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Finding a venture capitalist can be like hunting a white buffalo in a dessert environment. At first, you might think that the legend that venture capitalists are extinct could be true, but then you realize you just may not be in the right environment. Unlike albino buffalo, however, venture capitalists have no notable physical characteristics to give them away from the herd. Ultimately, it can be tough to spot a venture capitalist even in places where they congregate, unless a friend knows one and makes that introduction. If you don’t move in those circles, it has been quite difficult to get an introduction to a venture capitalist just through offline networking. Now, social networking may be helping people with good business ideas and a little bit of social networking savvy to finally locate their angel investors.

Online Friends Can Help

Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn allow people expand their social contact immensely, even going beyond their limited geographical footprint. This is especially important when trying to meet a venture capitalist, as these people generally live in the same area and fund projects within their community or only on the recommendation of someone they know. If most of the venture capitalists that fund a web startup are in Silicon Valley, California, and you are an entrepreneur that lives in Chicago, it can be a long wait to find someone willing to fund your idea. However, if you hop online, you can make friends quickly with people who live in the right areas and through their contacts end up meeting a venture capitalist you might not have met otherwise.

Special Websites

There are even special websites set up for business owners trying to make those essential business contacts to help take their business to the next level. A site called Meeteor.com will use the friends and followers already established in sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to generate more data mining on which contacts can reach a potential company or connection. Once you have a good idea how to reach that key person, you can ask that contact to introduce you online through Meeteor.com.

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Another website that has a similar payback is called. Favo.rs. This site is mostly used by people looking to expand their audience by getting favors like retweets and re-posting blog articles. Users of the site gain points for the favors they do for each other and this will lend towards more social credibility. Someone with a high social credibility might be able to request an introduction from one of the people in their network who is a venture capitalist. In fact, such types of online introductions are working for some people now even though data mining for social networking sites is still in its infancy.

Potential Hurdles

It won’t be as easy as just finding a mutual friend online, however. To reach your target venture capitalist your own social credibility will be weighed before they will agree to speak with you. If you are not in the same industry, have few credentials, or the person making the introduction also has low social credibility, it is likely that even locating the capitalist will not be enough. Like all forms of social networking, it isn’t just who you know, but who you are and what you can offer that will eventually seal the deal.