Investors play a massive role in the success of any company, and as such, it is essential to ensure your company-investor relationship is strong with complete transparency and trust. This is called 'Investor Relations.' In larger companies, this could be an entire department of the office. So let's first talk more about what investor relations covers!

1. Finding Investors or Investment Opportunities
2. What are the goals of Investor Relations?
3. How do they ensure clear communication?
4. Why do you need Investor Relations?
5. The Benefits of a good IR team
6. Investor Relation Tools
7. Features to look for in an IR tool

Finding Investors or Investment Opportunities

Before you are able to focus on investor relations, you must first have investors for your business. The most effective way to do this is by using an online platform such as Angels Partners. 

With over 100k listed investors and our automated campaign tool, we make finding and contacting investors a breeze. Investors are able to register for the platform and spend time canvassing many approved startups for potential investment opportunities. Once you secure the funding, it is then time to focus on your business-startup relationship.

What are the goals of investor relations?

• Represent the company to investors and represent investors to the rest of the company. 
• Provide accurate, timely financial information to investors.
• Ensure the company reaches the best share price that reflects the actual value of the company entirely.
• Present investor feedback to management and board members.
• Adhere to the rules of stock exchanges and securities commissions.

An investor relation department is in charge of maintaining open lines of communication between investors and the company.

How exactly does IR ensure clear communication between the company and investors?

The first thing they will do is operate a triage system. Anyone interested in the company or requesting information will be sent to the IR department. They will then cover anything they can resolve themselves, such as assigning to another department or handling themselves, without involving anyone higher up in the company.

Communicating with the stock exchange

The IR department will then act as a translator between the company and the language of Wall Street. They will be able to explain how the company is viewed by those on the stock exchange and their investors. This allows the company to work on any flaws spotted or promote any clear positives. In addition, this will enable them to up their share price based on the current (or future) desires of those investing.

So why do you need Investor Relations?

An important reason a company needs investor relations is due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002). This bill is a regulation that increased the required transparency between investors, so companies now had to report financial and trading information much more regularly.

Making an entire IR system is very beneficial as it allows them to maintain this communication easily, therefore adhering to the regulations quickly.

What are the benefits of a good IR team?

Having a good investor relations team will hugely benefit your company in several ways, such as: 

• Enhance long-term shareholder value
• Lower capital cost
• Building long-term credibility in the investor community.
• Maintaining a loyal base of shareholders.

Investor Relation Tools

Several tools online will make investor relations significantly more straightforward; that's why we have made this list of what to look out for and our suggestions for the best tools to help your business.

What features should you look for in an investor relations tool?

1. Combination of sales, marketing, and customer communication

It will be more straightforward for you in the long term if your CRM has this combination; investor relations rely heavily on you being able to do all these things easily. In addition, having them all on one platform will save you from switching too often as you're working.

2. Document and Signature handling

It should have an efficient document-handling service, crucially, it allows for e-signatures on any contracts, deals, and anything else from wherever your investor is.

3. Good UX 

If you struggle to understand the layout of your CRM tool, it will be pointless. So instead, pick a platform that makes sense to you and is intuitive.

4. Built-in Content Management System

This allows sales and marketing teams to publish branded content on the web for your investors to access immediately. It makes publishing significantly easier and requires no existing technical knowledge.

5. Integrated accounting, documentation, quotation, and signatures

Using many different platforms makes it difficult to have consistent information for all leads and investors. The integration will solve this problem by allowing you to consolidate data in a central location to share across all platforms.

Investory.io

This platform allows investors and startups to find everything they need when communicating. In addition, it will enable you to easily share metrics, essential documents, updates, and cap table information.

All you need to do is enter your monthly financials, then fill out the automatically created report with your wording! No need for complicated investor reporting.

DropBox DocSend

This secure file-sharing system will also give analytics and control to see who opens the file, if they have forwarded them and how long they look at each page.

It gives you complete control with the ability to block access, require passcodes, or even set an expiration date on the document.

CB Insights

This is a platform that focuses on tech market intelligence. It will analyze data on startups, patents, venture capital, and others to predict market value.

This will allow you to understand better your company's worth in the investor and stock world so you can make accurate decisions for the business.

Google Ventures Library

Google Ventures is the venture capital side of Google Inc. They focus on investing in several areas, such as consumer internet, cleantech, life sciences, software, and mobile. With an investment goal of $100 million annually, they invest anywhere from seed to late-stage. 

They also post articles about various aspects of design ad user research with interviews and advice directly from other founders.

Hockeystick

Hockeystick allows you to share essential metrics with your investors easily. Allowing companies to communicate important (and confidential) metrics and updates. Hockeystick will handle the scheduling and workflow for the shareholder reporting, making it easier for both sides.

The 'ask' feature of the site allows founders to ask shareholders for advice and hands-on help. It is an excellent tool for everything from accelerators, funds, individuals, and angel groups.

Sherpany

This meeting management tool will allow you to organize and hold more effective and productive meetings. It will come with a meeting minutes template based on the pre-completed agendas, has an integrated voting and signature system, and allows you to annotate documents collaboratively.

Irwin

Irwin is a fantastic tool that will improve your investor relations CRM in several ways. First, it provides detailed profiles of investors' capital. It comes with a database of security ownership, giving you a comprehensive overview with extensive analyst research. 

It has integrated report templates allowing you to display your team's performance to any interested individual.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, you can see that these tools all have their strengths and weaknesses, so it is essential to research and make the best decision for your requirements. We hope this article has helped to explain the world of IR to you; for any other startup-related articles, visit our blog.