Yesterday, I was chatting with a wonderful young founder in New York. I mentioned trolling Crunchbase to find startups.

“Wow, we need to get on there,” he replied.

Today I’m going to show you the simplest way to get investors contacting you. It’s free, and it only takes about 15 minutes.

When you’re done, your company will be on one of the most popular databases among investors. If you show them something interesting, you will have VC’s and angels contacting you.

The steps:

1) Go to Crunchbase.com

2) Click “Create profile” on the left.

3) Click Company.

4) Put in details about your company. I invented Fruber, the Francis version of Uber. Fill out as much as you can so investors can easily learn about your company. Be especially sure to enter a founded date — I generally look for new companies since I invest early.

5) Add headquarters. This is important because investors often search a certain city, state or country where they like to invest.

6) Enter industry and founders. Industry is important because different investors invest in different areas. Founders is important because we have to know who to contact!

7) Enter funding rounds. If you’ve raised so much as a cent, definitely put that down. It makes you look all the more appealing to investors. If it’s a very small amount, there’s no need to disclose exact amount.

8) Fill out any other details that are relevant to you. There’s room for news, events, etc. But these fields are less important than the key ones we covered above.

9) Click “Save all edits.”

Now you have your company!

So Francis, why should I do all this silly stuff when I’m busy running my business?

Well, how much time are you spending cold messaging investors? Wouldn’t it save you a lot of time if they cold messaged you?

Taking 15 minutes to create a nice Crunchbase profile can make that happen.

Investors want to meet great founders like you. But they don’t know you exist!

This Crunchbase profile is like a landing page. It’s saying “Hello world, I exist!”

Those 15 minutes just might be the key to closing your fundraise.

What questions do you have about Crunchbase? Leave a comment and let us know!

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