When angels can’t understand what your business is about

Have you tried looking for angels through your potential customers? As in, ask your (future) customers if they can introduce you to a VC or angel.

As an entrepreneur, the onus does fall on you to make sure that your elevator pitch is such that any layman can understand it. Generally, the Angels are smart people and are generally quick to catch up. May be you can go with a metaphor that people understand, like you are the mint.com for really small hedge fund managers (it probably doesn't make sense but you get the idea). It's ok to be vague to get people interested and once they give you their full attention walk them through the process (but stay away from too much details, its ok to be slightly wrong than to be entirely incomprehensible).

Once the investors do their research (and they will) they will come to you with specific questions and that's the time to show the entire breadth of your knowledge and full set of features.

All from my personal experience. My $0.02.

I have a similar issue and I am nowhere near the development stage you are at. I flippantly make remarks that "I have found the cure for CF and it is a video game!" and stuff like that. I continue to wrestle with how to simply and accurately convey what I've accomplished (in terms of getting myself well when doctors claim it can't be done), why I believe it generalizes and is replicable, and why I think an improved information delivery system is The Answer rather than some "charity". I think at some point charity to help pay for costs involved in getting well will have it's place but first some serious in-roads need to be made into "mind share" -- into convincing people that a completely different way of viewing the problem is essential, more essential than money, drugs, etc.

I've spent several years talking to people on online forums and working on getting my head wrapped around the issue. I think it's important to find the "skeleton"/framework of it to hook people but it's important to not over simplify. I'm not really planning on seeking investors, at least that is not part of my mental model at this stage. But I think you need to find a) a means give sufficient background info before the actual pitch and b) a really good analogy/metaphor to help bridge the communication gap. For unrelated reasons, I have some practice with stuff like that. I am still working on trying to apply it to the whole "I've found the cure for CF..." thing.

Good luck with this.

If you're giving a reasonably clear + coherent pitch but the potential investor doesn't understand the problem or the business space you are in then it is probably not a good match for either party.

I disagree with some of the advice on this thread that you should be explaining it as clearly as it takes - it assumes that the universe of all investors and the potential investor audience for your idea is a 1:1 map, which it isn't.

I would never invest in a space I don't understand, even within the broad 'internet/technology space'. I know nothing about the finance space you are in, so even if trusted peers vouched for you I wouldn't get involved because I just don't know the space.

Smart money is always better than dumb money, and if the investor doesn't know your space then its theirs would only be dumb money.

You say you don't even need investment - if that is the case then don't waste a second of your time seeking validation from potential investors (which is what I feel you are doing)... seek customer validation instead by getting deposits, contracts for future business when the tool is available or at the very least, letters of intent. Good luck!

EDIT: another thought - a space like yours probably relies heavily on 'who you know' because I'm guessing the size of potential customers is relatively small and insular. You're either already tapped into those circles or you're not - and that might also might be having an affect on the quality/suitability of people you are liaising with. If you are not well tapped into those circles then also consider what impact that will have if you can't setup the deals/get your foot in the door with potential customers even if your technology/product works and solves the problem.

IMO you're focused on trying to convince the wrong people. You should be figuring out how to sign up clients, sell them the product make a lot of revenue, then you don't need angel investment. In the case you have growing revenue have hundreds of clients, and you just want to blow up at that point there should be no reason for any angel to turn you down. If you have something thats making a lot of money and have a huge market, then angels will take the effort to learn about your market and what you are doing.