Via Portfolio Founders
Most venture investors have backed a large number of portfolio founders. The below documentation provides tactical guidelines on which portfolio founders you should pursue and how you should build access.
Types of Portfolio Founders
All portfolio founders fall into one of the following categories –
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Type 1 (Successful Portfolio Founders) – Includes founders that have seen significant success and have delivered strong financial returns to the investor in the past. An introduction from such a founder is the most effective pathway and has the highest likelihood to result in a call, significantly aiding in finding investors.
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Type 2 (Recent Portfolio Founders) – Includes founders that have raised from the investor recently. These founders likely have a warm and active relationship with the investor and can make effective introductions, which can help make it easier to know where to find investors for a startup.
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Type 3 (Distant Portfolio Founders) – Includes founders that raised from the investor a long time ago and may not be in contact anymore. These founders may or may not be able to make an introduction with the investor
To access each of the above types of portfolio founders, a nuanced and custom approach tends to work best.
How to Access Portfolio Founders
As a first step, users should connect their Gmail and LinkedIn data sources. Once these data sources are connected, Metal automatically identifies and flags a given investor’s portfolio founder(s) that the user already knows and/or can easily access.
As shown in the above screenshot, Metal highlights portfolio founders for a given investor that users know via their Gmail or LinkedIn connections data. These are highlighted in green and should be the starting point for requesting introductions from the investor.
Metal also highlights portfolio founders that may have raised from the same investor as the user. In such cases, users should try to get an introduction to the portfolio founder via the user’s existing investor – these introductions can be positioned as an opportunity to learn about the investor to which the user ultimately requires an introduction.
If the user does not see any portfolio founders that s/he is connected with (highlighted in green), or that are identified as accessible (highlighted in orange), then the best option is to reach out to a small set of portfolio founders via cold emails to land an introductory call. In order to maximize response rates on such emails, users should try to implement the following best practices –
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Research Portfolio Founders w/ Common Ground – Instead of reaching out to portfolio founders indiscriminately, identify those that the user has some common ground with. The common ground can range from building in the same sector or geography to having had similar past experiences
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Write Compelling and Personable Notes – Cold emails tend to work best when they are compelling and personalized
If managed the right way, the above process is known to be effective at building access. The most important part is the quality of the communication. Additionally, users can also invite their co-founders, angel investors or other trusted partners to join their organization on Metal, and convince them to link their data sources (which can then expand the number of portfolio founders that may be accessible).
How to Approach Portfolio Founders
If a given user knows a portfolio founder for a prospective investor quite well, then it may be best to reach out with a compelling blurb to request an introduction.
Generally, founders are very open to forward introduction requests to investors – in doing so, they are helping the investor get deal flow and are building social capital. However, most founders are discerning in that they want to avoid passing along blurbs or decks that aren’t particularly compelling. Users should, therefore, be particular about structuring their blurbs and decks to make these compelling.
If a given user does not know a portfolio founder for a prospective investor, and is reaching out via a cold email, then it may be best to request a call. That way, users can allow the receiving founder to build a connection and evaluate the opportunity (before recommending that to their investor).