Why take the time to do personal outreach?
As a general rule, people are more likely to invest in your company the more they see existing momentum from other investors on your page. But who will take that initial risk, before you have impressive progress against your funding goals?
Your warm contacts: friends, family, customers, community, early supporters, and any angel investors you know. Even if you don’t know them well, being on their radar as a warm contact counts for more than nothing.
Your goal at this stage is to send a sincere, targeted message to anyone you know personally, who might be able to invest a small check ($500–$1000), medium check ($1000–$10,000), or large check ($10,000–$50,000+) in your company.
Personal outreach is not BCC, a social post, or a group chat. It’s a 1:1 email, text message, or DM to someone you know.
This step takes time—it might even take the most time out of all the subsequent steps. But when done right, you’ll start stacking your first checks, which will compound your momentum for the rest of your campaign.
Step 1. Set a goal for your personal outreach
- How many personal messages will you send? ____
- How much investment volume are you targeting? (ideally, this is at least 25% of your funding goal) $________
Step 2. Prepare your calendar, pitch, and FAQs
Expect that any angels you're asking for investments might want to meet with you to hear the details of your pitch and discuss the investment further.
- To simplify scheduling for everyone, set up a Calendly or another scheduling tool in advance.
- Block out time in your days for a set period of time to take investor meetings, and really try to stack them! You want to concentrate this period of outreach and fundraising so that you can get back to running your company as soon as possible.
- Practice your pitch and answering questions with total confidence and conviction.
- Prepare your follow-up materials to send to each investor you meet with, including your deck and your link to invest.
Step 3. Add 50+ people to a CRM
Brainstorm family, friends, community members, early supporters, and angel investors. List the check size you’re targeting from them.
Feel free to make a copy of our Investor Hit List and fill it out to track your progress:
Step 4. Draft your personal outreach
Feel free to use our templates to get started.
Inner Circle: If they know you, your company, and your recent milestones well
Initial Outreach: SMS, DM, or Email
Hi {firstname}, {add your personal touch}. I’m opening a funding round for {company} and would love to have you join the round as an early investor. We've soft launched here {at this link}. Would you be free to chat about it this week? Thanks so much!
Follow-up: SMS, DM, or Email
Hi {firstname}, wanted to follow up on this. Let me know if you’d be open to investing early in our round: you can do so {at this link}. I’m also happy to discuss more—schedule {at this link}. Thanks so much!
If they could use a refresher on your recent milestones:
Initial Outreach: Email
Hi {firstname},
{Personal touch}
As you may know, {company} recently achieved {this exciting milestone}. We’re about to open a community funding round of {funding goal} to hit {our next milestones}.
Would you be interested in investing early? I’m also happy to share more on a 15-minute call—feel free to schedule a time {at this link}.
Thanks so much.
Follow-up: Email
Hi {firstname},
Following up on my last message.
Would you be interested in joining our funding round as an early investor? We’re currently accepting investments {at this link}.
Or, feel free to schedule a 15-minute chat {at this link}.
Thanks so much!
If they need a refresher on your whole company:
Initial Outreach: Email
Hi {firstname},
{Personal touch}
Exciting news: we just launched our community round on Wefunder 🎉
As you know, {company} has been working for the past {time period} to make sure that {mission}.
Over the past {time period}, we’ve:
- X (impressive metric)
- Y (big accomplishment)
- Z (another milestone)
Of course, we couldn’t have done it without your support. That’s why we wanted to give our { community / customers / supporters / partners } the chance to invest in {company} and share in our future upside!
We’d love to invite you to join our exclusive soft launch before we go live to the public. You can check out our Wefunder page {at this link}.
We’re so grateful for your support.
Questions? Feedback? We’d love to hear from you – shoot us an email at {team@example.com} or book a meeting {here}.
All the best,
XX (sign off as CEO / founder / company team etc)
Step 5. Update your CRM and be persistent!
Keep track of every yes, no, or maybe in your Investor Hit List or another CRM. You’ll want to be professional from beginning to end of this process—staying on top of response times, follow-ups, thank you messages, and meeting requests.
Happy fundraising!
