Creating a target investor list for your seed round

TL;DR: Building a seed investor target list — end-to-end

The full workflow in six steps:

1. Define your criteria: Before pulling any names, clarify what you need: stage focus (seed), sector alignment, typical check size ($250K–$2M), lead vs. follow behavior, geography, and domain expertise
2. Build your longlist: Pull 75–100 names from AngelList, Crunchbase, PitchBook, Mercury's Investor Database, and the Forbes Midas List, supplemented by network referrals
3. Qualify on six factors: Investment stage, lead/follow behavior, brand, track record, LP base, domain expertise, and network; cut anyone who fails on stage or check size immediately
4. Tier and rank: Organize into Tier 1 (high conviction, strong fit), Tier 2 (strong fit, no warm path yet), and Tier 3 (acceptable; use for early pitch practice); target roughly 10 Tier 1, 20 Tier 2, 10–15 Tier 3
5. Sequence outreach: Tier 3 and select Tier 2 first to iterate your pitch; sprint Tier 1 in a compressed 10-day window to create competitive tension; warm intros always before cold
6. Track and follow up: Log every contact, response, and stage in a CRM or spreadsheet; follow up three times with decreasing frequency; move on after the third unanswered message

A seed round is typically the first round of financing a startup will raise. As such, seed fundraising is also the first exposure founders will have to the world of venture capital. This means founders are often drinking from a firehose — trying to learn the nuances of VC while simultaneously shopping their business around to find an investor who can help grow the business over the next 5-10 years.

It can all feel quite overwhelming, which is why it helps to break it down into more manageable steps. Here, we’ll explore one of the earlier steps in the process: creating a list of target investors to reach out to for your seed round.

In general, startups raise seed funding when they start to see a little bit of traction in the market, and they need a cash infusion to help achieve product-market fit (PMF). A seed-stage startup should have a product, a few real users, and a team in place (even if it’s just two founders).

Am I ready? Traction benchmarks by business model

“Some traction” means different things depending on what you're building. Here are concrete signals by model that suggest you're in a fundable position for a seed round:

One important exception: founder reputation and the strength of an idea can substitute for early traction. A second-time founder with domain expertise or a uniquely compelling research background can often raise before hitting these signals. But for first-time founders without existing investor relationships, this table is what seed VCs use to calibrate whether it's time.

That being said, a startup’s ability to raise seed funding can be influenced by numerous factors, including the founders’ reputation, how compelling the idea is, market demand, and the macroeconomic environment. For example, a startup with a really compelling idea and founders with impressive backgrounds might be able to raise a seed round to test their idea, even if they’ve yet to build a product.

With that in mind, founders should seek seed-stage funding if and when they truly believe they can raise the valuation of the business enough to achieve venture-scale returns for their investors. This is not a decision to take lightly, as once you accept funding from VCs, they’ll expect you to work expeditiously to grow the business and increase shareholder value.

If you’re committed to the journey, the next step is to figure out the right VCs to partner with on your startup journey.

Many founders liken raising seed funding to a sales or marketing funnel. One must attract potential “leads” (i.e., investors), nurture them, and finally convince them to “convert” (i.e., invest).

And just as the first step in any such sales or marketing process is understanding who your target market is, the first step in raising a seed round begins with identifying your target investors. While the world of VC is relatively small, there are many different types of VCs. These VCs are differentiated based on a variety of factors, such as the sectors they invest in, their check size, domain expertise, the types of support they provide (e.g., intros to clients, prospective hires), geographies where they invest, and more.

As a founder, you should consider partnering with the type(s) of investors that you think will be most impactful for your business. For example, you may value an investor with a certain type of experience, or one who has already made investments into startups in your sector.

Investor criteria matrix: defining fit before you start pulling names

Before building your longlist, get precise about what you're actually looking for. The clearer your criteria up front, the less time you waste qualifying investors mid-process. Use this matrix to define your target — and later to score each investor you're considering:

Scoring: Create a column for each criterion in your tracking spreadsheet. Score each investor 1–3 (3 = strong fit, 1 = weak or unknown). Any investor scoring 1 on Stage, Check Size, or Sector should be cut immediately. Total score 20+ = Tier 1; 13–19 = Tier 2; below 13 = cut or Tier 3 pitch practice.

