4 Tips for Finding Open-Minded Investors They're out there -- but you'll need to look hard.

Investors love familiarity. "It's their money, which leads them to play it safe and scour the same homogeneous networks for deals," says Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that trains and funds startups with an altruistic bent, many of them led by women and minorities. Stats tell how rare those companies are: Of U.S. startups that landed an initial funding round between 2009 and 2014, only 15.5 percent had a female founder, according to CrunchBase. Only 1 percent of funded startups have a black founder, according to CB Insights. So, how to find a more open-minded investor? Baird says to consider these questions.

How do they usually find investments?

Beware those who say, "We like introductions from people we know and trust." You're better off with investors who, Baird says, offer "more openings to connect" -- say, an application process or direct contact information.