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 (full interview here):

1️⃣ 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.

2️⃣ 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

3️⃣ $1.2M raised = 100+ investors contacted

1/ Make sure you have enough investors in your funnel
2/ Be ready for a ton of calls

4️⃣ Cold emails work

Madison only got intros to ~50% of investors in her funnel. She cold-emailed the rest.

5️⃣ 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.

6️⃣ 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, it's a gold mine.