With these factors in mind, compile a long list of all potential investors who could meet your criteria (we’ll whittle it down later). To find investors for your list, consider consulting the following online resources. Here’s how to use each one effectively:

AngelList (wellfound.com)

• Best for: seed-stage and pre-seed investors, especially angels and micro-VCs.
• Search approach: Filter by "Investor Type" (VC or Angel), use "Market" filter to find sector-specific investors, look for "Actively Investing" status.
• Data to capture: Partner name, fund size if listed, recent investments, sectors marked, whether they accept cold applications.
• Recency check: Look at the date of their most recent listed investment — anyone whose last investment was 18+ months ago may have paused deployment.

Crunchbase

• Best for: firm-level data on check sizes, portfolio companies, and investment rounds.
• Search approach: Use "Investors" search → filter by Investor Type (Seed), Categories (your sector), and Location. Click into each firm and review the "Recent Investments" tab.
• Data to capture: Firm name, partner names (under the "People" tab), fund size, number of investments, most recent portfolio companies, and round sizes led.
• Recency check: Sort recent investments by date. If the most recent seed investment was over 12 months ago, flag as potentially inactive or stage-shifted.
• Pro tip: On any portfolio company's page, the "Investors" section usually lists the lead investor first — use this to identify lead-capable funds vs. followers.

PitchBook

• Best for: most accurate data on fund size, LP composition, and fund lifecycle — requires a paid subscription or institutional library access.
• Search approach: Use the "Investors" tab → filter by Fund Type (Seed/Early Stage VC), Industry Vertical, and Deal Date (last 24 months).
• Data to capture: Fund size, fund number (a higher fund number signals an established firm), LP composition if disclosed, recent seed-stage portfolio.
• Recency check: Filter "Deals" to the last 12 months and look for active seed investments in your sector to confirm current deployment.

Mercury Investor Database

• Best for: curated list of investors actively working with startups, with Mercury-specific context on investors engaging with their founder community.
• Search approach: Filter by stage, sector, and check size. Read each profile for thesis notes and stated focus areas.
• Data to capture: Partner name, check size range, recent investments, stated thesis, whether they accept cold outreach.
• Recency check: Mercury's database is actively curated — treat profiles as reasonably current, but cross-reference active recent investments on Crunchbase before prioritizing.

Forbes Midas List

• Best for: identifying the most recognized investors in venture — useful for Tier 1 targeting if you have warm intro paths.
• Caution: These investors receive thousands of inbounds per year. Cold outreach success rates are extremely low. Use the Midas List to identify target names, then find warm intro paths — don't treat it as a cold outreach database.
• Data to capture: Name, firm, notable portfolio investments. Then verify whether they're personally active at seed stage — many Midas List partners focus primarily on Series A and later.

Twitter / X

• Best for: identifying investors who are publicly vocal about their thesis and often more receptive to cold outreach that references their writing.
• Search approach: Search "[your sector] + investor" or follow curated "seed investor" lists maintained by prominent founders and operators. Look for investors who post frequently about your space.
• Data to capture: Handle, recency of seed-relevant posts, whether they've publicly expressed interest in companies like yours, whether they share application links or respond to founders in comments.
• Recency check: An investor who last posted about seed investing in 2022 may have shifted focus. Look for recent engagement — within the last 6 months — on seed-stage topics relevant to your sector.
• Pro tip: Investors who publish their thesis publicly are almost always more receptive to cold outreach that specifically references their writing. "I read your thread on [topic]" is a stronger opener than a generic cold email.

You should also consult with people in your network, including friends, family, any current investors, and your startup accelerator or incubator (if your business is associated with one). Once you have a list of investors you’d potentially be interested in speaking with, organize them using a spreadsheet tool (Google Sheets, Airtable, and Notion are popular free options). Having this sort of organization will make the research and outreach process much smoother.

