Very early stage startups often seek angel or seed financing in order to gain initial traction on developing their product or technology, land initial customers, and make other progress. For me, there are always four key points I look for when reviewing an early stage seed or angel investment opportunity:Has the Entrepreneur Been Referred to Me by a Trusted Colleague? It doesn’t matter if the future unfolds differently—in fact, it’s likely to!”—Jennifer Savage, Partner, Illuminate Ventures (investment focus on seed stage enterprise software / SaaS applications)Hyperscale It! I view early stage investors as early employees; they need to be grinding it out on the recruiting, customer, fundraising, and partnership fronts alongside the management team. Sometimes that can be with a few early customers and partners, or a few C-level hires for the business.

Source: Forbes March 16, 2019 15:22 UTC