🚀 How to build relationships with VCs before fundraising?

3 tactics for building relationships with VCs

🔍 Track and tailor investor conversations

• Tier investors into two buckets:

  • Tier 1: Ideal investors you'd love to raise from.

  • Tier 2: A larger group of investors you will be interested in, but you’re not as excited about.

• Track conversations: note their success metrics, excitement drivers, and how they define “good” vs. “great”.

• Ask questions to get specific details. (Eg. How do you define strong ARR growth?)

• Extract competitive insights. (Eg. What is the investor seeing across the competitive landscape? What are other companies in the same space doing well?)

• Map investor data to assess alignment and identify the best fits for your direction.

🤝 Build direct relationships with individual investors

• Build rapport with the individual partner, not just the fund—make them feel special and engaged. (Eg. “I don't usually talk to most inbounds but…”)

• Provide a special, ‘just for you’ content that's not publicly accessible, with each interaction. (Eg. short, private demo video of a new feature)

• Walk them through your company vision, execution, and goals for the next year.

📢 Make yourself discoverable 

• Investors search for public info—create content they’ll find to stay on their radar.

• Share simple vlogs or videos showing customer interactions and use cases.

• Give an inside look at your company’s progress to build trust and visibility.

2 traps to avoid

🚨Burning your intro with investors

• Don’t rush into meeting your top investors before refining your pitch.

• You only get one shot with an investor—if it flops, it’s tough to get a second chance until your next funding round.

🚨Sharing metrics prematurely

• Only share metrics if you can exceed them.

  • Mention “We’re not disclosing any metrics outside of fundraising cycles, but here’s what I can share…” 

  • Focus on customer stories (eg. What is the business value customers are getting? What are the customers saying? What are the exciting things that are happening outside the four walls of the company?) 

• Investors will track your progress, and underperformance will hurt your credibility.

• Use metrics strategically to build excitement and create FOMO.

1 tool to leverage

✉️ Best practice for checking in with investors

• Check in with your top 5 Tier 1 and Tier 2 investors every 3-6 months for 30-60 minutes.

• Leverage tools like Trello to organize them and create a light CRM with dealflow stages.