Jonathan Twombly’s Post

~90% of successful early stage investors do 3 things well 1. source dealflow 2. assess founders and ideas 3. create value-add to the founders without these fundamentals, you risk throwing money into bottomless pit

🚀 Got a groundbreaking business or product idea you want to protect with an NDA? 🤔 While this sounds ideal, sometimes it's better to ease up and share your idea with a VC firm first. Otherwise, you might miss out on a golden opportunity. Check out this short video to learn my thought process behind this strategy and how it could help you secure the funding opportunity you've been waiting for! 🎥✨

Is having a plan B a good thing when approaching investors as a founder? Like "hey, we're pretty sure plan A will work and this is why, but if for some reason it doesn't, we have a viable plan B as well" Share your thoughts.

You saw that right! Connected Investors allows you to view other flips in the area. Nobody wants to be the first to do a deal in an area. Thanks to this tool you don't have to! Simply select the icon in the lower left of the map and select flips. Want to try Connected Investors FREE for 7-days? It is as easy as tapping the link below! Within a few minutes you'll have the power of the world's most comprehensive deal-finding platform at your fingertips. Tap here to get started! https://buff.ly/3xjhjoZ

At pre-seed level, your team is your strongest asset when it comes to winning over investors 👥 There’s only one question they’ll ask themselves: “Can they execute their vision and make it happen?” At this stage, investors are betting on you. They want to see a team with the right expertise, passion and conviction. It’s not just about the idea—it’s about your ability to deliver and willingness to learn Here’s what they’re looking for: 1️⃣ Founder-market fit: Do you truly understand your market? 2️⃣ Commitment: Is your team fully in, and ready to go the distance? 3️⃣ Track record: Have you shown early revenue, even if it’s unscalable or non-repeatable? The right team can make all the difference in securing those early funds. Our Founder Membership team can help you get investor-ready. Click the link here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eFAZW3FS

Different types of investors appreciate different types of deal flow. There are 3 types of deal flow any investor community sees. 1) Top of funnel: the thousands of applications that come in every year. Mostly declines. 2) Mid-funnel: the deals that pass initial screening based on the investor group’s typical criteria and “might be interesting”. 3) Bottom-of-funnel: the deals that have $$$ commitment from another trusted investor. I believe tier 3 deals are the most valuable for the typical angel community due to the “signaling”. Interestingly, this week I met with an early-stage VC who was specifically not interested in tier 3 deal flow but only wants to see tier 2 deals. Reason? He’s looking to get in early and lead bets on emerging technologies that are non-consensus.

📈 A common pipe-gen play is to leverage investors for 'warm intros.' However, most teams do this wrong and don't get great results. Here's how you can make it much more effective... ❌ The common way (that doesn't work well): - AEs make a list of dream accounts - Execs send the list to the VC with no context - Maybe 1 or 2 intros are lobbed back - The team questions why it’s not working The key is providing context and making it easy for the investor to take action. Only providing a list burdens the person you're asking to help you. This is what you need to do to make it easy & effective: 🔍 Research your desired company 💡 Create a hypothesis for why the company needs you now 📰 Find a current, relevant success story (from your company) 🔎 Find the right contact 👉Draft and send an email that your investor can forward 👈 ✍ Provide the email address and LinkedIn URL ✉ Investor forwards the email and adds a 1-3 sentence commentary above your note In my latest post, "The VC Warm Intro Playbook," I share more and 2 examples/templates. Link in the comments.

Just got the best investor update from Shinji Kim, founder of Select Star. It was concise, focused on the most important company priorities, and included a specific ask. Most impressively, it was honest and not a highlight reel. I know founders have to weigh a lot when sending investor updates (where does one even begin sometimes!?) which isn’t easy. There’s no right way to do it. But it’s always great to see one that truly cuts through the noise and gives a clear picture of where things stand.

90% of rookie founders don’t have a VC investor list. ↳ They skip it because they’re overconfident ↳ They think they can find investors while they’re going through the round These people end up not raising. Skip the list and you’re sunk with: ❌ Wasted meetings ❌ 1000+ useless DMs that lead nowhere ❌ Constantly getting ghosted ❌ Struggling to get investor commitments - because no one will listen But there’s hope. Here’s how to build an initial shortlist: ➜ Choose your platform & set your criteria ➜ Use the right filters ➜ Add wild cards (lots of potential perfect-fit investors if you do it right) Remember - you’re not after 1,000 potential investors. Aim for a good starter list: generally about 100 names long. Tomorrow, I'll show 1,111 founders how to build a VC investor list that actually gets responses. If you don’t wanna be clueless about who you’re going to be approaching for your upcoming raise, don’t miss this! You can find my newsletter link in the 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 of my profile. See you there. 📑

What does it mean to be a lead investor? Throwback to our session a few months ago at the Venture Cooperative, where we discussed typical expectations, and how lead investors lead deals 🤝 Key points: ✅ Commit first and set terms ✅ Help build investor support group ✅ Support post-investment Check out the full video-snippet here