Fundraising Communication Tips

I sent the same appeal to 10,000 donors. One version raised $67,000. The other raised $142,000. The only difference? Where I put the word "you." Donor-centered writing isn't just nice—it's profitable: • "You" in the first sentence increases response by 23% • Stories about donors (not beneficiaries) raise more money • Questions outperform statements in both open and response rates One organization rewrote their case statement from "we need" to "you can" language and saw major gift closes increase by 41%. The most powerful word in fundraising isn't "give"—it's "you." What small language shift has made the biggest difference in your fundraising?

I send over 2,000 investor outreach messages a month, here’s what actually works… Fundraising isn’t just a numbers game—it’s a relationship game. Founders often push for a quick “no” because it’s easier than building a genuine relationship. Whilst fundraising and sales have a lot in common, treating investors like a sales prospect will never work. Here’s what I’ve learned: 1️⃣ Targeting matters – Spray and pray is over. Every message needs intent. You should be able to explain why you’re reaching out to that specific investor and how they align with your vision. 2️⃣ Genuine conversations beat pitches – Numbers are important, but real conversations win. Investors can sense when you're just pushing for a deal. Build relationships first. The trust will follow. 3️⃣ Content is king – Your message needs to be clear, concise, and exciting. Forget the fluff. Make sure you’re showcasing the unique opportunity you’re offering in a way that grabs attention from the first line. 4️⃣ Focus on value, not the ask – Investors don’t want to feel like a cash machine. Show them why this deal matters and how it aligns with their interests, rather than just asking for their money. Relationships win funding. Build those, and the deals will follow. #Fundraising #Investment #Founder #PitchDeck #AngelInvestor #VC #Mentality #Outreach

Here are some of the best ways I've found to get your emails opened more often. Ever find yourself staring at your screen, wondering why your emails seem to vanish into the digital ether? Let’s change that! Here’s your quick, no-BS guide to crafting B2B sales emails that get you a reply. 1. Personalize, Don’t Templatize Yes, we’ve all got templates. But guess what? So does everyone else. Take a minute to tweak that email. Mention a recent achievement of their company, comment on a LinkedIn post they’ve shared, or bring up a mutual connection. Make it so personalized they can’t help but think, “Wow, this person really did their homework!” 2. Value Proposition: Make It Snappy! Get to the point. What can you do for them? And no, “increasing ROI” isn’t good enough. Be specific. How have you helped a similar company achieve X% growth in Y months? Numbers talk. Fluff walks. 3. Subject Line: Your Make or Break This is your foot in the door. Make it intriguing, make it short and personal, and for heaven’s sake, make it spam-proof. Questions work wonders. 4. CTA: Clear, Compelling, and Clickable What’s your email’s endgame? A call, a demo, a free trial? Whatever it is, make it clear and easy. “Click here to schedule a call at your convenience” with a link is straightforward and respects their time. 5. Follow-Up: Persistence Pays Didn’t get a reply? Don’t sweat it. People are busy. A gentle nudge a week later can work miracles. Just don’t be that person who sends a daily “Just following up” email. Bonus Tip: Inject a bit of humor or a personal touch. We’re all humans here (until AI takes over, at least). A little personality goes a long way. Remember, the goal isn’t just to sell but to start meaningful conversations that could lead to fruitful partnerships. I would love to hear your success stories or epic failures (we’ve all been there). Share below!

If you're a founder who's struggling to land your first 20 VC meetings, try this 👇🏾 Founders who are raising venture capital for the first time usually make these three mistakes (I know because I made them, too). 1. They cold email investors 2. They reach out to any investor they can find 3. They focus too much on traction But here's how to fix them: INSTEAD OF COLD EMAIL, INVEST IN INTROS Warm intros convert at 10x the rate of cold emails. Here's how to do it with your own network: 1. Map your network. List your top 20 connections in tech, startups, or VC. 2. Research their VC connections on LinkedIn using filters for "ventures," "capital," and "partners." 3. Email your connections to confirm which VCs they'd introduce you to. 4. Match funds to your business. Verify thesis, geography, and investment stage align. 5. Request specific introductions and follow up to secure meetings. I secured over 50 introductions through my network, despite not having a Rolodex of Silicon Valley connections. If I can do it, you can too. INSTEAD OF SPRAYING AND PRAYING, TARGET YOUR SEARCH Once you've exhausted warm intros, you need to be surgical about who else you target. 1. Go to Crunchbase. 2. Find the profiles for 30 companies in your industry 3. Look to see who invested in their seed rounds and add those investors to your target list. Pro tip: Filter by "Funding Rounds" and look ONLY at deals from the last 18 months. Pro tip #2: Look for indirect competitors. Seldom will a VC invest in 2 companies that do the same thing. For me, this meant looking at other companies that operate in HR tech but in verticals like benefits or recruiting. INSTEAD OF PITCHING TRACTION, LEAD WITH VISION The final mistake almost killed my raise. Use your traction to supplement your vision, not replace it. We were doing $100K in ARR before we went out to raise our pre-seed. But investors consistently poked holes, saying we wouldn't be able to grow past a couple of million in ARR. So I had to change it up. Instead of talking about traction first, I led with our vision to help companies connect their internal communities to their different business units, and then casually mentioned that we were doing $100k ARR. This let investors know we were building something with potential to scale, but that we were scrappy enough to get real traction without funding. - - - Landing your first 20 VC meetings can be difficult. But once you build the muscle for conducting outreach, identifying proper VCs, and crafting a pitch that gets them excited, it becomes much easier. When I addressed the above mistakes, I would have anywhere between 5-10 VC meetings a week on the way to our $790k pre-seed round. I built a free template to help you map your network and find warm intro paths to VCs. I'll share the template that helped me map 100+ investors in the comments 👇🏾

