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Ask HN: Profitable company, may seek funding, but zero connections. Ideas?
I am posting with a throwaway for a number of reasons.
I am the technical cofounder of a profitable web retailer that is seeing solid growth. We have been doing well for ourselves, but we have begun internal discussions about the opportunities that we would be able to pursue if we accepted growth capital. It is an appealing idea, and although we will likely do just fine by continuing on our bootstrapped path, we believe that additional capital would accelerate this process dramatically and would be worth the dilution.
That said, we have a problem. We have literally zero access to either the angel or venture capital world. None of the founding team "knows a guy who knows a guy", as it were, nor do our attorneys or other advising professionals. My understanding is that warm introductions are effectively the only way one can gain access to VC firms, and we lack even an indirect route to get there.
We have an AngelList profile, but that leads us to the same problem, in that one requires followers and trusted referrals to get any visibility whatsoever. We have several million dollars in annual revenue, and a mid-double-digit growth rate, but these do not matter without the requisite social proof.
My question to HN is simply: what do we do now? Are there any funding options for founders without networks?
- benologist 15y agoLook for them on http://angel.co/ http://angel.co/ and LinkedIn and Facebook and find introductions. Failing that just email them, numbers speak for themselves.
- anoncofounder 15y agoWe have attempted the cold email route, and it does not work. Thanks for the LinkedIn idea. Wouldn't we still need an introduction to the introducer? Does cold contact with someone who knows the VC actually work?
- benologist 15y agoKeep trying, it does work. Tons of people including myself have met or spoken on the phone or corresponded by email with VC dudes they don't have any connection to. I was living in Nicaragua and still finding VCs to talk to.
- bicknergseng 15y agoI'm in the same place sans profitable company; I didn't know anyone in the space. I've started going to entrepreneur focused meet ups... in my experience it has been a bit more effective than email/linkedin because you get to spend some face time with people. But as benologist said, numbers speak for themselves. I'm sure few vcs will ignore an email promising double digit growth rates
- anoncofounder 15y agoBut as benologist said, numbers speak for themselves. I'm sure few vcs will ignore an email promising double digit growth rates Oh, but they do. I won't name names here, but we had an agreement to meet up with an internet-famous VC that we contacted cold - but he cut off contact before we could confirm. I appreciate the idea about attending meetups. We may try it, but our time is very constrained. Thanks.
- bicknergseng 15y agoWell that makes me feel better about my own cold email success rate. In my experience, other founders are more willing to connect than VCs. A lot of them have their emails on their blogs, and are probably willing to introduce you to their own investors.