Brent Franson, CEO of Most Days, shared the spreadsheet he used to keep track of prospective investors when he raised his company’s seed round.

With a list of investors in place, it’s time to go about the process of “qualifying” each investor for outreach. This means drilling down further into your list of investors, whittling the list down to the top 30 or so you’d most want to partner with, and then ranking that list from most desirable to least desirable.

How it works in real life: CareFlow AI walks through the full process

The company: CareFlow AI is a two-person founding team (CEO with hospital operations background, CTO with ML engineering experience) building AI-driven patient scheduling software for community health centers. Pre-revenue, but with three signed LOIs from pilot health centers and a working early product. Raising a $1.5M seed round on a SAFE.

Step 1: Define criteria using the matrix

Factors you should consider when identifying your top investors include:

Step 2: Build the longlist (target: 75 names)

• Crunchbase: Search “Seed + Health Care + AI + investments in last 24 months” → 35 firms
• AngelList: Health tech seed investors with active status → 20 additional names
• Mercury Investor Database: Filter by health tech + seed → 10 additional names
• Twitter: Follow #digitalhealth investor community; identify 5 active voices writing seed checks
• Network: Pilot health center CEOs provide 5 investor introductions from board relationships

Total longlist: 75 names

Step 3: Score and cut

After scoring: 10 Tier 1, 22 Tier 2, 8 Tier 3, 35 cut.

Step 4: Outreach sequencing

Weeks 1–2: Tier 3 and 4 Tier 2 investors for pitch iteration. The founding team discovers that investors keep asking, "Why community health centers specifically, not larger hospital systems?" — they tighten the answer and add a slide on the market-sizing logic for the segment.

Weeks 3–4: All 10 Tier 1 investors contacted in a 10-day window. Three warm intro paths via pilot health center CEOs. Seven cold emails using thesis alignment angle (referencing recent health AI investments).

Week 5: Two Tier 1 investors express strong interest; the team notifies the others that they're evaluating a term sheet, prompting two more to accelerate their processes. Round oversubscribed.

The lesson: Starting with 75 names and a clear matrix let the team cut 35 non-fits immediately — saving roughly 35 wasted pitch meetings — and compress the active process into 5 weeks rather than 4+ months.

Most common investment round

If the investor primarily focuses on later-stage, they likely won’t be an ideal partner for a seed-stage round, as the expectations for later-stage startups vs. early-stage startups are vastly different.

Lead or follower

Some VCs lead investment rounds (i.e., write the largest check), while others write follow-on checks (smaller checks based on the same terms as the lead VC). You’ll likely want to find a lead investor before you speak with follow-on VCs.

Brand and reputation

If the VC works at a brand-name firm (i.e., a16z, Sequoia, Benchmark, etc.), it could be seen as good signal for your business, making it easier to attract talent and other investors. On the other hand, if the VC is relatively unknown, or if other founders have had a bad experience with them, it could make it seem like your business can’t attract reputable investors, which is a bad signal to the market.

Track record

A VC’s track record often goes hand-in-hand with their reputation. Generally, a VC who has invested in other successful businesses will probably be a better value-add for your business than a VC who hasn’t made many other deals, or who hasn’t made many successful investments. A poor track record could be an indictment of a VC’s ability (or lack thereof) to help their portfolio companies.

Fund LPs

Who are the investors your lead VC raised capital from to invest in your business? Different LPs have different expectations around access, performance, and information sharing, so it’s important to have insight into whose money you’re accepting.

Domain expertise

Most VCs are former founders and operators themselves, with unique insight into the sectors they invest. Aside from capital, advice is one of the biggest value-adds a VC can provide, so it’s important to find an investor who you feel can provide worthwhile advice to help your business scale.

Network

In addition to advice, a good VC can make introductions to talent, other investors, and potential customers.

Once you’ve collected this data, stack rank your list based on who you see as your most ideal investor vs. your least desirable (but still acceptable) investor. Alternatively, some founders group investors into several tiers based on who they think is most qualified vs. least qualified.

The ultimate goal here is to move from a long list of investors to a small list of investors you’ll contact to raise your seed round.

