Warm intros are a luxury for those who are well connected in Silicon Valley, but for most founders, warm intros can be a source of extreme exclusion from the fundraising process. Founders – who don’t have access to alumni networks nor a community to reach out to – often resort to cold outreach to investors and try in vain to secure VC meetings.
And while most VC firms have verbally committed to funding diverse teams, we’ve barely seen any changes in the fundraising gap. In fact, our research found that all-female teams raised 70% less than all-male teams and averaged fewer investor meetings.
We started the DocSend Fundraising Network to course correct these biases by helping founders across the globe get connected to qualified investors. Our process is simple. You send us your pitch deck as a DocSend link, our pitch deck analysis team reviews it (based on years of fundraising research) and if your deck meets our quality bar, we’ll feature it in our VC newsletter where vetted investors can request immediate intros.
Our Investor Community
We currently have 270+ investors that are actively investing on our distribution list. Our VCs span across the globe from both legacy and emerging funds including Lerer Hippeau, Hustle Fund, and Uncork Capital.
“Seriously, DocSend puts together some great deals, and I get probably a dozen deal newsletters. Yours is by far the best.” – Will Bricker, Hustle Fund
“Love the DocSend Fundraising Network concept – win-win for founders and VCs alike.” – Zach Coelius, Coelius Capital
“The DocSend Deal Flow is becoming my go to source of deal flow.” – Greg Maiatico, Dyrdek Machine
Success Stories
While we know a successful meeting doesn’t necessarily result in an investment, we’re proud to have helped many founders successfully raise through our Fundraising Network.
Tina Seong, Co-founder and CEO, Vista
Vista helps developers easily grant/restrict user access on their applications
“For first-time founders navigating fundraising, information is power, and unbiased information is hard to come by. Within a day of our deck being sent out via DFN’s newsletter, over a dozen interested VC’s reached out for an intro meeting. DocSend was instrumental in helping us get our foot in the door for our pre-seed raise, and I’d recommend it to any founder.”
Nyasha Gutsa, Co-founder and CEO, billy
Insurance and risk management platform built for construction and real estate
Nyasha met one of his lead investors, Zach Coelius, through the DFN back in March 2021 and also connected with the Hustle Fund who ended up participating in his $3.5M seed round.
Christian Kletzl, Co-founder and CEO, UserGems
UserGems helps companies generate more revenue by combining relationship data with trigger events to surface the most likely buyers for each company
“The DocSend Fundraising Network was hugely valuable for us in raising our seed and I can 100% recommend everyone to apply!”
We introduced Christian to Jeff Clavier, Founder and Managing Partner at Uncork Capital, in November 2020. Uncork led UserGems’ $2.4M seed round. Since participating in the DFN, UserGems has gone on to raise a $20M Series A led by Craft Ventures with participation from Uncork Capital. Read their DFN story.
Jonathan Newar, Co-founder and CEO, Captain Experiences
Captain Experiences makes booking outdoor sports guides quick and easy
“DFN is a fundraising cheat code. Acceptance led to our deck being featured in front of industry-leading, brand-name VCs that we otherwise would’ve had to reach out to cold or network tirelessly to connect with. Thanks to the DFN, we met with a handful of funds and ended up signing with our lead investor. Regardless of being accepted into their newsletter, the DFN provides you with detailed feedback on your deck that will help you fundraise successfully.”Read their full DocSend story.
Ronen Bitan, Co-founder and CEO, Trailze
Navigation SDK for micro-mobility
“Since we’re based in Israel, Covid made it more challenging to travel and meet investors face-to-face. DFN made it possible for us to raise our pre-seed round from global investors without ever leaving Israel. It also made the iterations on our deck much more effective because we had real data about which slides needed more work. “
Winston Reid, Co-founder and CEO, Alvin
B2B2C smart money manager app that helps traditional asset managers retain their retail clients more effectively
“Lindsay and the wider DocSend Fundraising Network team were super helpful in first giving us concrete and comprehensive feedback on our pitch deck, then connecting us with quality institutional investors. One of these was a firm we weren’t previously familiar with, but turned out to be the premier seed fund and accelerator in the US for our business model niche. They ended up selecting us for their W22 accelerator batch and investing in us as part of our pre-seed round!”
The DocSend Fundraising Network was built to expand access to venture capital for founders with less-established networks and create a new source of deal flow for VCs. Since launching the DFN in June of 2020, we have received over 4,000 pitch decks and have connected founders and VCs that otherwise might have never met. We’re excited to continue leveraging our fundraising data to help founders with quality ideas across the globe secure funding, while providing insights to help founders raise venture capital.
