An Online Platform That Simplifies Investor Relations Gust gives startups access to potential accredited investors, and allows investors to manage their deals on a secure platform.

Last year, Jeff Brenner and Peter Kieltyka were looking for a better way to manage their communication with investors and increase their visibility while trying to raise seed capital for their mobile-media startup, Pressly. So they turned to Gust, an online platform that simplifies investor relations during the early-stage financing process. Startups can get access to potential accredited investors on the Gust network and create a secure company profile, complete with pitch video and slide decks, which they can easily share. Investors, meanwhile, have a secure platform for managing their deals. "The beauty of this is both sides are using the same platform," says Gust founder and CEO David S. Rose.

Gust (originally called Angelsoft) launched in 2004 and is now used by 170,000 companies, 40,000 investors, 800 angel groups and 250 venture funds. The service is free for startups; investment groups and venture capitalists pay a fee. Also using the platform are incubators, accelerators, conferences and business-plan competitions; many of them curate "collections" of startups to watch. "Companies are 37 times more likely to have investors look at them if they're in a collection," Rose says. Although Gust does not bill itself as a matchmaking site, Rose says more than 5,500 startups have received a total of $1.8 billion in funding via Gust.

"Gust does a nice job of breaking down the elements investors want to see," Brenner says. We talked with him about using the platform to raise Pressly's profile.