Investor Research

When to Use

The founder is preparing to fundraise and needs a target investor list.
The founder has a list of investors and wants to qualify or prioritize them.
The founder asks which VCs or angels are a good fit for their stage, sector, or geography.
The founder wants to understand a specific fund's thesis, portfolio, or decision-making process.

Context Required

From startup-context: stage, sector/category, location, current round target (amount), business model, and any existing investor relationships or warm connections.

From the user: geographic preferences (if any), whether they want VC-only, angel-only, or both, any investors already in conversation, and any firms they want to explicitly avoid (e.g., portfolio conflicts they know about).

Workflow

Read startup context — Pull stage, sector, geography, round size, and existing investors from .agents/startup-context.md.
Define investor criteria — Based on context, establish the filtering parameters: stage match, sector focus, typical check size range, geographic relevance, and portfolio conflict exclusions.
Build the raw list — Research investors matching the criteria. For each investor, capture: firm name, partner name, fund stage focus, sector focus, typical check size, recent fund size/vintage, portfolio companies, geographic preference, and a source URL.
Check for conflicts — Flag any firm that has a portfolio company directly competing with the founder's startup. These go on a "conflicts" list, not the target list.
Score and tier — Assign each investor to Tier 1 (strong fit, prioritize), Tier 2 (good fit, pursue), or Tier 3 (acceptable fit, use as backfill) using the scoring framework below.
Identify warm paths — For each Tier 1 investor, suggest how the founder might get a warm intro: mutual connections, portfolio founder intros, accelerator networks, or conference overlap.
Deliver the target list — Output a structured, sortable list with tiers and recommended outreach order.

Output Format

A markdown table with the following columns, grouped by tier:

## Tier 1 — High Priority

| Firm | Partner | Stage Focus | Sector Fit | Check Size | Recent Fund | Conflict? | Warm Path | Notes |
|------|---------|-------------|------------|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-------|

Followed by a "Conflicts" section listing excluded firms and why.

Followed by a "Research Gaps" section listing anything that could not be verified and needs the founder's input.

Frameworks & Best Practices

Investor Qualification Criteria (The 7-Point Filter)

Stage fit — Does the firm invest at the founder's current stage? A Series B fund will not lead a seed round. This is the first filter and it is binary: pass or fail.
Sector focus — Does the firm have a stated thesis or track record in the founder's sector? Look at their last 10 investments, not just their website copy.
Check size match — Does the firm's typical check size align with what the founder needs? A $2B fund rarely writes $500K checks. A $50M fund rarely leads $20M rounds.
Portfolio conflicts — Does the firm already have a company in the same space? This is the most common reason pitches are dead-on-arrival. Check every portfolio company, including quiet ones.
Fund vintage — Is the firm actively deploying from a recent fund? A fund raised 4+ years ago is likely in harvest mode and not writing new checks. Prefer firms that closed a fund within the last 18 months.
Geographic relevance — Some firms only invest locally. Others require board seats that demand proximity. Remote-friendly firms have expanded, but geography still matters for many funds.
Partner-level interest — Is there a specific partner whose background, interests, or public writing aligns with the startup? Pitching the right partner at the right firm matters as much as pitching the right firm.

Tiering Framework

Tier 1: Matches on 6-7 of the criteria above. The firm has invested in adjacent companies, the partner has spoken publicly about the space, and a warm intro path exists. Pursue first.
Tier 2: Matches on 4-5 criteria. Good fit on stage and sector but may lack a warm path or have a slightly mismatched check size. Pursue in the second wave.
Tier 3: Matches on 3 criteria. Acceptable as backfill if the round needs more participants. Do not spend significant time here until Tier 1 and 2 are exhausted.

Sourcing Investor Information

Crunchbase / PitchBook: Fund size, recent investments, portfolio companies.
Firm website: Stated thesis, partner bios, blog posts that reveal focus areas.
Twitter/X and Substack: Many partners publish their current interests publicly. Recent posts are a better signal than old "About" pages.
SEC filings: Fund size from Form D filings when not publicly disclosed.
Portfolio founder back-channels: The single best diligence on an investor is talking to founders they have backed — both successes and companies that struggled.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Spraying 200 cold emails — Fundraising is a funnel. 30 well-targeted, well-introduced conversations beat 200 cold ones.
Ignoring portfolio conflicts — Founders waste weeks pitching firms that will never invest because of a conflict.
Pitching the wrong partner — At multi-partner firms, the wrong partner will say "interesting, let me introduce you to my colleague" at best, or just pass.
Targeting only brand-name firms — Tier 2 and emerging funds are often faster to decide, more founder-friendly, and more willing to lead at earlier stages.
Not tracking your pipeline — Use a simple spreadsheet or CRM: investor name, status (researching / intro requested / meeting scheduled / pitched / passed / term sheet), and next action.

Angel Investor Considerations

Angels decide faster (days, not weeks) but write smaller checks ($25K-$250K typically).
Look for angels with operational experience in your sector — they add value beyond capital.
Angel syndicates (AngelList, etc.) can aggregate small checks into a meaningful allocation.
Be cautious about taking angel money from potential acquirers or competitors without understanding the signaling implications.

Related Skills

pitch-deck — tailor the deck narrative based on what specific investors care about
fundraising-email — write targeted outreach once the investor list is built

Examples

Example prompt: "We're raising a $2.5M seed round for a developer tools company based in SF. Help me build an investor list."

Good output snippet (one Tier 1 entry):

| Boldstart Ventures | Ed Sim | Pre-seed/Seed | Developer tools, infrastructure | $1-3M | $160M Fund IV (2023) | None | Ed is active on Twitter re: dev tools; check if any portfolio founders overlap with your network | Led seed in [similar company]; blog post on "Why developer experience is the next platform shift" |

Example prompt: "I have a list of 15 VCs I want to pitch. Can you help me prioritize?"

Good output approach: Run each firm through the 7-point filter against the founder's startup context. Re-tier the list. Flag any portfolio conflicts the founder may have missed. Identify the 5 to pitch first and suggest the outreach sequence.

investor-research