Follow the venture capital (VC) firm's rules on submitting your materials to the letter. You can follow up with a call after that is done. Then, you wait to hear their response.
Update VCs on your company’s progress
You may not hear anything after you send materials to a VC or angel investor. Months can go by without any word. The best way to handle this is to put each investor that you’ve approached in a newsletter mailing list. When you have extra special news about progress with your company, send out a short professional newsletter linking to press releases, blog posts, or news articles.
Use a service that allows the investors to unsubscribe if they so choose. VCs who unsubscribe are giving you the message that they are not interested. Everyone else is probably just watching you until your progress reaches a point they are comfortable with. Each VC has a level of risk that he wants in the companies he invests in.
Taking time to building relationships
Chances are no one will fall in love with your deal at first sight. That’s why you want to make friends with investors. A VC investment lasts for many years, and investors want to make sure that they like you before investing.
If you can get friendly with a VC, you’ve taken your fundraising potential a step farther. The goal is to stay in touch and show potential investors that you can be a great long-term investment. Here are a couple of suggestions:
Find opportunities to spend time in the same world with VCs. Have a mutual friend introduce you, or simply bump into the investor at a networking event. Your goal is to get noticed as a person, not just as a pitch deck.
If you catch up with a VC in a social setting, talk about something other than your deal. People pitch to VCs all day long. Instead, connect on a personal note about something other than work first. Listening to a pitch from someone who is already known and liked is nice, whereas, having to listen to an unsolicited pitch at a social function is a little off-putting.
Don’t water the relationship during the initial phases only to let it wither on the vine later. Take steps to maintain regular contact with news and updates while avoiding so much contact that it seems like spam.
