Investor Outreach Best Practices
In this article we collected some tips for reaching out to potential investors when you’re looking to raise funding for your startup:
The best way to reach an investor is via a founder of their portfolio company. Investors will take that introduction 100% of the time. Look at the startups they invested in and see if there is someone that you know that you can reach out. If you think one of the startups is aligned, or perhaps in an adjacent market, you could always connect with the founder and establish a relationship.
Second best way is via a warm introduction. See who in your network is connected and see if they would be willing to reach out on your behalf.
LinkedIn is designed for this exact reason, but a few things to keep in mind.
Some people only accept people that they are already connected to in business. While others accept all invitations without any filtering. But once you have a connection you can access their email and send them a more detailed communication. A few pro tips for Linkedin:
Always send a custom invitation when you reach out. Share a little about your company, but just enough to make them curious, because you have only 300 characters. LinkedIn’s Contact Information section includes their email and any social accounts they have listed or personal/professional blogs/websites.
Red the investors’ “About” and “Experience” area on the firm’s website. Some people put e-mail address there or mention they don’t accept cold LinkedIn requests. Be sure to read that and respect their suggested method of interaction.
Let them notice you – like, comment and share their posts or articles they have authored.
So sit down with a coffee and a commitment to a certain amount of uninterrupted time and do your research.
Aside from Google, a few resources include Signal https://signal.nfx.com.
We hope this article was useful to you and you can choose your own approach how to reach out to potential investors. If you have other advice, don’t hesitate to share in the comments!
