The way venture capitalists think about fundraising can be\u00a0a black box.\u00a0But investors must think about their go-to-market strategy for raising their own funds, just as much as\u00a0they think about how\u00a0their\u00a0portfolio companies find their market fit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
All season on\u00a0Build Mode<\/a>,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0explored how founders should approach marketing,\u00a0but this week\u00a0we\u2019re exploring how VCs sell themselves to founders as\u00a0trustworthy\u00a0partners and to LPs as worthwhile investments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Isabelle Johannessen spoke with Graham & Walker\u2019s\u00a0Leslie\u00a0Feinzaig\u00a0and XYZ Venture\u2019s Ross Fubini about raising their first funds and how that\u00a0experience\u00a0has given them empathy for the founder fundraising experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Feinzaig\u00a0came into venture capital with very few industry connections. \u201cIt was hundreds of pitches. It was raised\u00a0almost entirely\u00a0from individuals. We ended up with 105 LPs,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have\u00a0a track record, then what\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0investing in is you. Like it is basically, like, raising a gigantic angel round with no lead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With that outsider perspective,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0been able to position herself as the call founders make before they meet with their board to practice and discuss strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Similarly,\u00a0Fubini encourages the leadership teams he works with to carefully consider who they are entering into partnership with. His rubric follows three core tenets:\u00a0person, firm, terms. <\/p>\n \u201cYou work with this person for forever.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0everything from like, are they fun? Do you trust them? Do they have the juice to get the deal done?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0everything around this human,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco Both VCs noted the change from the most recent 2022-23 bear market \u2014 where VCs held all the cards \u2014 to the current eager dealmaking atmosphere where founders have a bit more power. This makes choosing the right VCs that much more important, they say. <\/p>\n Fubini called this shift \u201cthrilling\u201d because, even though both sides still need to do their diligence and ensure they are good fit together, \u201cyou can move so quickly\u201d compared to cautious bear markets. \u201cI think\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0fun and joyful,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Feinzaig and Fubini are full of tactical advice for both VCs seeking creative ways to capture founder attention and founders seeking smartest choices for\u00a0their cap tables. <\/p>\n The pitch deck and cold emails may not have the power they once did but creating authentic relationships and\u00a0proving on execution\u00a0remains\u00a0the best strategies to attract the kind of people you want to work with \u2014 from both perspectives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.\u00a0Subscribe to the podcast\u00a0<\/a>or watch on\u00a0YouTube<\/a>. Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And a special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way venture capitalists think about fundraising can be\u00a0a black box.\u00a0But investors must think about their go-to-market strategy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[85306,72,191,963,61,60,195],"class_list":{"0":"post-187024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-build-mode","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-founder","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-venture-capital"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n