[rememberlenny]

For anyone interested in raising money soon, but not immediately, the best thing you can do is start an weekly update email.

Start sending thing to all the people you interview for advice, supporters you know in the same space, and peers/coworkers. If you keep a regular email showing your progress, even though you may not have traction, potential investors will see the pace at which you are developing/iterating, and have a reference point to be able to cut a check.

I started this 3 months before I planned on raising any money, and it allowed for people who were on the email to confidently make recommendations on my behalf to investors they knew, and also made our company top of mind.

I have continued this for almost a year now, and its led to customer development opportunities, investment inbound, and a steam of good relevant advice.

[corry]

One note of caution. As someone who gets a lot of these kinds of update emails, it's also very apparent when or when not a company is hitting an inflection point.

Why does that matter?

If things are going well, great - you'll have a much easier time fundraising. The potential investors on your list will see your progress and realize they have a chance to preempt.

If things are not going well, you're providing a continuous stream of proof that you haven't cracked the nut yet. Which there is no shame in. But broadcasting that can be harmful.

So what do you do? It's tempting to hype up your updates so it looks more positive. Or should you be honest (which your ACTUAL investors and advisors need to help you)? Hmmm. Or do you run 2 update emails, the insider one and outsider one?

OR do you just focus on growth, and realize that none of this matters if you're growing 300% YoY at non-trivial revenue? Imagine if the time you spent on a weekly email was spent on making 5 add'l client calls?

Final thing to be aware of. The most powerful force in fundraising is FOMO. Every VC or angel investors has an "oh shit" moment when a startup they kind of know (but had kind of written off) all of a sudden is doing a hot round, and you feel late to the party.

I'm not telling anyone to NOT do update emails like this. Just recognize the signal leakage and really evaluate if the time spent is worth it.

[shoto_io]

Thanks for the insights. Makes a ton of sense.

So the main question as a corollary to your statement is: How do you effectively create investor FOMO? Do you have any experience to share here as well?

[adventured]

> How do you effectively create investor FOMO?

By succeeding.

That sounds either snarky or obvious, however, I mean it quite literally. The absolute single best way to create investor fear of missing out, is to actually succeed at what you're doing. There's nothing close to that. Succeed at whatever stage you're at and be able to demonstrate that to the potential investors. If you're the real deal, you can build, execute and deliver on what you're attempting and claiming. Nothing prompts FOMO from investors like actually delivering and building up a demonstrated chain of success as you go; they see it, and they want to be part of it.

All the other methods are shady, deceitful, disingenuous, fake it until you make it types of bullshit cons. Akin to attempting to trick someone into funding you (ha! look at that! I made myself look more successful than I am, I really pulled one over on them; Theranos).

[corry]

Spot on, nothing to add to this.

"Make something people want" is the #1 fundraising hack. If you do it well enough, fundraising isn't an issue.

[tomblomfield]

I broadly agree, but weekly seems like the effort outweighs the benefit.

It seems like fortnightly or monthly gets the same impact with 25-50% effort.

[imraj96]

Do you have a structure to your update emails? And from your experience, what shouldn't be included in an update email?