Case 6 Gaining access to business angels networks

1. Which factors helped Stephanie getting access to these highly sought-after

organizations?

- As a start her research was based on her undergraduate research which

gave her the foundation basis to build on.

- To gain access she knew she had one of two ways: meeting Business

Angel and getting referred to their other contacts but that wasn’t possible,

therefore she went to the other option and that is using intermediaries.

- Business Angel Networks, Intermediaries, are the most efficient and

she knew she had to get access to them before being able to reach business

Angels. During her undergraduate project, she established contact with a small

number of Business Angel Networks which was a starting point for her.

- To make sure she would gain their attention for her Master research

proposal she made sure that her request was noticed by doing it properly.

Therefore she was hoping her questionnaire will be distributed to the Business

Angel members.

2. What problems did Stephanie face in the access negotiation stage of her project?

How did she overcome these?

- She had to find a way to contact Business Angel and that couldn’t be

done by meeting them directly but by using intermediaries which is time

consuming.

Abduallah Kouri 200710397

Case 6 Gaining access to business angels networks

- She had to make sure she is well prepared and that her proposal will

be written and presented properly in order to capture the interest to the Business

Angel Networks and avoid rejection.

3. What access negotiation techniques had Stephanie applied in her project?

- She attended a number of investment events to discuss her research

with Business Angel network managers face to face and asked them for their

opinion.

- She also asked each Business Angel network to provide a short

written endorsement regarding her research and authorization to quote it.

- Manager of BBAA encouraged her to write short news in newsletter

to promote her research. This helped her as a researcher and encouraged others to

participate in questionnaire distribution.

- She then started trying obtaining access to Business Angel network by

doing phone calls and made sure that before her phone calls she was well

prepared, professional and highly interested. During calls she did the following:

 Developed a document with all information needed to be

mentioned.

 Before calling she made her research on the organization in

order to address the correct person.

 She was professional and polite during phone calls.

 Documented the outcome of each phone call.

Abduallah Kouri 200710397

Case 6 Gaining access to business angels networks

4. What are the down sides of these access negotiation techniques?

Although most Business Angel network managers agreed to distribute her questionnaire to

their members, yet she still had to gain acceptance from the individual Business Angels

and ensure their cooperation to fill the questionnaire, once distributed by Business Angel

network managers. Yet, the distribution process she had no control of as it was undertaken

by Business Angel network managers.

Abduallah Kouri 200710397