How should I contact funds? And other fundraising tips

Once you've discovered the first set of funds you should talk to, from your friends and hopefully from this website, the next question is what should you do next? Once you are confident of beginning your fundraise, here is something to remember for the next few months:

Tip 1: "50 first dates" - you need to talk to 50 investors to raise a round. 

And here are the rest of our tips:

• "Be in fundraising mode or not" says Paul Graham - don't believe you can raise by putting in a little bit of effort, some of the time. Fundraising will take almost full time effort by one founder for three months (which is great if you have more than one founder)
• Now that I have my list of funds, how should I contact them?:
  • The best way is always through an introduction: ask every one of your friends if they know any seed stage investors well
  • In fact, the first funds you approach should be on your list simply because your friends can introduce you
  • After those few intros, LinkedIn search the investors (specific people) from the funds you shortlisted and find common connects. Call any common connect you know well - you will have to find someone who actually knows the investor well
  • Make sure you try every route for an introduction: if common connects didn't work, visit the LinkedIn's of the founders of every portfolio company of that fund and see if you can get a warm intro to that FOUNDER. Speak to the portfolio founder, get a fund introduction. This is a super time consuming activity but is worth it
  • There will be some funds you cannot find an intro for; that's ok. Email the investor in the fund directly. Do not email every investor in the fund, they talk to each other (!) and hate this. If you don't get a reply after 2 follow-ups, email the next person in the fund
  • The form's on investors websites are generally ignored. Calling or whatsapp'ing them is a terrible idea. You can LinkedIn message them- this is still ok
• When you email a fund always:
  • Keep your email introduction to 5-6 lines: who you are, what you are building, who your customer is, the market you are in
  • Avoid jargon - explain your business like you would explain it to a customer, not a professor
  • Always attach a deck
  • Never cross 10-12 slides
  • The less text within a slide, the better. See the DoorDash Y-Combinator pitch video on YouTube
  • Don't ask for NDAs
  • Mention how much you are raising
  • Don't mention a valuation unless a lead investor has already set it. You do not decide the valuation, investor's discuss it with you once they are in principle interested in investing

• Before you have a call or meeting, make sure you checked every company they invested in and make sure you have a question (1-2) for the investor at the end
• Keep improving your deck and email introduction every time you get feedback from an investor, to make your pitch clearer
• We will continue adding tips to this site, but the above are some essential points for you to start. Good luck!

Here is some motivation to help you raise (read the links too):

"On June 26, 2008, our friend Michael Seibel introduced us to 7 prominent investors in Silicon Valley. We were attempting to raise $150,000 at a $1.5M valuation. That means for $150,000 you could have bought 10% of Airbnb. Below you will see 5 rejections. The other 2 did not reply."from Brian Chesky's blog

"...if we had invested in any of these companies, we might not still be working."Bessemer Venture Partners Anti-Portfolio