Charles HudsonFounder and Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures

Responding to Outbounds as Founders #venturecapitalpodcast #podcast #founder #siliconvalley

30 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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Charles Hudson (podcast/video) gives practical advice for founders about responding to unsolicited outreach from venture capitalists. He recommends that if a company is not fundraising the founder can politely decline or briefly acknowledge the outreach, clarify they are not currently raising, and reserve time for planned future fundraising; he also advises qualifying inbound interest (e.g., whether the VC is researching competitors or doing a market map) before spending significant time answering questions.

Chapters

If we're not going to fundraise, you should tell these folks, hey, right now, we're not raising. We're busy operating. We have a plan to fundraise. I will be in touch with you. Just because somebody emailed you and said they want to know a lot about your business doesn't mean you as a founder or obligated to do anything. I mean, it's polite to acknowledge the email and say, hey, thank you for your interest. We're not fundraising. But you don't even owe them that. And I think the reason VCs send so many of these emails is because it works. Because I think it's flattering as a founder to get an email from an investor saying, you, you don't know me, but I'm interested in your business. And the real question is, why are they interested in investing? Are they looking at investing in your competitor and they're trying to make sure they have a good picture view? Are they just trying to do a market map? You don't always know. So I try to help people figure out, how do we qualify this interest before we go spend a bunch of time answering questions and doing work for them.