📥 Reviewing all inbound pitches Not all investors require warm intros. 💷 Last year I made investments into a material science and a medtech startup, both originating from cold inbound emails. The latter used the following text (copied with permission but with details redacted): "Dear Avonmore Developments I hope you are well. I have been following your investments and compiled a list approximately 4 months ago of who I believe would add huge value for the Medtech [....] start up that I have co-founded with Dr [….] I believe Avonmore Developments would bring immense value beyond just potential investment and would love to pitch our venture (pitchdeck attached). I was a huge fan of OC Robotics that you have invested in previously. Since starting 8 months ago, we have had significant traction with 4/5 grants won, defensible platform IP filing and numerous other prizes. We started our funding round last week and already have £200k committed. We have a deep understanding of our market and expect a 250 million dollar exit in 3 years. To be completely honest, it would be great to just meet Mr Simon Blakey [....]! Best wishes” 💡Why this email stood out: ✔️ Reference to both me and my portfolio (specific reference to Avonmore and a past investment, OC Robotics) ✔️ Evidence of traction (e.g., grant success, IP filing, funding momentum). ✔️ Clear market understanding and a compelling vision for the startup’s future. ✔️ Genuine and personalized outreach, showing they’d taken time to craft their approach. I feel too many pitch emails fail to check even a few of these boxes. Alongside a concise pitch deck, there was enough here to arrange an intro call and the rest is history… 📖 Best of luck to entrepreneurs embarking on their fundraising journeys 🚀 And to fellow investors, especially those at the pre-seed stage: please keep an open mind about those cold inbound pitches! 🙏

Last week, a founder reached out to me in tears. She'd sent 47 emails to investors. Zero responses.💢 After 8 years of helping startups raise capital, I've learned why most emails fail.❗️ 💡Here's what actually works: Keep your first email under 100 words. Open with your traction, not your dreams.🎯 📝Follow up exactly 3 days later. Not 2, not 4. The sweet spot is 72 hours when their memory of you is still fresh. 📌Send your emails between 5-7 AM their time. You'll be at the top of their inbox when they start their day. Bonus: 💡Include a single, specific ask. "Can I get your thoughts on our AI model?" works better than "Would love to connect." End with urgency💢, not desperation. "We're closing our round in 3 weeks" is more compelling than "Looking forward to hearing from you." That founder? She implemented these changes. 4 investors responded within 48 hours. 2 meetings scheduled. 1 term sheet in discussion.💯 Share your experiences—let's spark a conversation! #startupfunding #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #investing #startups #fundraising #financials #investors #founders #investorpitchdecks #pitchdeck #pitchdeckagency

