An Ode to Cold Outreach

From https://odetocoldoutreach.notion.site/An-Ode-to-Cold-Outreach

Hi fellow founders! 👋

Yuliya Bel here. Fundraising is not easy. It takes an incredible amount of time (at least 2-4 months), energy (this will be your full time job) and nuance to do it well. To increase your chances of getting to term sheet – you have to 1) build a network of founders, angels, investors and operators and 2) run a really good process.

In the spirit of founders helping founders, particularly those who are underrepresented and under-networked, I’ve put together a guide and list of investors who are open to strategic cold outreach from founders who are in the process of raising.

For feedback, DMs open: @YBelyayeva.

👋 Investors join the list: here

🧠 To successfully use the No-Warm-Intro-Required list

How to be thoroughly strategic in your outreach:

• Do your homework: does this investor invest in your vertical, at your stage, and appropriate check size
• Make it tailored: why is this investor interesting (ex: investor’s particular value add, previous investments, reference their content/blog post)?
• Keep it short and human
• Triple check spelling and names
• Don’t spam! Remember that this is the start of a possibly 7-10 year relationship, so start it with your best foot forward.

Hustle Fund’s Elizabeth Yin wrote an amazing post on how to cold-email investors.

🛎 Before you dive in:

Please note: This list is meant to bolster, not completely replace, a strategic and well-run fundraising process.

Although many investors here have invested in start-ups without a former introduction, the fundraising process tends to be quicker and smoother if you do an initial search and see if you have any mutual connections to make the intro or create some buzz around you first.

Not everyone comes with a network — this is one of the reasons that underrepresented factors continue to not have access to capital. These steps will help you mitigate challenges.

How to increase odds of getting a meeting? Run through this checklist:

• [ ] Target list. Put together a list of ~100 most relevant investors for your start-up.
• [ ] Research if anyone on your LinkedIn, Twitter, former colleagues, college alumni has a connection to the investor or the firm. If you have a few connections, think through which person’s endorsement would be the most enthusiastic and strongest.
• [ ] Make a short and human blurb about your company, milestones/North Star KPIs, your raise progress that can be easily forwarded.
• [ ] Build a network of founders. Founders are allies and friends who have been through the wringer to know how tough the journey is. Besides support, they can help with putting in a good word to investors as they themselves get funded.
  • You should also connect with founders of portfolio companies of investors from your list. They are the #1 best intro you can get.
• [ ] Join bootcamps, accelerators, pitch competitions. Some are equity- and capital-free, and they provide a scalable way to grow a network.
  • 👉 I recently participated in Afore VC’s Zero-to-1 cohort, All Raise’s Seed Bootcamp, and On Deck Fellowship (ODF6) – all equity-free. If you’re thinking about joining, I made a list of founders who’d be up to connect and talk through their experience, interviewing, etc. here
• [ ] Build in public on Twitter. This is easily one of the most hackable – but time intensive – processes to build a community, reputation and get on investors’ radar.
  • 👉 How to do this well: My friend KP‘s Build in Public and Gaby Goldberg‘s The Building in Public How-To Guide
• [ ] Build proof points and articulate narrative well. Much has been written about when it is the best time to raise and how to get investors’ attention. It really boils down to when you can present a clear case for why your idea and your team are fundable.

  If you’re a first time founder, you’ll need a larger data set of proof points to de-risk the investment for investors. These include a strong combination of: KPIs around traction, retention, milestones, user testimonials, first hires, early partnerships, buzz on social, authentic loyalty from community, depth of discovery. Add a narrative to your proof point data set and you are going to be in a strong shape for the raise.

• [ ] If you’re still have gaps in reaching investors from your target list, plug in the No-Warm-Intro-Required list using the success tips in the first section👇 **

🤠 With any feedback or thoughts, please shoot me a DM @ybelyayeva and pass it forward!

👋 Investors join the list: here

No-warm-intro-required investor list

👉 The investor spreadsheet is here.

A general breakdown:

• 160+ investors
• Top 5 verticals: B2B, Productivity/Future of Work, Enterprise Software, SaaS, AI/ML
• Up-and-coming verticals: Focus on no code, Clean energy/Greentech, Foodtech, Edtech, Media/Adtech
• Start-up stage breakdown (overlap from multi-stage investors):
  • Early stage: Seed stage (80%), Pre-seed (67%), First check (36%)
  • Growth stage: Series A (57%), Series B (21%)
  • Late stage: Series C (10%), IPO (4%)
• Almost half lead rounds
• Almost half invested from strategic cold outreach

With investors from:

👉 If you are an institutional or angel investor who is open to additional dealflow or another way to build a more thriving and transparent tech ecosystem, please complete this form to join.

Additional Resources*

• Running a fundraising process:
  • Steve Schlafman’s fundraising guide from Founder Library
• Matchmaking resources: I’m a huge fan of what DocSend is doing in giving the power back to the founders through knowledge and access to capital.
  • They are helping founders get funded: submit your pitch deck to apply to DocSend’s Fundraising Network and get matched to opted-in investors
• For non-dilutive capital raising: There are other ways to raise capital for scalability and growth that does not entail giving up a portion of your start-up.
  • **How to Get Funding For Your Startup That’s Not Venture Capital** by Gefen Skolnick and Miki Reynolds

*If you’d like to include a resource, DM me.

• Category: Venture Capital