How do you find investors for a startup?

Start warm, with the people who already know you and your work, through introductions. Then match the raise to the right investor: angels for a five or six figure raise, VCs for seven figures. And consider whether your own customers or supply side would invest.

Should I approach angel investors or VCs?

Roughly by size. Angels write personal cheques for five or six figure raises; VCs come in at seven figures. Approaching the wrong type wastes time on both sides.

Can your own customers become your investors?

Sometimes, yes. On a marketplace or platform, business owners on your supply side may want a stake because they are already invested in your success, which makes them aligned, warm money.

How do you actually find investors?

Start with the people who already know you. Then match the size of the raise to the right kind of investor. And do not overlook the customers already in front of you.

Founders often picture fundraising as cold-emailing a long list of VCs, and that is usually the least effective place to start. The best money tends to come through people who already know you, so before you go anywhere near a stranger's inbox, use the relationships you have already got. You know people, you have worked with people, you have done good work and built trust over the years, so make that work for you. A handful of genuinely warm introductions is worth more than a hundred cold approaches.

Match the raise to the right kind of investor

Once you do reach wider, match the size of your raise to the kind of investor who actually writes that cheque. If you are raising five or six figures, that is angel territory, individuals writing personal cheques. If you are raising seven figures, you are talking to VCs. Going to the wrong one wastes everyone's time, and you can genuinely track a lot of them down on LinkedIn, see who already backs businesses like yours, and reach out with something specific rather than a mass blast. How much you should be raising in the first place is its own question, which I get into in how much should you raise.

The route founders forget

Sometimes your investors are already using your product. If you have got a marketplace or a platform with business owners on the supply side, some of them may want a stake, because they are strategically invested in you succeeding already. A hundred business owners who love what you are building is a hundred people you could ask whether they would put in ten, twenty, fifty thousand each, and that is aligned money from people who believe in it because they use it. Look at who is already in your world before you go hunting for strangers.

So, whichever route you take

The rule is the same. Warm beats cold, specific beats spray-and-pray, and someone who already trusts you or already uses you is far likelier to write a cheque than a stranger who owes you nothing. The list of names you can cold-email is the last resort, not the first move.

Start with the people who know you, then the ones who use you, and only then the strangers.