Mike MacCombie’s Post

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors, or investors being on summer vacation in August won't stop great deals from getting done if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 29.467 hours (ends 8/9, 6 pm ET): -Email deck+blurb+traction+round size to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be *exactly*: "29.467-hour experiment" -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs next week. -Last time I did this, I got 27 investor intros for founders I shared. -And in the last 6 months I know of at least $2.8M invested in companies I shared.

I like this concept of limited-time "contests" for firms to pitch investors.

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors, or investors being on summer vacation won't stop great deals from getting done if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 28.25 hours (ends 6/22, 5 pm ET): -Email deck+blurb+traction+round size to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be *exactly*: "28.25-hour experiment" -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs next week. -Last time I did this, I got 15 investor intros for founders I shared. -And in the last 6 months I know of at least $1.5M invested in companies I shared. Results will vary, but it works :)

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors won't stop great deals from getting done this month if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 30.311 hours (ends 10/11, 8 pm ET): -Email deck+blurb+traction+round size+your LinkedIn link+company HQ location to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be *exactly*: "30.311-hour experiment" and must include all the above elements for consideration. -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs next week. -Last time I did this, I got 58 investor intros for the founders I shared. -And in the last 6 months I know of at least $3.5M invested in companies I shared.

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors, or investors backlogged in September won't stop great deals from getting done if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 29.291 hours (ends 9/14, 8 pm ET): -Email deck+blurb+traction+round size to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be *exactly*: "29.291-hour experiment" -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs next week. -Last time I did this, I got 36 investor intros for founders I shared. -And in the last 6 months I know of at least $3.3M invested in companies I shared.

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors won't stop great deals from getting done if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 27 hours (ends 4/19, 5 pm ET): -Email deck+blurb+traction+round size to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be exactly: "27-hour experiment" -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs next week. -Last time I did this, I got 12 investor intros for founders I shared. And in the last 6 months I know of at least $1.25M invested in companies I shared. Results will vary, but it works :)

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors won't stop great deals from getting done if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 29 hours (ends 5/18, 8 pm ET): -Email *all of* deck+blurb+traction+round size to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be exactly: "29-hour experiment" -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs next week. -Last time I did this, I got 12 investor intros for founders I shared. Results will vary, but it works :)

Raising a pre-seed/seed round? Not having a network of investors won't stop great deals from getting done if I have anything to say about it. Doing my next experiment for 25 hours (ends 3/27, 12 pm ET): -Email deck+blurb+traction+round size to mike@mikemaccombie.com, hard deadline tomorrow. -Title must be exactly: "25-hour experiment" -I’ll share at least the top 3 companies w/ 50+ VCs this week. -Last time I did this, I got 15 investor intros for founders I shared, and had at least one investment get done. Results will vary, but it works :)

Should you talk to interested funds who reach out? I always encourage founders to start conversations with VCs well before they’re ready to pitch. It's these types of early discussions that give you a unique opportunity to shift the power dynamic. When a VC approaches you, you get to say, “I’m heads down building right now, not raising yet, but I’m always interested in learning more about the funds out there.” Suddenly, you’re not the one asking for money; you’re the one gathering intel. You're on equal ground. You get to ask about the VC, what spaces they're intersted in, how they like to work with founders, etc... all without feeling like you have to pitch them or win them over. It's amazing

It's that season again, I've had 5 or so conversations this week with founders who are setting out raise their Seed round. After personally raising $30mil and helping 20+ folks raise their rounds - if I can boil down my advice into one concept it's this: If you want to raise investment money, you need to have 10-15 investor pitches (live or zoom) per week for 6-8 weeks. The key metric is volume of pitches in tight succession. The biggest place I've seen folks get stuck here is "how the heck do I get 100-150 meetings with investors?" The current answer is pretty straightforward - you have to a) research to find a target list of investors b) get their contact info and c) get warm intro's from your peers to them. It's simple, but administratively a massive undertaking. Until now. I've been brainstorming with a friend and we have created a one-off product for steps a & b. Fill out a quick form, and in a couple days you get an investor list with verified LinkedIn and email, as well as something you can circulate to your peers for intro's. If you're interested, comment "interested" and let's talk.