Successful Startup 101: September 2014 Successful Startup 101: September 2014 | Page 12

1. Mine AngelList and
CrunchBase to Build a List
of Investor Targets
I’m a big fan of AngelList, and whenever I need
to build a dataset of target investors, it’s the
homepage, navigate to the “People” tab and
use the “Role” header to select the relevant
type of investor (seed, angel, VC, etc.). Next,
“e-commerce,” “Digital Media” etc.). Pick out
names of people you’ve heard good things
about, or who clearly get the space, then add
them to a spreadsheet or dedicated CRM
product.
approach comes from Dan Martell in an answer
on his Clarity site. To paraphrase, he states,
“Find other people [on CrunchBase] who have
raised money and ask them who they got it
a list of all similar companies that successfully
raised money. Next, cold email the CEO/
Founder and ask to schedule a call with them
for advice. Finally, as you develop a rapport
with them, consider asking who their investors
are and if they’d be willing to make an intro. 

2. Aim for the Double
Opt-In Intro
Richard Goodrum, COO of RaceYourself. The
best intros come from warm referrals, but
instead of asking your referrer to simply make
she
or he would like to take it. For example, send a
personalized email to your connector asking for
an intro to Ben Horowitz, and instead of making
your note to Ben, asking him if he’d like to take
the opportunity.

Generally speaking, people dislike intros
being “forced” on them; it creates awkward
social pressure if they’re really not interested.
Further, if they do say they’d like to take the
intro, they’ve already said “yes” once and may
be more predisposed to liking the deal. It’s a

3. Create Time Pressure
Y Combinator alumni Shehzad Daredia, who
recently closed a round for his startup bop.fm:

high-reward way to take that one step further is
that the VC is probably not well-equipped to
make a decision fast enough to meet your

a process to go through, so I understand if you
playful challenge to one VC resulted in them
$2 million – is that fast enough for you?’”

About the Author
Nathan Beckord is co-founder
and CEO of Foundersuite, a San
Francisco-based developer of
software tools for entrepreneurs,
including an Investor CRM for
managing the fundraising
process.

TechCrunch.