I've raised $1 Billion in my tech career

Here's how I did it (and how you can, too):

Fundraising has always been challenging for me.

I constantly find myself in do-or-die fundraising scenarios.

Over time I’ve been building processes to “coin operate” the raising process.

In addition to being challenging, fundraising is a massive distraction.

It takes you away from building.

But it's also essential and can't be viewed as an on/off switch.

I've used 4 main techniques to raise more capital while minimizing the distraction:

1. Build an investor rolodex ☎️

As you meet investors, keep a running list.

• Names
• Emails
• Numbers
• Social media

Build this list into an investor rolodex as large as possible over time.

This rolodex makes networking and outreach much more efficient.

2. Send Investor Updates 📝

Between funding rounds, it’s important to keep investors updated.

Share the following every 90 days:

• Latest accomplishments
• Product updates
• Future roadmap
• Team updates
• KPI's

This builds a track record + keeps you top of mind.

At Archer, here's how I operationalized this process:

We wrote a Quarterly Shareholder Letter

Each note focused on these items:

• Team
• Vision
• Schedule
• Financials
• Accomplishments

Here’s our first letter:

tinyurl.com/yxypcazm

**I will say the above letter is too long and detailed for early stage companies

But this will give you a sense of the higher end market for investor letters

For private backed companies something in the ~400 word count + images is ideal

3. Operationalize the process ⚙️

Processes protect your time

Operationalize your investor updates:

• Send every 90 days
• Make them simple to read
• Use visuals, graphics, and charts
• Leverage email tools for efficiency

I've found success with Thunderbird or MailChimp

At Vettery, I mail merged 400+ investors every 90 days.

These updates had 60%+ open rates.

The results:

• It kept us top of mind
• It drove in-bound VC interest
• It built trust and excitement with investors

We raised our $9M Series A this way.

4. Build FOMO ⌛️

Investors generally track certain KPI's.

Highlight those in your updates.

For example, SaaS investors want to see ARR.

In 2017, I sent an investor note with the subject "Vettery crosses $1M/month."

Raising capital is a momentum and FOMO game. Build it.

These lessons came from my experience building Archer ($2.7B IPO) and Vettery ($100M exit)

Follow me @adcock_brett for more on building companies.

Retweet the first tweet if you want to keep learning more about hard tech and entrepreneurship:

To recap, here are the 4 techniques:

• Build FOMO
• Send Investor Updates
• Build an investor rolodex
• Operationalize the process

There's more to fundraising than this, of course, but these pillars are the foundation of my fundraising playbook.