Founders: less than 1 in 20 decks sent progress to a call with the majority of VCs.

Some lessons to learn from this & strategies for maximising your chance of a call ⬇️ 1. Build relationships ahead of time

The days of FOMO rounds completing in a week are over.

Build relationships well ahead of when you need to raise.

https://twitter.com/alexfmac/status/1521179335222247428?s=20

Founders: it's fundraising season 💰

Last year I posted a thread with links to 13 investor databases and 100k investors.

Here's my 2022 list.

More databases. More useful and all free to use 💪

Happy hunting 🎯 I've ordered these in terms of utility (contact details and other built-in features)

1. OpenVC by @StephNass

openvc.app

Fundraising is still opaque.

First-time founders rarely have a good understanding of what investors want to see.

Here's are some common things founders do which they think are positive signals for investors, but are actually negative ⬇️ 🤔 Using an investment bank or broker as an early stage company to raise money.

Investors see this is as you either not being able to build the network to raise or not having the sales ability to raise the money yourself.

My lowest quality deal flow comes through brokers.

Since I started angel investing I've seen more than 5,000 decks and helped founders raise more than $100m.

Here's common feedback I give founders on their decks: ⚡1. Keep it short - there is no romance without mystery.

Your goal is to secure a call with the investor, not answer every question about your business.

12-13 slides max at the early stage.

Is Adam Neumann a bad Founder for selling shares in WeWork before it crashed?

I don't think so.

Founders selling shares (secondaries) is good for both employees and existing investors.

Here's how it works and why it's good for all stakeholders 💰⬇️ First: What are secondaries?

Primary issuance: company issues new shares to investors, investors pay money to company.

Secondaries: existing shareholders sell their shares to investors and receive money for their shares (money does not go to company).

Founders: Here's how to raise your seed round from top VCs and Angels:

1. Quickly
2. Maximising valuation
3. Setting you up well for the next round

⬇️💰⬇️ Pre-Raise

A best-in-class Seed round can go from deck sent to cash in bank in 4-6 weeks.

However there are several months of work that go into preparing the round.

Start by creating a target list of investors & building relationships.

Everyone loves talking about red flags 🚩

Well here's 10 positive indicators ✅ that show me an early stage founder is worth investing in: ✅ Mastery of the industry they operate in (founder-market fit).

Can talk at length about the the current state & future of their market, customers, competition.

Can respond to questions with detailed, research / data backed responses.

Only 2.3% of venture capital is invested in female led companies.

Female angels make up just 14% of angel investors.

One way to address the funding gap is to get more women into angel investing.

Here are 19 syndicates you can join and start investing with as little as $1k ⬇️ 1/ Good People Fund by @FifiKara & @luisavnt

goodpeople.fund

🚩 10 frequent mistakes I see from founders who send me cold outreach for investment

⬇️ 1. Automated Reach-Out

🚩 Runs mail merge out to thousands of investors with no personalisation

✅ Do research thoroughly to make sure they're relevant investors and personalise your email

The different in response rate will be >10x.

Since April 2020 I’m proud to have prioritised my health.

- Lost 16 kgs (35 lbs)
- Minus 9% points body fat
- Added 2.5 kgs muscle
- Metabolic age reduced from 40 to 27 (I’m 34)

No fad diets, no weight loss pills, no surgery.

Sharing to help others improve their health 🧵 1/ Firstly: I’m not a doctor or nutritionist, so get your own advice (though I reckon I’m in better shape than most health ministers 😉).

I'll cover: Identity, Building Habits, Fuel, Exercise, Measurement, Results, Education & Tools.

♾ Seems like a good week to do a META thread (on Fundraising)

I've pulled together my favourite threads on everything from deck design to investor databases to strategy.

200+ tools, 100k+ investors, and great advice from some of the most respected people in the game ⬇️ 1/ Basics first: fundraising jargon from @siddharth_ram, Founder in Residence at @Accel

https://twitter.com/siddharth_ram/status/1434831601788018689?s=20

🎯 Cold Outreach Playbook & Awards 🏆

Investors who ignore cold outreach, ignore underrepresented founders and suffer worse returns.

I received a lot of cold outreach this week. I've put together a playbook for Founders looking to improve and awards for the best outreach 🧵 1/ There are some investors who unfortunately still ignore cold outreach, sticking to warm intros.

https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings/status/1114311446127624192?s=20

💰Here are 13 investor databases for seed stage Founders looking to raise money.

100k+ investors.

Not Techcunch. Not AngelList. These are the databases you haven't heard of.

This is to all the Founders hustling on a Saturday 🍻 Happy hunting 🎯 1/ No-Warm-Intro-Required Investor List by @ybelyayeva

airtable.com/shrsDIW1FMuA5c…

An air table, filterable database of investors who welcome cold outreach.

Also checkout the guide on cold outreach by Yulia: notion.so/odetocoldoutre…