12 Tips for Startup Fundraising Process *1. Start with clear | 🦄 Unicorn Mafia Startup

12 Tips for Startup Fundraising Process

*1. Start with clear one-line description.* Test it on 20-50 people. Ask them to repeat it back to you. Would your parents understand this one-line description?

*2. Find a hot trend you can attach yourself to.* Find a new space that's currently popular with investors that is related to your work. Can you teach investors something new there? Ask other founders what trendy topics you should align with.

*3. Write a paragraph description.* It should include your one-line explainer, alignment with a popular trend, and your key achievements.
*4. Develop your investor materials.* Can be a deck or text summary. Share in chats with other founders and get some honest feedback.

*5. Start your investor list.* Look what investors backed similar companies on Angel List, Crunchbase and NfX Signal. Look for new funds announcements. Your initial list should have at least 50-100 lines. Use Google Sheets or Airtable for sharing and collaboration.

*6. Connect with other founders.* Look for startups in your field who raised venture funding before. Ask for advice, not intros. Give them more context, in writing. Don't ask for calls, ask for answer to one specific question. Find founders in your space in industry chats, e.g. "AI Founders".

*7. Develop your target investor persona.* Don't aim for world's most famous investors, unless you have an insane track record or traction. Instead, look for funds and angels who are specialists in your field, share your country of origin, are new to investing, love your mission, etc.

*8. Ask for investor leads.* Share your current investor list and target investor persona with other founders. Ask them what funds and angels can they recommend adding to your list. Your expanded list should have at least 100-200 items.

*9. Finally, ask for intros.* Go to founders you've developed relationships with, give them your paragraph description, longer materials, and the investor list, and ask for warm intros.

*10. Run high-volume process.* Ideally, try to have up to 10 meetings per day. Initial meetings can be 30min each, with extensive chat follow-ups and, when needed, longer second meetings within 3 days.

*11. Keep investors on schedule.* Combine chats and calls to make the process moving as fast as possible. After each step, ask prospective investor "what will be your process from this point to the final decision?"

*12. Back-channels with other founders.* Ask about investor's reputation and any unusual terms in the deal.

By Yury Lifshits @lifshits