Qualifying an investor isn't just about fit on paper — it's about whether they'll be a good partner when things get hard. The time to do this diligence is before you close, not after. Here's what to watch for and what to ask:

Red flags that suggest misalignment at seed stage

• Growth-stage KPIs too early. If an investor asks for 18-month ARR projections, detailed LTV:CAC cohort data, or "proven" unit economics before you've found PMF, they may be applying Series A or B standards to a seed-stage company. Mismatched expectations this early will create friction later.
• Excessive information rights in a SAFE. Requesting monthly reporting, board observer seats, pro-rata rights in perpetuity, or audit rights in a seed SAFE is unusual and can create overhead that slows you down. Not all of these are dealbreakers, but they're worth flagging with your lawyer before you sign.
• Slow timelines with no clear internal champion. If you've had three meetings and still can't identify which partner is advocating for you internally, the fund may be passing slowly. Time kills deals — a clear "we're interested, here's our process" is a green light; ambiguity after three meetings usually isn't.
• No portfolio companies similar to yours. An investor who has never funded a company in your sector is taking a bigger bet than one with pattern recognition. Not always disqualifying — but ask directly how they'll support a company they've never backed before.
• Fund lifecycle ambiguity. If the fund was raised 4+ years ago and you can't find news of a new fund, ask whether they're still deploying. VCs invest from a fund over 3–5 years; someone near the end of that window may have limited capacity for new positions.

Questions to ask in first and second meetings

About thesis and process:

• “What's your specific thesis in [my sector], and what are you looking for that you haven't found yet?”
• “What's your typical timeline from first meeting to term sheet?”
• “Which partner would be our primary point of contact, and how do they prefer to work with early-stage companies?”

About fund health and reserves:

• “What fund are you investing from, and when was it raised?”
• “Do you typically reserve capital to follow on in later rounds?”
• “What's your current pace of deployment?”

About expectations and portfolio support:

• “What does your portfolio support model look like in year one? What can founders realistically expect from you?”
• “What milestones would you expect to see from us 12 months after closing?”
• “Can you share two or three portfolio founders I could speak with — specifically ones who went through a difficult period?”

The answers matter less than how the investor answers. A great partner will be thoughtful, specific, and honest about the times things didn't go well. Generic answers, inability to name a single portfolio struggle, or resistance to reference calls are signals worth taking seriously.

The best way to reach out to investors is through warm introductions. However, most founders don’t have the benefit of knowing someone who can introduce them to their target investor. If you don’t have an “in” with an investor, there are a handful of ways to go about cold outreach:

• Email the VC directly (assuming you can find their email)
• Email their firm’s inbox (most VC firms have an email for founder pitches)
• Reach out via social media
• Attend a startup event you know the investor will be at

First-touch outreach: scripts and templates

Script 1: Warm intro — email your mutual connection can forward

Make it easy for your connector. Write the email they need only to forward, not rewrite.

To send to your mutual connection:
Hi [Connection] — wanted to reach out about [Investor name] at [Firm]. I'm raising a $[X]M seed round and think it's squarely in their wheelhouse. I wrote a short email below you could forward if you're comfortable — no pressure at all. Happy to give you more context on what we're building.

The forwardable email:
Subject: [Your name] / [Company] — [one-line hook]

Hi [Investor name] — [Connection name] suggested I reach out. I'm building [Company] — [one-sentence description of what it does and for whom]. We've [key traction signal — e.g., "signed LOIs with 3 community health centers" or "reached $18K MRR in month 4"]. Raising a $[X]M seed round and would love 20 minutes if the timing's right.

[Your name] | [LinkedIn] | [Company URL]

Script 2: Cold email — thesis alignment angle

Works best when you've read the investor's writing or seen them post publicly about your space.

Subject: [Company] — building toward what you wrote about re: [specific topic]

Body:
Hi [First name],

I read your [post/thread] on [specific topic] and it maps directly to what we're building.

[Company] is [one-sentence description]. We've [traction signal]. Raising a $[X]M seed round.

Would you have 20 minutes in the next few weeks to hear more?

