FundraisingHackers.com

Christmas give-away for founders! 🎅

Are you approaching fundraising wrong? 🤔 Over the last few months at Socap.ai, I've talked to hundreds upon hundreds of pre-seed/Seed/Series A #startups and one thing that keeps emerging from the majority of conversations is that they're #fundraising using a "Serial process". How does this look in practice? ❌ They don't have a clear start/end date (even if desired) of the raise ❌ They have a few meetings here and there, some from inbound, some from outbound ❌ They are not creating urgency/FOMO and keep relying on fate ❌ Whenever they have a call with an investor, they pull out their deck and pitch This is wildly ineffective — of course, if you're brilliant and your company is brilliant, you can still raise and get out a winner. But in reality, for the majority of startups, this ends up becoming an evergreen fundraising mode and they quickly become a stale fruit in the eyes of investors. What you should be doing instead is called "Parallel process", and this is what Y Combinator recommends to their portco startups. In short, you try to use time for your own advantage, creating a limited-window bubble where you control the narrative and the information flow, thus achieving the spread of mysterious FOMO. ✅ You're very careful with starting your fundraising process — because you understand that once you do, you need to have 20+ meetings per week (ideally more, much more!) and this requires a lot of prep work ✅If an investor reaches out, you can have a chat but on your terms — you don't pitch and instead try to use the opportunity to properly connect and learn things that interest you (e.g. the market landscape, questions investors are interested in, etc) BTW, this applies to all kinds of fundraising — it doesn't really matter if you're fundraising in the US or in Europe, if you're fundraising from VCs or angels, or if you're a startup or not a startup. ❌ Don't be the entrepreneur who fundraises using the "Serial process". ✅ Start embracing the "Parallel process". We at Socap.ai should know, because we have raised $180M focusing HARD on the "Parallel process" (cc Slava Solonitsyn 💪) Was this useful? Should I share more practical tips & tricks on how to raise using "Parallel process"?

🤔 Should you do Vipassana as an entrepreneur/tech worker? In busy times like this one (I’m crunching through messages/emails/tasks following Socap.ai launch week and still have hundreds left), it’s important to try to stay mindful/grounded (especially if you're from the US - happy Thanksgiving in that case). Back in September, we sat down with Ilya Gindin, a founder of COMU Labs and a great dude to honestly and vulnerably talk about our Vipassana experiences (I’ve just been through my first one and Ilya has just been through his second one). The question is — do we recommend YOU to do Vipassana? I won’t spoiler much — listen and LMK if you have questions. The full podcast episode (~1h) is in the comments (YouTube link). P.S. Big kudos to Tatsiana Kapitonava for editing this one 💚

Please support Socap.ai on Product Hunt today (hunted by Garry Tan, Y Combinator CEO) as we're coming out of closed beta! https://lnkd.in/djKTjxgC P.S. Comment "Supported", and I'll send you a FREE gift — a link with 1000s of top VC/Angel/Founder/Executive connections from me & Slava Solonitsyn

💥 After 5 months of closed beta testing, Socap.ai is out — try it out for FREE now and get warm intros to virtually anyone! As repeat founders and YC alums who raised over $180M (Slava Solonitsyn is also an ex-VC with 2 unicorns from a seed portfolio), we've accumulated tens of thousands of connections across email/LinkedIn/messengers over the last 15 years. We've long realized that our most valuable capital is our SOCIAL capital — simply put, our network. Best partnerships, best hires, best investors — we found them all either directly in our network or via intros from people we know. It used to take us months and a bunch of human helping hands to manage it as a system — and now we've built an app that can handle all of the dirty work (enrichment, research, and automation) plus, it is a delight to collaborate in. 🙌 In a nutshell, Socap.ai is an AI networking copilot for entrepreneurs like you — and all you need to do to start getting value is connect your email account. We've been testing it in closed beta with hundreds of founders/investors during the last 5 months — started to open up access last Monday and already went viral (2000+ comments on LinkedIn)! 💝 See the full launch and create your own free account today: https://lnkd.in/djKTjxgC

🚨 Collab alert — hosting a webinar for founders with Alexej Pikovsky (repeat founder and ex-VC/PE) — sharing our insights on fundraising during tough times (such as now!) and why the right GTM strategy is crucial for that! I will share details about our "Socap.ai parallel fundraising playbook" and how to turn advisors/investors into taskforce members who'll make valuable intros. 👉 Next Monday — 9 PST / 18 CET 🔗 Registration link in the comments #fundraising #webinar #YC

Speaking at Slush (best EU tech conf) — done ✅ Excited to keep sharing how to use warm intros and introducing people to Socap.ai. A bit overwhelmed by messages but will recover and come back to everyone! :) Thanks to Ilia Semenov for the photo and Julius Thimm + Maryama Moalim for inviting.

My yesterday's “Intros” post went viral — 1800+ comments and counting, absolutely unexpected 🤯 We’re doing the best we can to message/reply to everyone but please stay patient if you haven’t gotten the link/a follow-up about the intros from us — we’ll get to everyone within the next week or so. But before most of you actually do request these intros, make sure that you know how to do them right! Here are the 2 golden intro rules you should follow: 1️⃣ Try to prioritize sending personalized 1-1 intro requests whenever possible instead of asking for “random” intros or a bunch of intros at the same time. At Socap, we help you with the pre-intro step — getting in touch with the connector and letting them know who you want to get connected with. There’s no pressure on them to make all of the intros — in fact, they will likely say that they can make X, Y, or Z intros and that’s good enough. It’s your job to take that info in and send them a bit more personalized 1-1 intro request. The secret (and most important) part is: this intro needs to be easily forwardable. It’s not the intro that you write on the connector’s behalf — it’s an intro you write so that the connector can forward it with their personal commentary. And please-please-please don’t write intros from the perspective of the connector — this will not be met with gratitude by them. 2️⃣ Once you’ve sent personalized 1-1 intro requests, wait for the connector to get back to you. Most people follow the “double-opt-in” protocol which means that they first need to get a “Yes” from the other side to connect you with them. If they don’t get back, simply follow up with them by asking if there was any response to these double-opt-ins. No worries if there hasn’t been - you just move on. This is why if you’re fundraising you need to have a funnel of 100+ intros at the minimum, and that will likely come from a bunch of people at the same time. 👀 Here’s what a great forwarded personalized double-opt-in request should look like (a real example from one of the startups in the Socap.ai community - you rock Kostya Shishkin) — take notes and can't wait to see more of your intro requests! 🙂 #startups #intros #fundraising

Get a link with 1000s of warm introductions to top VCs/Angels/Founders 👇

Together with Ilia Semenov, we’re hosting an unofficial Y Combinator meetup at Slush, probably the largest CEE tech event. Friends/folks from my network — come join if you’re planning on attending — or else DM me and let’s find some time to catch up (I’ll be in Helsinki 19-22). Register here: https://lu.ma/z9u7wegq We’ve been cooking cool things over at Socap.ai — an absolute must for any startup founder/VC/angel investor who’s proud of their network/connections/social capital.