Who they are, what they want, and how to find the right ones for your round. A practical guide for founders raising capital for the first time.
Start Building Your Deck Read the case studies →By the time you've heard back from your tenth cold email and your second “not the right fit”, you've already learnt half of this. We wrote it down so the next founder doesn't have to.
Investors aren't a single audience. They write different cheque sizes, at different stages, with different return expectations. Knowing which one you're talking to changes how you pitch.
Individuals investing their own money, usually at the earliest stages. Fast decisions, smaller cheques, often invest because they like the founder or know the space.
Professional funds investing other people's money. Looking for fast-growing, venture-scale businesses that can return the entire fund. More process, bigger cheques, longer relationships.
Private wealth managers investing on behalf of a single wealthy family. Often more patient capital, broader mandates, less pressure to exit on a fixed timeline.
Investment arms of large companies (Google Ventures, Salesforce Ventures). Strategic as well as financial — expect questions about how you fit into their wider business.
Programmes like Y Combinator, Techstars, or Antler. Small cheque in exchange for equity, plus mentoring, network access, and a demo day at the end.
Non-dilutive funding from bodies like Innovate UK, the British Business Bank, or sector-specific schemes. Slower process but you don't give up equity.
Most companies that raise outside money go through a fairly predictable sequence of rounds. Each stage has different expectations — and a different kind of investor on the other side of the table.
An idea, a prototype, or the first hints of a working product. Usually friends, family, angels, and pre-seed funds. The bet is on the founder, not the metrics.
£25k – £500kA working product, early customers, signs of demand. Angels and seed-stage VCs. The bet is that you can find product-market fit with this round.
£500k – £3mClear product-market fit, repeatable growth, real revenue. Tier-one VCs lead. The bet is that you can scale what's already working.
£2m – £15mProven model, growing fast, expanding into new markets or product lines. Larger funds, growth investors, sometimes corporate VCs.
£10m – £50m+Underneath all the jargon, most early-stage investors are checking the same handful of things. Get clear on these and your deck almost writes itself.
Cold outreach works less often than founders think. Most rounds close through warm intros, networks, and being visible in the right rooms.
The single highest-conversion channel. A founder who's already in the investor's portfolio is the best route in. Map your network before you map investors.
Crunchbase, Pitchbook, Dealroom, Beauhurst. Filter by stage, sector, and recent activity. Aim for investors who've done deals like yours in the last 12 months.
Build in public, post about what you're learning, comment thoughtfully on investors' content. Slow burn, but warms up cold outreach significantly.
Y Combinator, Techstars, Antler, EF, Seedcamp. They give you small money and a structured intro to hundreds of investors at demo day.
Sector-specific demo days, university pitch contests, government innovation events. Often free, often attended by exactly the investors you need.
Senior employees at successful startups invest privately. Easier to reach than VCs, often add huge operational value, and can introduce you to bigger funds later.
A pitch deck isn't a business plan. It's a tool to get to the next meeting. Most investors decide in under three minutes whether to keep reading.
The mistakes that cost most rounds aren't on the slides — they're in the approach.
Knowing what investors want is half the work. The other half is showing them in a deck that's actually worth their three minutes.
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