Garnering Angels Sure, you may have ventured for VC, but raising angel capital takes a different kind of skill.

Make no mistake about it, there's an art to raising angel capital. It's not harder or easier than raising venture capital--it's simply different. Here's how:

1. Make sure the investors are accredited. Accredited is legalese for "rich enough to never get back a penny." You can get into trouble for selling stock to the proverbial little old lady in Florida, so don't. And get a good corporate finance attorney (as opposed to your aunt, the divorce lawyer) to advise you about the process of seeking investments.

2. Make sure they're sophisticated investors. Sophisticated angel investors have knowledge and expertise in your industry--they'll have "been there and done that." Sure, you want angels' money, but you also want their expertise. If you want to raise venture capital in later rounds, it will be much harder if you show up with a long list of unsophisticated investors.