<aside> 💡 This is a big one, and one often done wrong. When you raise you want to be well known to your investors. If you're not, the raise will take much longer, like maybe 3-6 months longer than you think.

Build your list 3 months before you want to raise. Start building relationships. It's as simple as connecting via sharing your monthly updates, and taking it from there.

</aside>

Step 1 - Get a Warm Intro to Investor X

• Get introductions to people on your investor hit list
  • Ask us to make this intro for you, an intro from an existing investor in the business will yield the best results
• Be clear that you are not actively raising, and you are just reaching out.

<aside> 📖 Email: Thanks for the intro Sean, Hey X, love the work that you and your team have done at Y and would love to have a chat. We are not actively raising at the moment but instead looking to build relationships with investors where we think there is strong alignment. I’m actually going to be in Y if you want to get a coffee? Could also do Zoom if that’s easier. Have attached a demo so you can get a feel for how we delight our customers. Looking forward to catching up!

</aside>

Step 3 - Ask Questions to Investor X

• You are getting to know the investor as much as they are getting to know you. Use this time in the relationship building phase to collect valuable data.
• The following questions are essential:
  • Do you lead rounds?
  • What is your minimum cheque size?
  • Are you deploying capital at the moment?
  • What sectors do you invest in?
  • What does your investment process look like?
• The next questions are less essential, but personally I would ask them:
  • What is your personal career story?
  • What companies excite you?
  • How do you create value for startups?

Step 3 - Add Investor X to CRM

• You need a CRM (Can be Notion or Google Sheets) to manage the investors that you have spoken with, information about their fund and a rough gage of their interest level in your company from this first casual conversation.
• The CRM allows you to input all the answers you have collected above which will be invaluable when you meet this investor again and refine your hitlist for your actual raise.

Step 4 - Send Newsletter to Investor X

• Ask each investor that you meet with if you can add them to a monthly newsletter about the company (almost all will say Yes)
• Send out a monthly newsletter to all the investors in your CRM, it should give a brief guide of how you are tracking.
• The key is to show your progression, your ability to execute and your ability to be transparent about the problems that are facing your business.
  • It is advantageous for the following reasons:
    • It allows investors to help, there might be a customer intro that one can make in their network
    • It allows investors to build trust over time

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