Why Founders Email Every Investor They Find
I've watched founders spend months crafting detailed customer personas. They know their ideal buyer's job title, pain points, and preferred communication channels.
Then they approach fundraising by emailing everyone with "investor" in their LinkedIn title.
The irony is staggering. These same founders wouldn't dream of spray-and-pray marketing to customers. Yet they flood investor inboxes with generic pitches, creating their own noise problem.
The math tells the story. When you reach out to 50 VCs, maybe 1 or 2 will offer term sheets. At Tenacity, 2,149 companies pitched in Q1 2023. Only 3 got funded.
Founders are drowning in their own desperation.
The Missing Targeting Strategy
Smart founders build what I call an Ideal Investor Profile (IIP). Think customer persona, but for the people writing your checks.
Most founders skip the obvious questions. What investment stage do you need? Pre-seed, seed, Series A? What ticket size fits your round? Which geographic regions align with your market?
But the real criteria go deeper.
Industry alignment matters more than founder ego. A B2B SaaS startup pitching consumer goods investors wastes everyone's time. Involvement level defines the relationship. Do you want active advisors or passive capital?
The exclusion criteria reveal founder maturity. Which investors have misaligned values or problematic track records? This isn't about being picky. This is about avoiding disasters.
Smart Capital vs Dumb Money
Here's where most founders lose the plot. They obsess over check size and miss the human element.
The best investor relationships connect on multiple levels. Smart capital brings industry expertise, operational experience, and strategic networks. Some investors are former operators who've built companies in your space.
Dumb money just shows up with a wire transfer.
When founders get desperate, they grab any check waved in their direction. The pressure feels overwhelming. Revenue is burning, runway is shrinking, and that misaligned investor suddenly looks attractive.
This decision will haunt them later.
The Marriage Problem
Taking the wrong investor is like marrying someone you barely know. The problems surface after the honeymoon period ends.
Bad investors create friction at board meetings. They push for short-term decisions that damage long-term strategy. They lack network connections in your industry. When you need introductions to potential customers or strategic partners, they offer nothing.
Getting an investor out resembles a messy divorce. Legal complications multiply. Equity structures get tangled. Future fundraising becomes harder when potential investors see the cap table chaos.
The marriage analogy isn't dramatic. It's accurate.
Building Your Targeting System
The solution starts with honest self-assessment. Define your company's growth strategy and values first. Then build your IIP around those fundamentals.
Research becomes surgical instead of scattered. LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and AngelList reveal investor portfolios and preferences. Look for pattern matches, not just big names.
The goal isn't raising money faster. The goal is raising the right money from the right people who accelerate your specific journey.
Founders who master this targeting approach spend less time fundraising and more time building. They avoid the spray-and-pray trap that floods investor inboxes and dilutes their message.
Most importantly, they set themselves up for long-term partnership success instead of short-term funding relief.
Your customers deserve targeted outreach. Your investors do too.
