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Ask HN: How did you find investors for your startup?

29 points by hubraumhugo ↗ HN
I think it's one of the big challenges when getting started with fundraising: How did you find your investors? I guess that the majority of contacts happen through warm intros? What would you recommend to founders who don't have a big network yet?

9 comments

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auspex
For founders who do not have a network the best bet is come to the table with paying customers and a pipeline. It is hard to deny growth and success.

Do a lot of outreach trying to get someone to see the numbers and open the door to talk.

lubos
Once you have paying customers and growth, the appetite for investor money goes down very quick.
altdataseller
Depends. If you are happy with a lifestyle business or low 7 digit outcome, then yes.

If u are aiming for at least $100m exit, you might need the $$$

b20000
if marketing / sales is free you can scale it up without funds. unfortunately, i came to experience first hand it is not. i doubt you can scale without paying for marketing somehow.
your_username
I have found that the more excited that a customer is excited about a product the more apt they are to be your best salesperson. This was especially true for one of my consumer SaaS.
tluyben2
When I was younger, decades ago, I always wondered why investors keep saying we need to have customers and revenue first before plonking down millions; why would I need investors when I have paying customers?? Then we got paying customers, customers paying millions/year and we found out why we need investors. Not all businesses do but even little more than slow growth is pretty hard when bootstrapped; we exhausted bank loans pretty fast as they are too conservative.
b20000
i had all that and didn’t raise money. i also moved to the bay area. didn’t matter either. the idea or business didn’t matter. it became clear you need a strong network of people who know people. and that takes a lot of time. if you are building a product you have no time for that.
chestnuttrees
Random but a friend of mine started https://funden.app/ which aims to help founders with this exact problem. (Never tried it myself, but apparently many folks have had success with it).
ensemblehq
Begin building your network by hanging out with other founders of VC-backed startups. Attend events and build relationships with VCs.