Join our Waitlist for Expert Advice!

How to Create Value to Reel in Investors Student entrepreneur Matthew Fishman on how he secured funding by building up his startup.

By Matthew Fishman Edited by Dan Bova

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Some startups actively seek investors. Other times, they find you.

My best friend and I founded Launchpad, Fairleigh Dickinson University's first student-led entrepreneurship organization. We saw the need for students on campus to have resources available to help them start their own business, including networking opportunities, mentorship and help finding funding.

Eventually, we became university-recognized and even assembled an executive board. We also got the help of a number of faculty members including the chair of the entrepreneurship department as well as an entrepreneurship professor. Little did we know that one day, a venture investor would come knocking.

We recently received an email from Jon Budish, a managing director at investment-banking firm Jefferies Group. Not only is he an FDU alumnus, but he's also invested and mentored many startups. He heard about Launchpad and was eager to learn more about how he could get involved. After a brief in-person meeting, he quickly decided to join in as our first lead investor and offered to help bring in others invests, who volunteered to also serve as mentors for new startups.

We hadn't initially considered tapping into the school's alumni. Instead, we actually launched a DVD-rental kiosk on campus to help raise cash for the growth of Launchpad. But now that we've gotten some attention, we're starting to consider other alums and even other investors.

Here are four important things to remember when trying to attract your first investor:

1. Create value right away. From day one you need to create a real need for your product or service -- even if you only have a few customers. At first, this may mean raising a small friends and family round of financing to get a minimum viable product or sales in advance of your product launch.

Related: 6 Ways to Land Start-Up Funding on Campus

2. Know what you want. Look at the things you could do even if you don't have enough resources to do what you really want to happen. This might mean creating a different kind of small business that could fund the venture you really want to create.

3. Network, network, network. Even though we didn't have all the resources we'd need to get going, right away we started meeting with members of our university community who helped us get started.

Related: 3 Tips for Turning Your Classmates Into Beta Testers

4. Use past successes as leverage. Be sure to pull in others by showing them what you've already accomplished. Creating value out of the gate means opportunities will start coming to you as others see what you're doing and want to be a part of it.

What are your tips for attracting a first investor? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

**Apply Now** Are you an enthusiastic college- or graduate-student entrepreneur, eager to share your on-campus experiences? Apply to be a YoungEntrepreneur.com College 'Treps columnist.

Matthew Fishman is an entrepreneurship student at Farleigh Dickinson University and heads up marketing and PR at Agent Anything, a services networking company that makes it easy for businesses and individuals to hire students for errands, odd-jobs and temporary positions.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Starting a Business

She Started a Business With $300 After Getting Laid Off. It Made $300,000 in Year 1 and Became a Multimillion-Dollar Company.

Bobbie Racette wanted to revamp the virtual assistance space — and provide job opportunities for underrepresented communities at the same time.

Business News

Can Anyone Beat Microsoft at AI? The CEO of Salesforce Thinks His Company Can.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff calls Copilot "the new Microsoft Clippy."

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Business News

'Not Yet Fully Autonomous': Tesla's Optimus Robots Stole the Show — But Were They Actually Controlled By Humans?

Musk said the $20,000 to $30,000 robot could perform household tasks like mowing lawns and putting away groceries.

Leadership

He Raced at 330 MPH Before Taking Over the Family Business — Here's What Being in the Driver's Seat Taught Him About Leadership

Morgan Lucas, former professional drag racer, talks about getting behind the wheel of Lucas Oil as its new CEO.

Franchise

McDonald's Launched a Happy Meal for the 30th Anniversary of a Classic '90s Sitcom — But There's a Catch

The promotion is only available in one country, so fans elsewhere are turning to resale platforms like eBay to buy the collectible toys.