Several times a month I meet with investors from out of town that are interested in the Atlanta market and startups at the Atlanta Tech Village. With so much capital that needs to be put to work, investors are eager to find startups that have the beginning of a big business and the potential for strong unit economics.
Here are some of the common questions investors ask:
- What startups should we be paying attention to in the building?
- Any entrepreneurs we should meet with the next time we’re in town?
- Do you have any startups doing X, Y, or Z (e.g. specific areas of interest like machine learning, health IT, marketing SaaS, etc.)?
- Any startups growing fast with X to Y range of revenue (e.g. $1 – $2 million in recurring revenue)?
- What events or programs should we consider for future visits (e.g. Atlanta Startup Village)?
- Anything we can help with?
As expected, the questions from investors are fairly consistent as they’re looking for startups that meet their criteria and the opportunity to invest. Surprisingly, investors don’t have enough strong startups to invest in.
What else? What are some more questions investors should be asking?
David Cummings on Startups 
All their questions were fine except the, “Show me the startups already doing $1-2M recurring revenue.” That sounds like a Georgia investor question. Previously I’ve been told by a Georgia investor, “Your idea is really appealing. If you’d like to raise $1M, that’s doable but first go generate $1M in recurring revenue, then come back to me. ” Thanks.
I agree with the above comment. A lot of low risk tolerances from angels who own all seasons of the shark tank clog up the pipes around here (GA).
Most of those investors developed their investment thesis from shark tank, failing to realize that they are not on a TV which brings ~$4MYN in value due to publicity nor are they Mark Cuban.