Most Fundraising Advice Assumes You’re Already “In”

How to turn a side project into warm intros, real momentum, and the right money

The first time I tried to raise money, I made the rookie mistake everyone makes: I treated “finding VCs” like a scavenger hunt. I had a product idea, a few people telling me “I’d buy this,” and a growing anxiety that somewhere out there were the right people with the right checks—and I just needed the right path to them.

What I learned, after a few awkward coffee chats and a couple of dead-end intros, is that fundraising is less like hunting and more like building a pipeline. And the pipeline doesn’t start with VCs. It starts with trust and proof.

One quick reality check that will save you time: most institutional VCs don’t want to fund a side project. Not because they’re mean, but because their math depends on focus and speed. If you’re part-time, they assume you’ll be slow, and “slow” kills startups more reliably than bad ideas. So if you’re keeping this as a nights-and-weekends build for a while, your early “capital” is usually one of three things: your own runway, revenue, or a small set of angels who are comfortable betting on you before the story is fully formed.

That doesn’t mean you can’t talk to VCs early. You can. I do it. But I treat those early conversations as practice and relationship-building, not as “I need a term sheet by Friday.”

The question “How do I find the right investors?” is really two questions.

First: what kind of company are you building? Not emotionally—economically. Is this a business that can get to meaningful revenue with a small team and steady growth? Or does it need a lot of capital early because the market is land-grab, the product requires deep R&D, or distribution costs money up front? If it’s the first type, chasing VC too early can push you into bad decisions: hiring before you have clarity, adding features to impress investors instead of customers, and turning a focused side project into a chaotic full-time job.

Second: what stage are you actually in? At idea/early build stage, the “right connection” is rarely a brand-name VC. It’s often an operator-angel who has lived your problem, can introduce your first customers, and will tell you when your pitch is unclear. The first check is as much about signal and help as it is about cash.

Here’s how I’ve approached it when starting from “I have strong feedback and early interest, but this is still taking shape.”

I start by turning the product idea into a tight narrative that a stranger can repeat. Not a big deck. One page. Three paragraphs. What pain exists, who feels it, why existing solutions aren’t good enough, and what you’ve seen that makes you believe this is real. Then I add proof, even if it’s scrappy: a prototype, a waitlist with conversion rates, a handful of paid pilots, a letter of intent, pre-orders, or even a hard commitment like “five design partners agreed to give me two hours every week for six weeks.” VCs and angels both react to proof, and proof doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be specific.

Then I build a list of humans, not firms. People treat “Sequoia” as a target. It’s not. A partner is a person with a thesis, a history, and a pattern of bets. So I look for investors who have funded companies in my space, or who talk publicly about adjacent problems, or who have a track record of being helpful at my stage. I’m looking for fit: do they understand the buyer, the sales cycle, the constraints, and the risks? If they don’t, every conversation becomes a lesson in basics, and you burn time.

Once I have that list, I work backwards to warm intros. Warm intros matter because they compress trust. The best intros are from three groups:

Founders they’ve already backed. If you can get a founder in their portfolio to vouch for you, that intro tends to land. The fastest way to earn that is to be genuinely useful to founders in the same arena: share notes, make a customer intro, give product feedback, help with a hire. I’ve had more doors open from “I helped one of your founders solve a hard hiring problem” than from any polished pitch.

Operators they respect. Some investors lean heavily on CTOs, CPOs, or domain leaders for early reads. If you have a network in the industry, use it. If you don’t, build it one relationship at a time through small, real interactions: asking for feedback on a demo, trading notes on go-to-market, offering to share what you’re learning. People can smell networking when it’s transactional. They respond when it’s grounded.

Angels and micro-funds. A small check from someone credible can unlock the next ten meetings. Early on, momentum is a product. A respected angel saying “I’m in” often does more than the money itself.

This is where most people go wrong: they ask for intros too early and too vaguely. “Do you know any VCs?” puts the work on the other person. A better ask sounds like: “I’m building X for Y. I’m looking to talk to investors who have backed dev tools sold to mid-market SaaS, seed stage. Do you think Investor A or Investor B would be a fit? If yes, would you feel comfortable connecting us?” That makes it easy to say yes, and it also makes it easy to say no without awkwardness.

I also keep my meetings tight. When I was raising the first time, I booked anything that looked like an investor. It felt productive. It wasn’t. The better pattern is to run the process in waves. I’ll take 10–15 “practice” conversations first—smart people who will give me honest feedback, including “this is confusing” or “your buyer isn’t who you think it is.” Only after that do I start talking to the investors I actually want. Your pitch changes fast in the early weeks. Don’t waste your best shots while you’re still finding the story.

A word on events and cold outreach: they’re fine, but they’re not a plan. Demo days, founder meetups, and industry conferences can help you meet people who later become connectors. Cold emails can work if they’re sharp and specific, and you have proof. A generic “We’re raising” email disappears. A short note that shows you know what they invest in, includes one crisp metric, and asks for a 15-minute call sometimes lands. Cold outreach is a volume game, and it can drain you if you’re also building. I prefer a smaller number of high-quality intros.

If you’re balancing a side project with a day job, your best move might be to design your path so money isn’t the gate right away. In practice, that looks like picking a wedge you can ship fast, charging earlier than feels comfortable, and using early revenue as validation. I’ve watched founders spend six months chasing meetings when they could have spent six weeks getting their first ten paying customers. Ten customers won’t turn you into a unicorn overnight, but it will give you a sharper product, a clearer story, and better investors when you choose to raise.

If you want something concrete to do next week, this is what I’d do in your shoes.

Write the one-page narrative and record a two-minute demo video, even if the product is rough. Send it to ten people who match your target customer and ask for a call. Not “feedback” in the abstract—ask them what they’d pay, what would block them from buying, and what they’d drop to make time for this. Take notes like your rent depends on it.

Then pick five founders and five operators in adjacent spaces and ask for advice, not money. Share the one-pager, ask what you’re missing, and end by asking who else you should talk to. If you do that well, connections start to appear without you chasing them. That’s the part people don’t tell you: the network is often a byproduct of doing real work in public, with humility, and with proof you can show.

When you’re ready to raise, you’ll still need the meetings. You’ll still need the story. But you won’t be walking into those rooms hoping someone believes you. You’ll be walking in with evidence—customers, usage, revenue, retention, even a small set of committed design partners—that makes belief the easy part.