Understanding the networks involved in tech investment is important, particularly at the early stage of your startup, but finding all the information you need can be challenging and time-consuming. You want to make sure you’re pitching to the right investor with the right history and interests, someone who can offer you not just funding, but mentorship.
But researching funds and investors can be time consuming and to help combat that, angel investor and Director of Columbia University’s Venture Lab David Lerner has taken what he describes as “the next step into what appears to be a new discipline – I think I am going to call it Venture Cartography.”
In June, Lerner posted a visualization to his blog that attempted to map out New York’s early-stage investment ecosystem. He received a lot of responses and encouragement and decided to expand the cities tracked to include Silicon Valley and Boston.
The updated map is now available at VentureMaps.co and with the help of designer Shane Snow, it’s interactive. Clicking on a name pops up information about an investor’s background, investments, blog, twitter handle, and more.
It’s “a precursor to us mapping the venture ecosystem of the entire world in its component parts,” says Lerner. The project is crowdsourced and ongoing, with the additions and corrections welcome. According to the VentureMaps website, “Europe, Asia, Israel, angels, incubators, cccelerators, university funds, mentorship programs, and funded startups” are coming soon.
