How to make friends before fundraising

1. Key Themes

Theme: Pre-raise relationship building is a way to "tilt the market" before the process begins

Relationships come before the formal raise

Meetings before fundraising are not fundraising itself. They exist to pre-qualify investors so the eventual process is faster and more competitive.

"Pre-raise relationship building is what makes the eventual process fast and competitive since it ensures that when you do start fundraising your market is made up of high-quality investors who already want to be there. Think of it as tilting the market in your favor before the auction opens."

Calibrated disclosure is the goal

Founders should create enough excitement for investors to lean in without handing over enough to let them fully evaluate and quietly decide.

"You want to impress investors enough that they lean in without divulging so much that they can fully evaluate your company and quietly decide."

Theme: In the AI era, relationships and intuition are replacing traditional metrics

Weaker traditional signals raise the value of networks

When metrics are less reliable indicators of progress, investors lean on relationships and gut feel. That makes network depth a gating factor for large priced rounds.

"Without being able to rely on traditional metrics or signals of company progress, investors are leaning more heavily on relationships and intuition to guide decisions. Without a proper network of relationships it is significantly harder to raise a substantial priced round."

Strong VC relationships correlate with pre-emptive offers and mega-rounds

"Conversely, founders with strong, excited VC relationships are most likely to receive pre-emptive offers and raise mega-rounds."

Theme: Investor discovery is a major, under-solved problem for founders

The universe of lead investors is far larger than founders realize

Founders typically name 15-20 funds, but the actual lead-investor universe is vast, so rigorous research is a real edge.

"Ask a founder to name the funds that could lead their round and you'll get maybe fifteen or twenty funds with no partner-level detail. Meanwhile, we looked at the Venture Codex's dataset of every Series A in the US, EU, Canada, and Israel from 2023 through September 2026. We counted over 4,700 rounds, led by roughly 2,400 different funds."

Targeting should be criteria-driven and CRM-managed

Build the list by relationship, sector credibility, and niche-specific lead history, and run it like a sales funnel.

"Treat this process like a sales funnel and track it in a system like the Venture FRM."

Verify decision-making authority early

"Pitching non-decision-makers is one of the most common ways founders waste months of time."

Theme: Introductions carry signal, so who makes them matters

Introducer credibility sets the investor's initial read

"Investors make initial evaluations of opportunities through the credibility of that person. Avoid the connectors who introduce everyone to everyone since their introductions carry no signal."

A ranked hierarchy of introducers

From the investor's perspective, in descending order:

"1. Someone who has made them a lot of money (e.g a successful founder they backed) 2. A strong portfolio company of theirs that is your customer 3. One of your existing investors, reputable but clearly unable to lead this round 4. A trusted friend"

Theme: Social media is now an effective investor-sourcing channel

Public posts can outperform other cold outreach

"I'm routinely amazed by the amount of money that gets invested by VCs who reach out to a founder upon seeing an impressive post. It's certainly the best performing 'cold' outreach strategy."

Existing investors' public amplification acts as mass warm intros

"If they publicly promote the post, ideally with their own gloss, it signals to other funds that they are strong advocates. This is effectively a form of mass warm intros, albeit indirectly."

2. Contrarian Perspectives

Don't chase "Tier 1" logos; optimize for partner quality

The article pushes back on the venture world's prestige bias, arguing that the individual partner matters more than the firm brand, and that founders in your space are the best source of truth.

"There is a fetishization in the venture world of 'Tier 1' funds like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst who have funded some of the most iconic startups of the last two decades. But blindly gunning for prestigious names is often a poor strategy. Instead consult founders in your space about who actually helps versus who merely wires money."

Enthusiastic angel help can backfire by inadvertently triggering a process

Well-meaning, unscripted introductions can turn a low-stakes relationship meeting into a premature pitch. The fix is to script the introducer.

"Angels love to help but their unscripted help sounds like: 'You have to meet this company, they're amazing, and I think they're raising in a month or two.' That can inadvertently trigger a process since the investor now reads everything you say as a pitch, and the relaxed, no-stakes meeting you wanted is gone."

Be openly honest that you're "not fundraising" while everyone knows what the meeting is about

The script is deliberately transparent about the pre-raise nature of the conversation, which paradoxically gives founders control.

"Everyone knows what the meeting is really about, but using the right script ensures you control the process."

Don't announce you're fundraising, even on social

"You should not post that you're going out to fundraise. It's a weird signal, and it constrains your storytelling in the future if the raise doesn't work out."

3. Companies Identified

Venture Codex

• Description: A dataset/resource covering venture rounds and funds.
• Why mentioned: Source of the data illustrating the scale of the investor-discovery problem.
• Quote: "We looked at the Venture Codex's dataset of every Series A in the US, EU, Canada, and Israel from 2023 through September 2026. We counted over 4,700 rounds, led by roughly 2,400 different funds."

Venture FRM

• Description: A system/tool for tracking investor relationships, with searchable fund lists and past investment data.
• Why mentioned: Recommended as the CRM for managing the fundraising funnel and vetting fund relevance.
• Quote: "Treat this process like a sales funnel and track it in a system like the Venture FRM. There you can also search through a comprehensive list of venture funds and review past investment data to ensure they are relevant for you."

Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst

• Description: Prominent "Tier 1" venture capital firms.
• Why mentioned: Used as examples of the prestige-chasing the author cautions against.
• Quote: "There is a fetishization in the venture world of 'Tier 1' funds like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst who have funded some of the most iconic startups of the last two decades."

X (formerly Twitter) / LinkedIn

• Description: Social platforms where many VCs are active.
• Why mentioned: Identified as effective channels for getting noticed by investors.
• Quote: "The venture world is small and many VCs thrive on social media. You can use this to your advantage if you've been building in public or you have a strong social presence."

4. People Identified

Aaron Harris

• Description: Author of the newsletter and of a book-length guide on raising capital.
• Why mentioned: Author and source of the frameworks.
• Quote: "This is the eighth chapter in a book-length guide I'm writing about how to raise capital in a vastly different venture landscape."

5. Operating Insights

Script both introductions and cold outreach with the same message

Give introducers (and use yourself in cold outreach) a consistent line that frames the meeting as relationship-building with a specific, personalized reason.

"Tell your introducer exactly what to say, and use the same line in any cold outreach: we're not fundraising right now, I want to build relationships before we are, and here's the specific reason I want to meet you, the thing you wrote, the company you backed."

Map an introduction path for every investor on your list, and prioritize founders as introducers

Founders are the highest-credibility and most underused source of warm intros.

"For every investor on your list, map out an introduction path for someone to get you in front of that investor... Founders are the best and most underused source. They remember what it was like, and it never hurts to ask."

Post proof points (not fundraising announcements) and mobilize your network, especially existing investors, to amplify them

Share white papers, customer videos, or KPIs, but be certain about any numbers you post.

"Post a white paper, customer video, or impressive KPIs (though be careful here about posting things like revenue unless you are 100% absolutely sure you are right about what you're saying)... leverage your network to like and promote the post."

6. Overlooked Insights

Founders should actively decide when to raise and communicate it clearly

The article frames fundraising timing as a deliberate founder decision rather than a reaction, and it ties this to successful processes.

"Successful founders actively decide when to raise, communicate that decision clearly, and run structured processes."

Competitive portfolio conflicts should be screened during list-building

A subtle but consequential filter when evaluating investors who have led rounds in your niche.

"Have led rounds in your niche (watching carefully for competitive portfolio conflicts)."