Fundraising is hard.
Fundraising without a clear investor target list is almost impossible.
There are thousands of funds out there. Our free VC Directory alone has 4,500+ firms in it — which is great for coverage, but terrible if you’re staring at a blank spreadsheet wondering who to actually pitch.
The goal of this playbook is simple: help you build a focused list of 100–200 “right” investors – specific partners at specific firms who actually write checks into companies like yours.
Think of this list as the foundation of your fundraising house. If you don’t build it well, nothing else really matters.
Step 1: Define What a “RIGHT” Investor Looks Like
Before you start pulling lists, get clear on what “right” means for your company.
In this context, RIGHT investors are:
- A specific partner at a specific firm
- Who actively invests in:
Often, this is a partner who:
- Built a company like yours
- Worked at a company like yours
- Or has already invested in several companies that look like yours
Is this a lot of work? Yes.
Is it worth it? Also yes.
Spray-and-pray outreach to random investor inboxes is the fundraising equivalent of buying lottery tickets. Building a RIGHT investor list is how you actually design your odds.
Step 2: Cut the Universe Down With Smart Filters
Now you know who you’re trying to find. Time to shrink the universe.
Whether you pay for Pitchbook, or using something like our Free VC Directory, start by filtering:
1. Stage
2. Industry / Thesis Keywords
SaaS, fintech, healthtech, marketplace, climate, AI, etc.
There are no standardized set of Industry Categories in the Venture Industry, although you’ll see some more commonly used than others. Use the keywords that most-closely relate to your company. At this stage, if you think it ‘might’ apply, it’s fine to include them, as you’ll filter your list further as you go.
At this point you’re not trying to be perfect; you’re trying to go from 4,500+ firms to a few hundred that are at least directionally relevant.
Step 3: Build a 100–200 Investor “Hit List”
From those filtered results, start building your target list for deeper research.
- Aim for 100–200 investors (firms + specific partners).
- For some niches you might only find 80. In hotter, broader areas, you might easily find 300+.
- The goal: enough volume that your round is not at the mercy of one or two firms, but not so many that you can’t do real research.
For each row in your spreadsheet/CRM, capture at least:
Firm name
Target partner(s)
Website + LinkedIn / X profile links
Stage & sector focus (your shorthand)
You now have a list of potentially relevant investors. Next, we upgrade “potentially” to “ideal”.
Step 4: Research Each Firm (and Partner) for 5 Critical Signals
This is the part most founders skip. It’s also where a lot of your fundraising edge comes from.
For each target firm, dig into these five things:
1. Target Contact
“Who is the best person at this firm for my company?”
Look for:
- Who leads deals in your sector?
- Who has relevant background/experience (operator, ex-founder, domain expert)?
- What’s their role (associate, principal, partner, GP, platform)?
You want the person who is most likely to “get it” instantly when you explain what you’re building. You also want them to have enough authority or rank to conceivably bring your deal to the table.
2. Similar Portfolio Companies (Portcos)
Look through their portfolio and ask:
- Do they have companies similar to yours in:
You’re looking for similar, not identical.
If they already invested in a direct competitor, be careful. Some firms are good about conflicts; others are… less so. Either way, there’s no upside in handing a competitor a free strategy memo.
3. Dry Powder
“Do they actually have money to invest right now?”
You won’t always get perfect data here, but you can often estimate:
- When did they last raise a fund?
- If it was more than ~24 months ago, odds are better that:
The closer you are to their fundraising or early deployment window, the better. Newer funds = more dry powder = more room to lead or co-lead new deals.
4. AUM / Fund Size
If you don’t know this yet, here’s the rule of thumb:
Fund size = fund strategy.
Fund size influences:
- Check size and ownership targets
- Whether they prefer to lead or just follow
- How many rounds they can realistically support
- How large an exit they need for your company to move the needle
You want a fund whose size/strategy is aligned with your round and your potential outcomes, not one where your deal is too small to matter or too big for them to support.
5. Geography
“Do they actually invest where I am?”
Check:
- Do they state a geo focus? (e.g., “NYC only”, “US & Canada”, “Europe & Israel”)
- Do they regularly, or at least periodically write checks into companies in your region?
If their thesis says “NYC-based startups only” and you’re in Denver, don’t overthink it. Cross them off and keep moving.
Step 5: Follow, Engage, and Track Everything in a CRM
Once you’ve built your list and researched it, the job is not to blast 200 cold emails.
Your job is to treat this like pipeline management.
Use a CRM
I’ve used both:
- Copper
- NetHunt
Both work well for managing investor relationships and tracking:
- Intros
- Meetings
- Notes
- Follow-ups
- Stage in your funnel (Researched → Warm Intro → Meeting → Partner Meeting → Term Sheet, etc.)
Whatever tool you pick doesn’t matter nearly as much as actually using it.
Put It All Together
If you follow this process, you’ll end up with:
- A clean list of 100–200 RIGHT investors
- A clear view of who actually has capital, who invests in your geography, and what check sizes/round dynamics they play in
- A CRM-backed system for building and managing investor relationships over time
Fundraising will always be work. But when your outreach is focused on the right partners at the right funds, you stop guessing and start running a real process.
If you want to skip a few weeks of research and have this groundwork done for you: we build Custom VC Lists that include all of this data and more (delivered to you within one week).
