How to Get Noticed by Venture Capitalists

❓How I Raised $2.7M in seed funding as a First-Time, Non-Ivy League, Non-Tech, Female, Immigrant Founder! It took me 219 investor calls to get 29 YES’s! There are no shortcuts but here are 10 tips: 💎 Show Up When you have no connections in the VC space, you gotta build your brand from scratch. Generic mass emails won’t cut it! Build in public! I joined virtual pitch competitions, Twitter Spaces, and documented my founder journey on social media. Pick a platform (LinkedIn is now more active for investors unless you’re in web3) and share your story with authenticity. 🐐 “Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money twice.” ~ Pitbull Building relationships starts before you’re fundraising and continues after you close. Seek advice, do your research, and ask meaningful questions. 🤛🏽 Give First Even as a founder, you can add value to investors. Share helpful intros, summarize their blogs as a Twitter thread, or promote their work to other founders. Build goodwill—it matters. 🚫 No = Not Now You’ll hear a TON of Nos but a handful of them are actually Not Now’s. After every rejection: 1. Ask why, and look for patterns in VC responses; feedback is a gift! 2. Get permission to add them to your investor updates ✅ Send Investor Updates Start sending updates before you have investors. Investors don’t just back ideas; they back momentum. Show your traction and progress, CONSISTENTLY (attaching a link to our 2024 investor update in the comments) 🚝 Accelerators/Incubators I applied to every program that came with funding. Our first $25K came from OCEAN Programs, which helped us build our MVP in 6 weeks. This momentum led to more funding. (Pro tip: watch out for scammy programs!) 💡 VCs Don’t Owe You Money Remember, you’re competing for a spot in their portfolio. Venture capitalists see startups as an asset class, and parking their money in your company for 5-7 years comes with real opportunity costs. It’s your job to de-risk the investment and clearly demonstrate the potential multiplier effect and returns. Show them why your startup is the best bet for their capital. 🤩 Leverage Optionality Complement your fundraising efforts with tools like ECF or grants! It’s a great way to raise funds, build community, and showcase traction. 💥 Fundraising is a Founder’s Job Storytelling needs the founder’s passion. You can’t outsource that fire in the belly, it’s on you to build belief. 🎯 Fundraising is Not the Goal—Revenue Is Exhilarating as it maybe, raising VC capital isn’t the finish line; it’s fuel for the journey. The ultimate goal is to build a sustainable, revenue-generating business. Happy Fundraising! P.S: this is not a fundraising announcement; we closed our seed round in 2023 & are now on a path to profitability followed by a Series A later this year!

“You’re too early.” As a first-time founder, that was a phrase I hated to hear. How could I be too early? Isn’t that what venture capital is for? VCs don’t always say exactly why they pass, so founders need to read between the lines even when little is said. So what are they actually telling you when they say “you’re too early”? Most of the time, you’re not just too early. You’re too early relative to everyone else. Capital raising is competitive. VCs get hundreds of pitches and review dozens of deals at once. You have to stand out. You have to outhustle. You have to create urgency. You have to build FOMO. Here are 8 ways to do that, especially for first-time founders: 1. Build a Technical Team If you’re building software, someone on the founding team needs to write code. It’s fine to be solo, but you’ve got to be technical. Investors rarely back non-technical teams relying on outsourced dev or hires they haven’t made. 2. Nail the First Impression When reaching out cold, your deck and website are all investors have. Make them sharp. Your vision should feel big, and your plan should feel believable. Good design and clear writing go a long way. 3. Build an Audience Early Our industry puts a premium on founders who capture attention. Sharing your journey builds awareness and momentum. It can attract customers, talent, and investors. Cluely is a great example of a company that seemingly came out of nowhere. With a bold perspective and massive social presence, they became impossible to ignore. A16z backed their $15M seed round. It’s an extreme case, but a useful one. 4. Make Fast Product Progress You don’t need a polished v1, but you should be designing and building from day one. Even without funding, you can mock up the product, build an MVP, talk to design partners, and show progress. Tools are too good and infra is too cheap to show up empty-handed. 5. Show Momentum Traction isn’t just revenue. It’s the rate of learning, signing design partners, growing waitlists, shipping the MVP, or just moving fast week to week. Good investors can feel your momentum. 6. Join an Accelerator YC is the gold standard for network and access, but others are worth exploring too. Brickyard in Chattanooga is a good example. The key is surrounding yourself with driven founders and putting yourself in a position to level up quickly. 7. Spend Time in SF Maybe you can’t move there, but you should get there often. The networks, collisions, investor density, and energy are unmatched. If you want to raise capital, especially early, it helps to be near the source. 8. Run a Tight Fundraising Process Too many founders wing it. The best ones build lists, sequence outreach, and write thoughtful emails, which is surprisingly rare. Warm intros are huge. If you don’t have them, finding creative ways to get them is part of the process. A tight approach builds momentum and shows you’re serious. What am I missing?

Of the 87 VC meetings I had in 2022 for our pre-seed, 75 of them came by way of a warm introduction. Here's how you use your network to get warm introductions to the funds you want to meet with. Venture capital runs on warm introductions. It's one of the biggest reasons underrepresented founders struggle to raise VC - they either waste time sending cold emails or they don't know how to use their networks to get warm introductions. Don't underestimate your network! You'll be surprised at how many people want to see you win and are willing to support you. 𝟏. 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 I've shared the how behind this before, but before you raise you should have a spreadsheet of 250-300 funds with the following information: 1. Name of fund 2. Website 3. Investor name(s) 4. Who can intro? Columns 1-3 should be populated for every fund and investor on your list 𝟐. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 Search each investor's name on LinkedIn and see who you're connected to that's a mutual connection. You only need to meet with ONE person from each fund, so if each fund has a team of 3 people, chances are that you have at least one mutual connection between the two of you. Ideally, this is a 1st level connection, but 2nd level is okay too. 𝟑. 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭 Once you find the mutual connection(s), add them to your spreadsheet in the "Who can intro?" column. 𝟒. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐤 Reach out to the mutual connections to ask them if they can introduce you to the investors. You can do this via email, text, or even DM; pick whatever channel you have the most direct line to the person in. When asking for an intro, be direct. A lot of people with connections to investors are used to getting requests for intros, so you don't need to warm them up or ask for a call before you ask for the intro (use your best judgment here, though; if you think a call would be good then go for it). To ask for an intro, send the mutual connection a forwardable email that they can pass along to the investor without having to make any edits. Include your company's one-liner, traction, and a link to your pitch deck in that email. 𝟓. 𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭 Run through 20-25 funds at a time, knowing that you'll get meetings with 25-30% of the funds you ask for intros to. You have people in your corner cheering you on. Let them help you by opening up their networks to you. I write to help underrepresented founders get funded in my weekly newsletter Finessing Funding. You can subscribe at the link in the comments 👇🏾 #fundraising #blackfounders #vc