Common Investor Replies
In this section, I discuss common situations that arise after the introduction has been made such as a quick and excited response, silence, redirecting to others, and requesting materials before the meeting.
Quick and Excited Response
What you hope for / are looking for is a quick and excited response from the investor that you got connected with. It could be as simple as:
“Hey [Founder], great to meet over email. [Introducer] has told me great things about you and I look forward to meeting and learning more about [Your Startup]. My assistant can help with scheduling.”
This is great! You should “reply all” that you are excited to meet, put the introducer in bcc to spare their inbox while thanking them, and work out the logistics with the assistant separately.
Silence
As long as your network sticks to best practices and does double opt-in intros, silence will be pretty rare. But it does happen sometimes. That could be for all sorts of reasons - for example, the investor falling sick or overwhelmed with a crisis.
My suggestion is to wait for 2-3 days and if you hear nothing send a “reply all” (with the introducer in cc) that reads something like this:
“Hey [Investor], excited to meet you virtually. [Introducer] has spoken very highly of you and I would love to meet whenever logistics permit.”
Hopefully that provokes a response. Note that the introducer is still on the thread because you are leaning on their social capital in those early moments.
If you do not get a response after a few days, I advise to avoid sending any more follow-ups. Instead, you can ping the original introducer to see if they can provide additional context.
An alternative is to use other common connections to try to reach the investor. In this case, you should avoid getting another intro, but instead use your network as a reference. An effective way to do that is to jump on a quick call with a mutual connection and give them an update on your fundraise, mentioning that you got an intro to an investor they know but did not hear back. Hopefully they offer to ping them separately and talk you up. If they don’t, you have to decide whether to ask for that or save your social capital for something else.
As you can imagine, silence is a very bad signal because it suggests that the investor is not really interested. The tactics above may give results sometimes. But often they will not. In those cases you should listen to the deafening silence and move on to other investors. You can circle back as a last attempt towards the end of your fundraise, but generally speaking the expectation should be that this investor is unlikely to be a believer.
Redirecting to an Associate or Similar
Sometimes investors will redirect you to a colleague of theirs such as Associates, VPs, or Partners. Don’t be fooled by fancy titles. As explained in Essential Investor Pre-Qualifications, there are exactly two kinds of people at a VC firm: those that can make a funding decision and those that can’t. The former are General Partners (GPs), while the latter come in a variety of titles. Your goal should be to talk to GPs because they make the investment decisions.
Such redirection can happen during the intro opt-in process or, more rarely, after the introduction. In cases of the former, it is typical for the introducer to check in with you and let you decide if you want to engage. The latter is harder to deal with because it is a surprise. Either way, redirection is a bad signal because it obviously shows that the investor you wanted to talk to is not too interested.
So, should you engage with junior VCs? Here are some pros and cons to consider:
Pros: junior VCs are a smart and hard-working bunch that are incentivized to prove themselves by finding the next great deal. They obviously have the trust of the GP they are working with and know the firm and how it operates. They can be a great ally that can help navigate the process.
Cons: they are junior, as in, they can’t make investment decisions. So that means that convincing them doesn’t actually mean that much - you have to then win over the GP to have a shot at funding. Furthermore, junior investors tend to assess deals very differently than experienced GPs. While there are plenty of exceptions, generally, junior VCs don’t have much entrepreneurial or investing experience and thus haven’t seen for themselves what a breakout company looks like. They tend to put metrics into higher regard because that’s the natural thing to do if you are an intelligent and rational person. Metrics do matter of course. But they are a lagging, not a leading indicator. So relying on them too much is detrimental.
Ultimately, whether to engage with a junior VC is a personal decision that you have to make as the Founder and CEO. My advice is to avoid engaging in the case of redirection, or delay until you have more fundraising momentum.
Either way, make sure to remain firm but polite. For example, you can say something like:
“Thank you [Introducer] for letting me know that [Investor] suggested I talk with [Associate]. Things are a bit crazy right now, but let me do some digging when I get a moment and circle back.”
Requesting Materials Before the Meeting
Investors sometimes request a deck prior to agreeing to a meeting, explaining that they want to become better acquainted with your startup.
In my experience, that’s code for a general lack of interest and/or a weak intro. The request often becomes a polite way to decline the meeting. It also gives investors an opportunity to check if they missed something and if so agree to a meeting, despite their initial skepticism.
In any case, when faced with such a request, founders typically have 2 meaningful options:
Honor the request - if you decide to go this way, I suggest sending your 1-Pager (Teaser Deck).
Delay - you can respond by saying that it is too early for fundraising materials because you will be raising in the next 10-12 weeks, but you will be happy to circle back when the timing is right (which means when the round is coming together).
Generally, I advise that founders do the latter. The reality of startups is that their magic is only revealed once you get into the details and meet the visionary founders driving things forward. Investors asking for materials beforehand are being transactional and thus very unlikely to be the believers you are looking for.