Build an investor pipeline

In 2015, DocSend and Harvard Business School studied founders who raised a seed round. On average, each founder contacted 58 investors and had 40 meetings in 12.5 weeks. In 2023, DocSend data showed an average of 66 contacts. These were the successful founders. Why must a good company talk to 60 investors to close one round?

The answer is that most investors say no, and each one says no for its own reasons. A raise is not a single pitch to the perfect investor. It is a sales process, with a list of buyers, a sequence of steps, and a number at the end.

A raise is a sales process

Treat the raise as you treat sales. Keep every investor in one list, in a spreadsheet or a CRM (a customer relationship management tool). This list is your fundraising pipeline. For each investor, record these facts:

• The stage at which the investor invests, and the usual check size
• The sector, and the companies in your market that the investor already backs
• Lead or follow: does the investor set the terms, or join the terms of others?
• The person who can introduce you
• The status, and the next step with a date

The lead investor sets the terms of the round, usually writes the largest check, and brings in other investors. A follow investor invests on the terms that the lead sets. Paul Graham calls an investor who invests only after other investors “worthless initially”. Followers become useful after a lead commits, so talk to them last.

One 2026 guide recommends a list of 60 to 120 qualified names, sorted into three tiers:

Tier	Who	How many
Tier 1	Investors that can lead your round	10 to 15
Tier 2	Strong participants	30 to 50
Tier 3	Angels and small funds that fill the round after a lead commits	The rest

“Qualified” means that the investor invests at your stage, in your sector, and in checks of your size. A famous fund that does not invest at seed is not a qualified name for a seed round, even if you admire it.

Rank by expected value

You cannot give every investor the same time. Paul Graham’s method is “breadth-first search weighted by expected value”. Talk to many investors at the same time, but put the most time into the ones with the highest expected value:

Expected value = Chance of a yes × Value of a yes
Fund A         = 10%             × 10              = 1.0
Angel B        = 60%             × 2               = 1.2
Fund C         = 30%             × 6               = 1.8

Fund A is the famous one, and the founders want it most. But Fund C deserves the most time. Graham adds a warning: your wish for an investor must not change your estimate of the chance. He also says that investors who decide quickly are “extra valuable early on”, because the first yes makes the next ones easier.

Rank them

Where do you put your time first?

The value of a yes is on a scale of 1 to 10. Put the investor who deserves the most time at the top.

1. 1

   Fund A: a famous fund. You met an associate once.

   Chance of a yes: 10% · Value of a yes: 10
2. 2

   Fund E: a growth fund that rarely invests at seed.

   Chance of a yes: 2% · Value of a yes: 8
3. 3

   Fund C: a seed fund that leads rounds in your market.

   Chance of a yes: 30% · Value of a yes: 6
4. 4

   Fund D: a seed fund that decides in one week.

   Chance of a yes: 40% · Value of a yes: 4
5. 5

   Angel B: a founder who knows your work.

   Chance of a yes: 60% · Value of a yes: 2

Check my order

The list starts in order of fame, the order that most founders use. Move each investor up or down, then check your order.

Warm introductions and cold email

A warm introduction is an introduction from a person that the investor trusts. Outside of demo days, the YC seed guide calls it “by far the best way to meet a venture capitalist or an angel”. The trust of the person who introduces you moves to you.

Not all warm introductions are equal. Paul Graham puts the best two in this order:

• The strongest introduction comes from a respected investor who just committed to your round.
• The next best comes from a founder that the investor backed.

An introduction from a person who barely knows the investor carries little trust.

A cold email is an email to an investor with no introduction. It can work, especially with angels and with funds that publish an address for pitches. It works better when it is short, specific, and shows traction. Graham also gives a warning in the other direction. He tells founders not to meet an associate from a VC firm who sends them a cold email. This rule applies even in the middle of a raise.

Write an email that someone can forward

The best introduction email is one that the person who introduces you can forward with no changes. Write it for the investor, not for your friend. Northwind’s email has three sentences and one attachment:

Northwind checks restaurant invoices against orders, so owners no longer pay for food that never arrived. 60 restaurants pay us $250 a month, and revenue grew 20% a month for six months. Our seed round is $3.6M, and the deck is attached.

