Paige Finn Doherty raised Behind Genius Ventures' first fund by DMing Twitter followers she already knew, then shared press coverage from the Washington Post and CBS to attract investors. Early backers like Bain and Tribe Capital helped establish credibility for Fund 1.
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And to avoid like getting fricked by the SEC on like public solicitation, so you basically need to have an existing relationship. So I was like, okay, if they follow me on Twitter, like we have an existing relationship. So I would DM them and be like, hey, you know, I'm raising my first fund. Here's some of our co-investors. Here's some of our earliest deals. So I think at that time it was probably like Bain, Tribe Capital, Andy Wiseman. And then as people would like join on, I'd like send them another DM and be like, hey, like Heather Hardnett just joined. Like, hey, Katie Stanton just joined. And then I think a lot came from different press opportunities. So I got featured in The Washington Post for my journey. I got featured on the San Diego Union-Tribune and CBS Channel 8 in San Diego, which is pretty sick. But through those press opportunities, I shared them on Twitter, and I think that resulted in a good amount of inbound investor interest in Fund 1.