A Checklist for My Friend Fundraising For A Seed Round

VCs invest in less than 1% of the companies they meet. Here’s how to beat the odds.

I originally wrote this list as a checklist for a friend who is raising her first seed round. Fundraising is not easy, and I don’t want to give the impression the process can be gamed. But the fundraising process is also very constrained — the speed dating version of relationship building — for a business relationship that can last years, if not a decade.

Most VCs I know meet hundreds of founders each year, but only end up making 4–8 investments per year. At our fund Founder Collective, each partner commits to between 6–8 new companies in a given year.

Out of the companies that any given investor will meet, how are you going to stand out — and be one of their handful of funded startups?

After watching several thousand pitches at Founder Collective over the last three years, I’ve met many founders who could add to their credibility by aggregating specific types of proof, or avoiding some simple mistakes.

So, without further ado here is a list of some common elements of effective pitches that I’ve witnessed. Some of these elements are clever, others may be obvious, but the more elements you can cover in your pitch, the better your odds are of getting funding. (The tips…