Entrepreneurs of green startups are especially excited when we reach the point where we can grow. It demonstrates that our initial idea has been well-received, our team is working together dynamically, and the company is receiving positive feedback from the media and the entrepreneurial community. These signals confirm you can start looking for capital or other financing and transform your startup into a company with exponential growth.

The hunt for venture capital, however, is no mean feat in today’s economic climate. This year, the markets experienced aslowdown of 20 percent。不幸的是，当前的投资冬天正在发生startups advancing green and environmentally friendly practices也是。

With most deals going to高排放公司，是时候让绿色初创公司在建立投资者关系时更具战略意义。我自己花了几个月的时间寻找我的食品技术初创公司的最佳投资伙伴 - 这并不容易。因此，为了帮助他人加强他们的资金旅程，我整理了三个技巧，可以帮助绿色企业家吸引风险投资。

1. Understand the difference between climate vs. value-based investors

Most green startups will think of climate investors when they want to scale their businesses. These investors seek to generate both a financial return and a positive, measurable environmental impact through their investments. Their funds have very prominently supported startups such asGlobal Thermostatand promote climate change mitigation and adaptation.

从精美的印刷品看，您会很快注意到，将所有鸡蛋放入那些专业投资者的篮子中可能并不总是很明智的。在旅途中，我对气候投资者的兴趣不大，传统投资者更加兴奋。为什么？因为气候投资者拥有预先定义的指标和严格的投资，这些指标不适合所有公司和行业。这些投资者中的大多数都精心衡量碳排放，污染，减少碳和对气候的总体影响，从而首先要追求能源和可再生资源解决方案。结果，许多具有出色绿色视野的初创公司对他们来说似乎很微小。气候投资者可能对食品，商业或物流等消费行业也没有兴趣。

If you're keen on connecting with conventional investors, remember their main criteria is profitability. Your climate impact is a nice-to-have and crucial for investment decision-making, but without showing convincing business metrics — including go-to-market strategy, revenue predictability and marketing forecasts — you won’t draw conventional investor attention.

2. Diligently collect evidence that you can scale

Investors aren't interested in keeping a business afloat. Their goal is to grow their capital by investing in your industry. So before turning to investors, collect enough evidence showing you can survive without investments. If that's the case, you're at the point where you can scale. Present yourself to investors with a concrete business plan on how to achieve this growth in a short time, and they will welcome you with open arms.

在与投资者见面之前，您需要将所有材料，当前的市场统计数据，潜在的市场前景和预测汇总在一起。更多见解您已经进入了增长驱动因素（例如，您需要扩展哪个领域才能实现预期的结果），越好。假设您的目标是从地理上扩展产品组合并进入邻国的消费市场。您需要清楚地定义您将雇用多少本当地专家，无论您的技术易于提高指数销售还是需要新的工程，并且知道市场进入成本以及国外的销售分销。

It might not always be smart to put all your eggs into the baskets of specialized investors.

我还建议您不仅了解您的业务指标，而且还要学习和了解投资决定时正在寻找的东西。在与他们的投资组合公司会面之前，请与他们的投资组合公司交谈，并询问他们的个性，愿景以及他们以前如何管理资金。这将使您能够同情他们的目标，并在推销创业时提出正确的论点和数字。

Finally, regardless of whether an investor has an impact mandate: They’ll invest if it's profitable. Remember, if your impact isn't scalable, you not only won't find investors, you also won’t have the impact you envisioned.

3. Explore the art of valuable networking in a hybrid world

Networking has always been key to connecting with investors but due to the pandemic, building personal connections isn’t as easy anymore. As much as the internet allows us to collect a broader range of contacts, these connections are often much looser when compared with personal ones.

结果，您需要战略性。从建立一个活跃的LinkedIn社区开始。这有助于扩展您的网络，从其他企业家那里获得有关资金机会的建议，并加强有关目标和业务的消息。此外，由于LinkedIn是一个社区网络，我建议您为对话，分享和讨论意见做出贡献，并开始就重要主题（企业家和“绿色”主题）进行对话。许多LinkedIn团体专注于绿色初创公司，创新和可持续性，您在这些空间中的存在将为资金机会打开新的大门。必威体育2018

伸出援手时，建筑企业家联系首先。这使您可以从他们的业务和资助道路上学习，并在他们的帮助下密切关注他们。例如，当我们收到最初的资金时，我们通过已经与他们已经接触过的公司与所有投资者建立了联系，并且我们已经了解了投资者在首次推销会议之前正在寻找的东西。

为此，请提前问您的联系人：“您可以向我介绍的下一个人是谁？”或“谁对听我的故事感兴趣？”人们喜欢建立网络。他们只需要在正确的方向上轻推一下即可。

Now, even if you know 1,000 people, the key to winning them over as ambassadors is the quality of your relationship. Almost100％的专业人士相信面对面的会议建立了更牢固的长期关系。因此，您需要尝试在混合世界中建立与面对面的类似个人联系。

如何？我看过许多人建立了纯粹的交易关系。尽管如此，就我的经验而言，网络的情感方面（通过建议，互动，信息交流，对他们所做的事情的支持以及在多个层面（专业，个人）的参与度增加价值 - 对于建立持久的关系至关重要。

Show that profit and purpose go hand in hand

The hunt for capital has undoubtedly become more complex. This doesn’t mean giving up, but instead multiplying your efforts. It will be much easier for green startups to look more broadly across the investor landscape. As more traditional investors seek to have an impact and expand their profit, green startups can take advantage of this opportunity. I can’t emphasize this enough: If you want to have a big impact on the world, the key is scaling your business. And this is where you must create synergies with traditional investors on the profitability of purpose.