Analysts, Associates and Partners at VC firms outreach - how?

There is a company that is looking for a VC early stage investment around 2mln having raised ~1mln already. They don't know anyone in US, so how should they reach out to VCs? Cold emails is not the best way though its one way. So my question to VC Analysts/Associates from WSO community if these kind of companies should reach out to you and start conversations instead of cold email Partners? What's your take on that?

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Best Response

Someone closer to VC can answer this better than I can, I'm sure. For what it's worth, I'm an Associate at a MM PE / growth equity shop.

I'd cold call Associates at firms that you think align with your Company. I think you're better off calling an Associate because they are less likely to forget to call you back or ignore your email entirely. An Associate (if you're legit) is incentivized to bring your Company to the attention of his or her superiors because it shows initiative. Partner is more likely to forget about your email, be too busy to respond, or flat out not care because they have too much else going on. When people reach out to me with deal opportunities, I always bring them up to the team in our daily meetings. Even if I think it's garbage, I usually bring it up just to clear the fact that the guys a bit senior to me are okay with me going back with a "no".

Couple recommendations / questions. Some of this sounds super obvious, so I apologize if it's insulting. There's just a lot of college kids on here, so I am not really sure if this startup is run by a 20 year old with an idea or a 35 year old with significant experience. - Like you would for an interview, do some research on the fund / person you're calling. Be able to explain why you think they would be a good partner - Don't call these folks something half baked. Assuming that's not the case, since you've already raised $1mm. Have clean materials ready to share in case they are interested in getting more information. No one is going to pass along an investment opportunity internally if they think it's not creditable. - Where'd the first $1mm come from? Seems strange since you said you know no one. Surely if you've got $1mm you can leverage those connections to get introduced to other investors?

Again, I'm thinking about this more from a growth equity perspective, so things might be different on the VC side. I would take my comments with a grain of salt and defer to someone with more direct experience in early stage VC.

 

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