Behind the scenes angel investors

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Business plans for angel investors
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Burton Partnership operates out of Florida, investing in both public and private companies. Like many other angel investors, most of the investments made by Burton Partnerships is never announced or reported.

"The national surveys don't really tell you what's happening," Burton said recently. " A lot of deals don't get reported."

So why wouldn't an angel investor or a beneficiary company want to announce the investment? Well, there are several possible reasons.

One is that the investment isn't large enough to warrant publicity.

Another is that the investment is out of the ordinary for the investor in some respect, and the investor doesn't want to see a lot of business plans that are similar. Perhaps an investor put money into a retail operation, when every other investment was in high tech. Odds are that he doesn't want the retail investment publicized.

Perhaps the company is too small, reflecting poorly on the investor. Investors like bragging rights about the Big Deals that they are involved in. When a company is very small, or just beginning, it loses those bragging rights, so it isn't publicized.

Perhaps the investment is a "sweetheart" deal of some sort, a payback to a related company, a co-investment from a long time associate investor, or even to a relative. Those are not the kind of transactions that get press.

Somewhere is these niches there is wiggle room for all kinds of companies. I would not -- and do not -- remotely suggest that a company send out a business plan to every single angel investor or venture capital firm. That would be absurd. But it would behoove the company seeking funding to talk with every single person/investor/entity that it can stand in front of. You just never know who knows who, or who has a connection, or when a spark will be lit.