friends & family is limited. That the true way to scale on the raising side is through building relationships at scale with many investors. You need to start serving a niche within the community and build credability. This takes time, but can be rewarding years later when you start to see the fruits of your labor. 

[Bernadeau C.]

@Brian Choi i am currently entering into the multi-family space and focusing on value add deals. i am a one-man show for the moment and so i am also going down the path of raising capital. would love to connect and share ideas!