Are there investment firms for small to mid-tier online stores?

[LA_GENT1]

Hi, 

It seems like Amazon's FBA has a good eco-system of investment firms looking to buy or invest in merchants. Are there any firms that do the same for Shopify ? Interested in small to mid tier investment firms looking to invest in firms with the potential to scale to 7 to 8 figures revenues so not firms looking for their next billion dollar exit!

[JoesIdeas]

Yes there are, when I was a Shopify store owner we had a few reach out to us.

They basically invest or provide a loan, and then bring in their team of experts to optimize different areas of the business. Classic example is a store that has cool / interesting / unique products or story, but does not have a marketing person on the team. But these type of firms can also help with scaling up supply, for example a common barrier to scale is shipping sea containers instead of air freight, for inventory. For a small business it can be challenging to put up the capital for thousands of units and wait a month to ship by sea, but the shipping costs (and per unit cost) amount to a significant savings. If there is already proof of concept then it makes sense.

I don't recall the names of these companies, but couple tips:

- Do something with your brand that sets it apart, to get on the radar of these firms. We got quite a few of these (we did not want to take on investors though)

- Search LinkedIn. If you're really serious about it, maybe create some LinkedIn ads to target those type of firms

- Contact feinternational.com and empireflippers.com. I sold a business through FE, they were great. Those type of marketplaces have lists of investors, they typically sell businesses, but you might be able to work something out where you pitch your business and they share with their investors, for a % of the investment and help building / closing the deal

Hope that helps