Working with them is easy, finding them is the hard part!

Where/what would be a good way to find one?

Marry a lady with a wealthy father.

Start by having a great business plan. From there go to your friends and family that you feel comfortable enough around to ask them for money. After you narrow it down to that and if you come up empty, try local businessmen or like minded people who might believe in your product. After you do that….Pray lot!!

You know what they say…the 3 F’s of investing. Friends, Family, and Fools.

Not that you should not do it…just keep in mind when you work with any investor you change the game…The moment you take money to support your invention there is an immediate sense of expectation levied on you….for some people that’s fine.

But for others – that expectation of performance takes the fun out of inventing, and can forever change the dynamic of the relationship.

Just my thoughts….

https://angelsoft.net/apply

Mark is right. Also remember they don’t do this for free. You are giving away a percentage of your company/product with each investment. You can quickly go from the majority stakeholder to the minority and end up working for them. Know what you are getting into before you accept any investment.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

There are elements of truth in everything said above, but my major beef that I keep hearing coming up on this forum, shark tank, and pretty much all inventor circles is the idea that if you give up 51% of the company you give up the control.

Majority percentage ownership of a company has never had anything to do with control! How good you are at what you do has everything to do with how much control you will have!

Bill Gates owns 13.7% of Microsoft
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18810094;jsession...

Michael Dell owns 12% of Dell Computers
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,390429...

Steve Jobs owns 0.63% of Apple
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/12/lead_07ceos...

These men’s names are synonymous with who you think of as the leaders of those companies!

Of course it is important to not give up too much percentage of your company too quickly, but ultimately you’ve got to ask yourself if you want to own 20% of a $200 million dollar company or 100% of a $2 million dollar company?

The reason the people you posted above are in the position they have is because they are the presense everyone knows. It would be suicide for the partners to dump these guys. The stock would take a huge drop because peoples faith in the company would waver.
That is not the case with most Inventors when they start making deals with investors. The less percentage they own of the company the more the others can change the direction of the companyfor the better or the worse. It is all in how you structure the deal when you start doing business with investors.

htp://www.rogerbrown.net

Leonard, It can be done, they can be found. In fact it is very possible that they will find you.
If you are passionate about what you do and put in the time and all of your available resources. Let your friends know what you are doing, let them see your passion.
In my case it was about a year after I started this venture and after many hours and letting people see my passion I had an unsuspecting onlooker ( who I already knew) come to me and ask what my future plans were fo my product.
He asked me to write a business plan, which I did, he is now an investor.
A really nice investor.
In my opinion an “angel” investor is not an owner, not even part owner. They should not even want to try to run and or help you run your business. They are an “angel” investor because they have noticed your passion and efforts and they believe in you and they are willing to provode to you some of their access cash to help you acheive your goals.
They will however and justifyably so most likely want to see a return for their investment dollar. Because they are an angel investor this is negotiable. In my case the % of return to my investor is fairly low because my investor really likes me and belives in my efforts.

Finding funding is part of the journey. It can and should be a very fun part. If you are passionate about your venture and are able to convey your passion when approaching possible investors you will find that getting investment dollars can be relatively easy.