The email says what the company does, proves that customers pay, and says what the founders want. An investor can decide in 30 seconds if a meeting is worth the time.

How many investors to contact

Many investors on your list never reply. Of those who reply, some meet you. Of those who meet you, some ask for a second meeting. A few say yes. Each stage keeps only part of the stage before it, and the parts multiply.

Predict first

Northwind needs 6 yeses. Half of the investors reply. 80% of replies become a first meeting, 30% of first meetings lead to a second meeting, and 30% of those say yes. How many investors must Northwind contact?

Type a guess before you continue. A guess first, even a wrong one, makes the answer easier to remember.

Your guessSave my guess

Investors to contact = Yeses ÷ (Reply × Meeting × Second meeting × Yes)
167                  = 6     ÷ (50%   × 80%     × 30%            × 30%)

The rates in this example are assumptions for practice, not data. Your own rates depend on your introductions and your traction. A warm introduction makes a reply much more likely, and traction makes every later stage more likely. Thus get better rates before you add more names.

Simulator

How many investors to contact

Set the yeses that you need and the rate at each stage. See the size of the list that you must start with.

Investors who must say yes

6

First meetings you can hold each week

8

Reply rate

50%

Contacts who answer and agree to talk.

Meeting rate

80%

Replies that become a first meeting.

Second-meeting rate

30%

First meetings that lead to a second meeting.

Yes rate

30%

Second meetings that end with a commitment.

Investors to contact

167

One contact says yes

3.6%

approximately 1 in 28

Weeks of first meetings

8.4

67 meetings at 8 a week

Investors at each stage

Contacted

167

Replied

84

First meeting

67

Second meeting

20

Said yes

6

To get 6 yeses, contact approximately 167 investors. At these rates, only 3.6% of the investors that you contact say yes.

That is more than the 60 to 120 names that one 2026 guide recommends. To use a shorter list, get better rates: ask for warm introductions, and show traction first. At 8 first meetings a week, the first meetings take approximately 8.4 weeks. Hold them close together, so that the answers come at the same time.

Worked example · step 1 of 4

Northwind's funnel, step by step

1. 1

   The chance that one contact says yes

   Multiply the rates of the four stages.

   0.50 × 0.80 × 0.30 × 0.30 = 0.036 = 3.6%

Show step 2Show all steps

Work it out

Harbor Tools needs 4 yeses. Its rates are: reply 40%, first meeting 75%, second meeting 50%, and yes 25%. How many investors must it contact?

Your answerCheck

Work it out

Angel X has a 50% chance of a yes, with a value of 3. Fund Y has a 20% chance, with a value of 8. What is the higher expected value of the two?

Your answerCheck

Meet investors in parallel

Graham’s advice is direct: “You should always talk to investors in parallel rather than serially.” If you meet one investor at a time, two problems occur. First, the raise takes too long. Second, no investor feels pressure to decide, because no other investor is close to a decision.

In parallel, the first meetings with each tier occur in the same few weeks. Then the second meetings come close together, and the offers can arrive in the same week. Investors watch other investors. When one respected investor commits, the others decide faster. For a seed round, YC says that “a few weeks and 3 meetings per investor” is sufficient.

The tiers decide the sequence inside that short period. Start with the investors that can lead, because a lead sets the terms. Put the followers last, because they invest only after a lead commits.

Is it rude to talk to many investors at the same time?

No. A VC firm meets approximately 28 companies for each deal that it closes, so investors know that founders meet many investors too. Be honest about the process. If an investor asks who else you talk to, you do not have to give names. You must never invent interest from other investors. The YC seed guide warns that “the Valley is a very small place, and a bad reputation is difficult to repair.”

Quiz · question 1 of 5

Test what you learned

Fund A is famous: a 10% chance of a yes, with a value of 10. Fund C: a 30% chance, with a value of 6. Angel B: a 60% chance, with a value of 2. Where do you put the most time?

• AThe same time for all three
• BFund A, because a yes from it is worth the most
• CAngel B, because the chance is highest
• DFund C