You're keen to understand the Investor's terms for a loan. Why they cannot give you specifics, only general guidelines for interest levels, period of time and types of conditions or any other 'terms'. It's all about their perception of risk.
You're keen to obtain a commitment from an angel investor so you can make the great business you have thought of. Often the first thing that entrepreneurs wish to know may be the 'terms' with the investor's commitment: What monthly interest do they really charge?; What number of years to repay the borrowed funds?; which enable it to We've an interest free period at the start, in order that I'm able to go ahead and take pressure off my business' income?
A lot of entrepreneurs fall under this trap and obtain frustrated once they can't have a commitment from an angel investor. Exactly what is the cause of this frustration? Genuine investors cannot legally commit themselves to 'Terms', because that's only possible after their homework.
Worse still, they might be duped by unscrupulous individuals who offer them a 'Terms Sheet' very at the start of the method. The 'Terms Sheet could possibly be the 'bait' accustomed to catch the inexperienced entrepreneur into committing themselves to some scam which is pretending to be an angel investor. Don't fall under the trap!
However, you may be given instructions of Intent by genuine investors. Which includes lots of legal clauses that provide the investor some slack route from the commitment. The genuine investor MUST protect themselves using a thorough due diligence. This can lead to the investor's risk assessment. The chance assessment dictates the terms you might be offered. This is because with regards to investment it can be universally stated that "return follows risk". Which would be to point out that the greater the rate of return [interest] the better the likelihood of the investment.
When you are looking to borrow another woman's money to construct your company, you might be inviting the financial institution or investor to rate your business being a "risk" - because the interest and terms they really want in return for letting you use their funds concerns their perception of risk in placing their money within your venture.
Whether you want it you aren't, whenever you ask someone to fund your great business you are inviting their judgement person plus your business. This can be unavoidable. The investor cannot appraise the risk your business represents until they've got completed their required research. This critical judgement is not done one moment sooner. The reason is that the intention of homework is to locate all the risks, and proof of protection against risks that's been included in the venture.
So show patience. A global Investor can probably give you some guidance about terms, although not a 'terms sheet' until once they have found the risk, after your plans and arrangements to the business have already been scrutinised by research.