With close to no network in the venture / tech industry, I managed to raise from some of the most high-profile angels (and VCs) in Europe. As people often ask me how I went about it - I thought I'd spend some time on this topic 💫 I used a simple method, which has been called 'the entrepreneur's unsung super power', which was initially introduced to me by Riya Pabari 🙏 VCs & angel investors get 1000s of cold emails / messages and most of those end up without a response. So how do you crack this? On the surface it's pretty straight forward: you need warm intros. Most people mess this step up by putting all of the work on the connector. 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿'𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 "The forwardable email is an email you write specifically for the Target, but you send to The Connector for them to forward it to The Target on your behalf." - Jonathan Woahn (see his fantastic blog in the comments) Why is the forwardable email so powerful? • It takes ALL friction away from the connector - they literally need to press one button • You prove that you're ready to 'do the work' • The email is personalised with a reason as to why The Target should speak to you I'm confident that using this technique will 3x your chances of getting an intro to anyone - though I have 0 data to back up that statement 😂 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹? 1) An intro to the 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥 - they can choose to use this or copy the bottom of your email to the 𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗘𝗧 2) Remind the connector what you want them to do (remember, they are busy!) 3) Present the opportunity to the target (what's in it for them?) 4) Clear ask, what's the outcome? (phone call, meeting?) 5) Make it short 6) Attach the long email to the target below the email 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴? Below is an email I sent to Bradley Horowitz - our most helpful angel in our fundraising. --- Hi Bradley, I appreciate you offering to connect me with Patrick, regarding an investment in our upcoming Seed Round. I think we'd be a great fit with Tuesday Capital, given their knowledge of the space given investments in Wonolo as well as multiple Fintech companies.  As discussed previously, I've included a quick introduction about the company & the traction for you to send below the signature. Thanks so much for the help 🙌 Jonatan --- Hi Patrick, Fantastic to meet you! My name is Jonatan, I'm the co-founder and CEO at All Gravy.  We're currently fundraising for our Seed Round and given your investments in companies like Wonolo, InstaWork and Alto App, I believe that we would be a good fit with your investment thesis - and that you'll be able to provide a lot of value! (... stats on our company) -- Hope this is helpful 💫

3 donor emails that aren’t “asks” but still bring in donations We all know the direct asks matter. But some of the most effective emails I’ve helped send aren’t official campaigns or appeals. They’re moments of relationship. Here are 3 types of emails that donors seem to love and that often lead to surprise gifts: ⸻ 📬 1. The “We Did the Thing” Email Subject: We just finished it. Thank you. You promised to build a playground / fund a program / send kids to camp. This email says: We did. Because of you. Photos. A quote. A short paragraph. That’s it. People love seeing the result of their generosity. 📬 2. The “Saw This and Thought of You” Email Subject: This made me think of you. It might be a story from the field. A note from a beneficiary. Even a newspaper article. You send it to 1–5 specific donors with a personal sentence like: “You’ve always cared about ___, and this reminded me of you.” It’s not a pitch. It’s a connection. And it works. 📬 3. The “No Reason but Gratitude” Email Subject: No ask. Just thanks. A short note that simply says: “We’re so grateful for you. No updates, no links—just gratitude.” I do this quarterly. You’d be amazed how many people hit reply with: “How can I help?” Fundraising is more than asking. It’s paying attention. It’s following up. It’s letting people feel the difference they make. Which of these have you tried or would you add a fourth to the list?

Founders, if you’re fundraising, here’s the hard truth: Your first real pitch is the email you send. And most of them? Brutal. – No deck – No context – Five paragraphs before you say what you do – Or worse… 17 attachments and no clear ask VCs get 100+ emails a week. If we have to work to figure out what your company does… we won’t. You can call it harsh. I call it reality. The bar is low—here’s how to clear it: ✅ Write 4-5 sentence email max ✅ Attach a PDF deck ✅ Make the deck digestible in 60 seconds ✅ Say what you want (and why us) ✅ Don’t expect a meeting off the first touch Fundraising is sales. And sales is about reducing friction. Make it easy to say yes. Or at least easy to understand. The rest is follow-up and timing. #startups #fundraising #venturecapital #founderadvice #pitchdeck #earlystageVC

What I’d do if I had to raise a pre-seed round with no warm intros: Let’s say I lost my network. No VCs in my inbox. No warm intros. No signal boost. And I needed to raise $1m. Here’s exactly how I’d do it 👇 1. Build a target list on Signal by NFX I’d go deep — not just any seed fund, but ones actively deploying, who’ve backed similar markets or models. I’d aim for 100+ names. 2. Stack-rank them by likelihood to engage Funds that invest in first-time teams? Have a focus on my space? Based in my geography? They go to the top. 3. Write insanely tailored cold emails No “we’re building a game-changer.” Instead: ➡ Specific problem ➡ Why I’m uniquely suited to solve it ➡ Clear traction or early signal ➡ Why this firm might care ➡ One link to a deck or teaser (And yes — I'd write every email individually.) 4. Get in the right founder circles Slack groups, WhatsApp chains, run clubs, operator communities, etc. I’ve seen more checks come through these than most realize. The right founder network = amplification engine. 5. Reach out to other founders they've funded Quick message. Ask how the process was. You’d be surprised how many will forward a deck if they believe in you. 6. Keep momentum with structured follow-up Airtable, Notion, CRM — whatever keeps you moving. This is a sales process, and it rewards organization and velocity. If you do all this well? You don’t need 100 meetings. You need ~6 good ones.