Where to look, what to read, and how to translate an investor's public writing and recent bets into specific anchor points for your outreach and pitch.
Every investor pitch benefits from thesis research. Investors who feel understood convert dramatically better than investors receiving generic outreach. Two hours of research per top-tier investor is the highest-leverage prep you can do.
Actual portfolio > stated thesis. Look at the last 5 announced investments and identify the pattern: stage, sector, business model, geography. If they've done 3 vertical SaaS deals in 12 months, that's the real thesis.
Blog posts, tweets, podcast appearances from the last 12 months. Look for specific claims about markets ('we think fintech infrastructure is bigger than expected') and specific views on business quality ('we back only category winners'). Quote back one specific idea in your outreach.
Firm thesis ≠ partner thesis. Individual partners have distinct investing patterns even within the same firm. Find who at the firm led the last 3 investments most similar to yours and target them directly. Cold-emailing the wrong partner at the right firm burns your one shot.
If they backed a company similar to yours in the last 6 months, they may be over-allocated in the space (won't back a direct competitor) or building conviction (want the second bet). Ask former portfolio founders which is which.
Deals they passed on that later did well tell you what they miss. Some investors publicly note this ('we passed on Airbnb because...') — those signals shape how they screen your deal.
One sentence in cold email quoting a specific investment or public post. Reference the pattern you noticed in the first meeting ('I noticed you've backed 3 vertical SaaS companies this year — here's why we fit that pattern'). Never claim to have read something you haven't; smart investors probe.
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