Dear SaaStr: What is the best way to connect and/or share a pitch deck with potential investors?
There are 3 basic ways to connect with investors. It’s really just sales — remember that. Albeit a very nichey type of sales.
And so you use a modified version of the traditional sales playbook. Don’t play games. Do your homework (like any great sales rep), be present where the prospects are, and put your best foot forward:
- Top Events. Like anything, the top events work. The rest, not so much. The #1 event for seed VCs is YC Demo Day. But all good demo days bring out some top-tier investors. As do top tech events like WebSummit, Collision, Viva Tech, SaaStr Annual and Europa, etc. 1000+ VCs will be at 2023 SaaStr Annual alone. Enter a top accelerator if you can. In the end, they will connect you with a lot of investors (although they may not invest).
- PR. Yes, PR works with VCs. Get Techcrunch to write about you. Be #1 on ProductHunt. Have top influences write about your app. This won’t get everyone’s attention. But it often gets some.
- Warm Intros. These work in any types of sales, and they work in selling stock especially well. VCs are looking for signals. There are just so, so many early-stage start-ups, so you are looking for signals it maybe, just maybe, can be a unicorn. A top signal is when someone a VC truly respects says “this startup is amazing.” That works. It gets a meeting, like 50%+ of the time. But — many of us don’t have the right connections to get top warm intros. So …
- The World’s Best Cold Email. Yes, these do work. But the email has to be great. Here’s the thing. Yes, most VCs would like to fund a company with the most signals, the top warm intro, the best acceleration, the best everything. But — almost every VC reads any amazing email they get. This is the same in most categories of sales. VCs are in email all day long. If you send a mediocre email, or just ask for coffee … you’ll get no response. But if it’s the best, targeted, carefully crafted, incredibly compelling email — it will at least get read. And it may even get a meeting. Yes, at least through Series A or so, top VCs do open and read great cold emails. More on that here.
Take a look at 2 cold emails I funded for millions … one of which is now worth billions here, the other which just closed their first million dollar deal, here:
