How to Drip Market Investors for Fun and Profit

tremendousblog

June 18

I saw an incredible startup at a demo day yesterday. When I contacted the founder after, she offered to add me to the investor update.

This is genius. But very few founders do it.

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Was just on a demo day. Saw an extremely high potential company, e-mailed them.
Founder offered to add me to the investor updates. Wonderful way to drip market investors, I love it. 😍
Underused hack.

— Francis Santora 🦀 (@FrancisPSantora) June 17, 2024

Got Dat Drip

Startups use drip marketing to get customers all the time. This involves e-mail sequences that get potential customers interested and push them to eventually buy.

By adding a potential investor to your investor update, you're drip marketing the VC's.

You keep inserting your startup into their head. And you show progress over time that gets them drooling.

How It Works

I get lots of updates for companies I've never invested in. I'll give each one a quick scan, and if I see something notable, I'll reply.

Now and then, one of these prospects starts to really break out. When that happens, I start furiously typing a message to the founder, eager to secure my spot while there's still time!

Drip marketing gets investors excited. They can follow your growth in real time.

It also creates FOMO.

They know they're not the only ones getting those updates! They better get a check in while they still can.

Excitement + FOMO = you raising more cash.

Saving You Time

The scarcest resource on earth is founder time. If you're gonna write this update every month anyway, why not get some additional mileage out of it?

Fundraising is very time-consuming. But if you drip market investors and show real progress, you'll have VC's contacting you.

Think of all the time that saves! Also, who do you think you have a better chance of closing:

A) An investor you contact
B) An investor who contacts you

Yep.

But What About Confidentiality?

Putting a bunch of people who haven't invested yet on your update puts your company's private information into broader circulation. But it's worth it.

Confidentiality in startups is overrated. It's so hard to get anyone to care about your company, even if you strip naked and scream about it in Times Square!

Does it really matter if the world knows your MRR? Do they even care?

The upside of raising capital more easily is worth the risk.

If you have truly sensitive info, like a customer you're under NDA with, just don't put it in the update. You can always tell your major investors one-on-one.

Wrap-Up

Every time you talk to an investor, offer to add them to the update. Some won't read it, but some will.

If you start to break out, you'll have VC's trampling each other to get in the round. All without you doing any more work than you're already doing today.

Do you add potential investors to your update?

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