6 things I learned from interviewing Clutch CEO about her $1.2M pre-seed

Myth: first-time founders don’t know how to fundraise. Reality: Madison Long from Clutch raises $1.2M pre-seed round for her first startup. I interviewed Madison about how she raised it and here are my Top 6 learnings: *** 1/ Join an accelerator Madison joined an accelerator to learn how to run a tight fundraising process and develop a solid pitch. Also, accelerator = network = warm intros. 2/ Attend pitch competitions “Pitch competitions may seem intimidating, time consuming, or difficult, but doing them has massively increased our brand awareness, partnership opportunities, and of course, investment capital.” — Madison 3/ $1.2M raised = 100+ investors contacted 1/ Make sure you have enough investors in your funnel 2/ Be ready for a ton of calls 4/ Cold emails work Madison only got intros to ~50% of investors in her funnel. She cold-emailed the rest. 5/ Send investor updates 1/ Investor updates helped Madison to stay in touch with VCs during the 10-month raise. 2/ "Investors invest in lines, not dots". The best way to demonstrate your progress is to send monthly updates. 6/ Filter incoming feedback Madison received feedback from hundreds of investors. Trusting the gust was the only way to know what to take and what to leave. *** Thanks for reading! For more insights, check out the full interview: https://shizune.co/blog/how-clutch-raised-a-1-2m-pre-seed-round/