Why Pro Founders Raise More $ Faster

Today, I’m gonna show you how to keep your investors warm.

When you’re awesome at keep potential investors up-to-date on your progress, you end up having to pitch 100s (or even thousands) fewer to get funded.

You save months, burn less cash, have more energy, reduce your stress, raise your round faster… everything.

Unfortunately, even some founders who have raised millions don’t know this:

Investors don’t want to talk to you all the time.

Investors are busy.

Just like customers, 30% are interested, but just "not right now"

At the same time you’re asking them for money, they’re also dealing with…

• Helping connect 6 of their founders with 10 different people
• Reviewing existing portfolio founders’ performance
• Raising their next $100,000,000+ fund
• Hearing 10 other pitches today
• Speaking with 4 different LPs

They’ve got a lot on their plate, and they don’t need you to add to the noise.

The best thing you can do: stay on their radar, low-maintenance. Not needy.

Here's how to be best-in-class:

Step 1: Get your Investor Update list organized

Two tiers of list:

1. Potential investors - they don’t get the truly confidential stuff (though you can tease it as bait)
2. Existing investors - get full info

Having two tiers means every conversation, every pitch you are getting a second shot to do a deal.

All you’ve gotta do: tell them you have an investor email list, and ask if you can keep them updated.

[I do this with every one of my potential clients I speak to in my initial call booking form.]

Sign up EVERY potential investor, but only upgrade them to Tier 2 Existing Investors once they’ve cut a check.

Tech stack genuinely does not matter, but here are my recos based on stage:

• Starter: Gmail Contact Labels
• Intermediate: ActiveCampaign
• Advanced: Carta
• Honorable mention: Visible.vc is good, but a bit expensive IMO

Step 2: Set up your template

Fastest way to NOT get your update read = sprawling, disorganized text

You don’t wanna reinvent the wheel every time. Set it up well, one time, then Save it in templates as your go-to.

Bullet points under the following headings:

1. Tl;dr - 5-7 bullets of the most important things
2. The Story - discuss progress
3. Key Metrics - 3-4 of your most important stats
4. Investor Asks - intros you need, fundraising activities, specific social initiatives etc
5. Hits & Highlights - social highlights & press. Always include links to your main brand socials & a recent photo/post
6. Financials - 1 or 2 graphs. Typically revenue + true north KPI

Don’t try to pack it all in - shorter is BETTER.

Step 3: Don’t screw up

Typos are OK - wrong data is not.

Here’s a few tips to make sure you don’t mess up:

1. Confidential on Subject Line + top & bottom of the email Confidential - Do Not Forward
2. Consistent in delivery. Start with Quarterly, and only go monthly if you commit to doing monthly basically forever.
3. Short as it can possibly be. “Reach out, always happy to chat.” A call is always great, especially when well-informed
4. Review before it goes out. I call this my “Oh sh*t” filter that allows me to stop emails before they go out / undo Send
5. Schedule it. These are important mass emails. I write them one day, then schedule send for tomorrow morning.

Consistent x Professional = you’re in a whole other league in investors’ eyes.

A little comms goes a long way.

Whenever you get a “come back to us later,” it’s 10x easier to reactivate a potential investor relationship after they’ve seen your name pop up in their inbox once a month for the past 9 months.

You don’t want to have to have the same “Hey here’s where we’re at now” update conversation with 50 different people anyway… do you?

You want them to just press Reply with...

“Hey, saw you were raising - good time to chat?”

So now, go get set up.

I’ll see you next week.