[Your name] | [LinkedIn] | [Company URL]

Script 3: Cold email — founder-to-founder reference

When a portfolio founder has mentioned the investor positively but hasn't offered a formal intro.

Subject: [Company] — [Portfolio Founder Name] mentioned you might be interested

Body:
Hi [First name],

[Portfolio Founder Name] at [their company] mentioned you in the context of what we're building — I didn't want to put them on the spot for a formal intro, but they spoke well of working with you and thought our work might resonate.

We're building [one-sentence description]. [Traction signal]. Raising a $[X]M seed.

Happy to share our deck if that's easier than a cold call. Let me know.

[Your name]

Script 4: LinkedIn DM — short, specific, recent hook

For investors active on LinkedIn who've posted recently about your space.

Hi [Name] — saw your post on [topic] last week. We're building exactly in that direction: [one-line description + traction signal]. Raising a $[X]M seed — worth a quick conversation if it resonates.

3-step follow-up cadence

After three unanswered follow-ups, move on. An investor who goes dark before you've taken their money is telling you something about the relationship after.

Many founders recommend phased outreach, where you contact your top investors first, then work your way down your list.

If you make contact with a target investor, the first thing they’ll likely want to see is your pitch deck. Your pitch deck is a slide deck that explains what you’re building, the problem you’re trying to solve, why your team is qualified to solve this problem, the market you’re operating in, and why you’ll win.

A good pitch deck is concise, compelling, and tells a good story about your business. Some VCs will want to see your pitch deck prior to meeting, while others will set a meeting with you where you can walk through your deck.

Many founders recommend stacking all your investor pitch meetings within a short window, so you don’t have to be distracted by fundraising for an extended period of time. Another hack is to meet with your Tier 2 investors first and refine your pitch based on their feedback, so you can nail your pitch with your Tier 1 investors.

Also note that interest from a VC is leverage. If one VC expresses a desire to invest, founders can often use that to entice other VCs to make an offer and bid against each other.

Fundraising timeline: T–14 to close

Compressing your fundraise into a defined window rather than letting it run open-ended creates competitive tension, protects founder bandwidth, and signals to investors that the round has momentum. Here's the sequenced playbook:

T–14 to T–7 (two weeks before first outreach):

• Finalize pitch deck — short version (10–12 slides) for async sharing; full version for live meetings
• Complete investor scoring matrix and lock Tier 1/2/3 lists
• Pre-write forwarding emails for every warm intro path and send to mutual connections
• Run 3–5 practice pitches with advisors or friendly founders; collect and address the hardest questions

T–7 to T–1 (final prep week):

• Begin Tier 3 outreach and 3–4 Tier 2 meetings as a controlled "soft launch"
• Use these early meetings to stress-test your narrative, not to close — take notes on every repeated question
• Book all Tier 1 meetings within a compressed 10-day window starting at T+7

Week 1 (Tier 2 — pitch iteration):

• Run 8–12 Tier 2 meetings; note which objections or questions keep surfacing
• Refine talking points and update the deck if needed; don't chase any single investor yet
• Share early momentum signals with warm intro paths ("we've had strong early interest and are connecting with several funds this week")

Week 2 (Tier 1 sprint):

• All Tier 1 meetings happen within a 5–7 business day window
• If any Tier 2 investor has expressed strong interest by this point, pull them forward into your active group to increase tension
• Do not share terms or give verbal commitments until parallel conversations are running

Week 3 (consolidate):

• Follow up with all Tier 1 meetings; use any expressed interest as leverage in remaining conversations
• If you receive a term sheet, notify other active investors and set a 5–7 day decision window
• Close in order: lead investor first, then fill the round with followers

The batching logic: Investors respond to social proof. One investor hearing that you're "in conversations with several other funds this week" creates urgency. Meetings spread over three months create no scarcity signal and no reason to move quickly. Compression isn't just efficient — it's a strategic tool.

Choosing who you take money from as a seed-stage startup is crucial, as this VC will be part of your journey for the next 5-10 years. Creating a thoughtful investor list is the first step toward ensuring your seed round is a success.