Founder Fuel | How to Prepare for Investor Outreach: Building and Prioritizing Your Target List
After identifying a list of potential investors, the next step in your fundraising process is transforming that list into actionable outreach. In this video from our Founder Fuel series, we walk through how to prepare for investor outreach — including how to clean your investor list, source verified contacts, and identify warm introductions through LinkedIn. The goal: keep your process lean, data-driven, and relationship-oriented.
Refine Your Investor List
If you’ve exported investors from Crunchbase, you likely have hundreds of names. Start by manually cleaning that list: remove funds that don’t align with your stage or sector, and use clear cues (e.g., “Seed,” “Series A”) to eliminate irrelevant targets.
“Crunchbase is a great starting point — but it’s imperfect. Before outreach, always take a quick manual pass.”
By filtering out mismatched funds early, you save hours later when sourcing contacts or sending cold emails.
Source the Right Contacts with Seamless.AI
Next, move from funds to people. Upload your refined list into Seamless.AI, which provides contact details for key team members. Add each fund as a company and set negative filters to exclude irrelevant roles like IT, HR, or operations.
This ensures your outreach targets true decision-makers, typically investors, partners, or associates. Seamless.AI offers a cost-effective alternative to platforms like ZoomInfo, with similar utility for early-stage teams.
Pro tip: Use the company’s website URL rather than just the name when importing into Seamless.AI, it produces more accurate matches.
Once you’ve exported your contacts, always verify email addresses using a service like ZeroBounce before sending your first outreach campaign.
Identify Warm Paths Through LinkedIn
Investor outreach is significantly more effective when it’s warm. Before you start emailing, check your LinkedIn Sales Navigator for second-degree connections to each fund or contact.
Two approaches work well:
By fund: Upload your full investor list, filter by second-degree connections, and identify who in your network can introduce you.
By individual: Use the specific names sourced in Seamless.AI to see if you share mutual connections.
“Warm intros work really well — and it comes back to making sure your LinkedIn network is high quality.”
This dual approach balances scalability with personalization, letting you reach out efficiently while maintaining credibility through shared relationships.
Keep It Lean and Repeatable
Every step from Crunchbase export to LinkedIn filtering can be done manually at first. But as you repeat the process, consider automating parts of it using ETL scripts or preset filters to reduce time spent on data cleanup.
“Given we’re just building one investor list, it makes sense to do this manually. But if you’ll repeat the process, automation pays off.”
Conclusion
Preparing for investor outreach isn’t about volume, it’s about precision. By curating a relevant list, sourcing verified contacts, and leveraging your warm network, you position yourself for meaningful conversations rather than generic cold outreach.
This lean, repeatable workflow (Crunchbase → Seamless.AI → LinkedIn Sales Navigator) creates an efficient pipeline for identifying and engaging the right investors. Learn more about how you can efficiently adapt this process to your company via a free FinOps audit.