Insights on seed-stage fundraising, VC meetings, and startup evaluation.
Most venture money moves through people the investor already trusts, and only about 10% of deals come inbound from founders. This guide covers what a warm introduction actually does, who can give you one (your loose acquaintances and the investor's own portfolio founders), how to earn intros from a standing start, how to write a forwardable blurb, and how to make each introduction count.
OpenVC, Angel Match, AngelList, Gust, Signal, Evalyze, and SeedForge compared side by side: database sizes, matching logic, real costs, and the conversion data on what actually works. Cold lists reply at 1% to 5%. Warm paths convert at 58%. And the part every comparison skips: the match gets you two seconds of attention, proof decides what happens next. A practical framework for choosing your stack in 2026.
The median seed round now takes 142 days to close (Carta, 2025), and most of that time is wasted on thesis-mismatched investors who would never invest regardless of how good the pitch is. This guide, written by a founder with 7 years of VC experience, breaks down the five filters every founder should apply before pitching, why thesis mismatches are the #1 cause of ghosting, and how structured proof can turn even cold outreach into a high signal message.