What is the difference between angel investors and VCs?
An angel invests their own money, usually $10K to $100K, and decides alone. A VC invests a fund raised from other people, writes larger checks, and answers to a partnership and to the fund's own investors. That difference explains most of the behaviour you will notice: an angel can commit in one meeting, a fund cannot, and a fund needs your company to be able to return a meaningful slice of the whole fund.
How many investors should I contact?
At pre-seed and seed, build a list of 100 to 150 well-matched investors. At Series A, 40 to 60 funds that actually lead rounds at your stage. The number matters less than the match: a list of 300 investors who do not fund your stage, sector or geography converts worse than 40 who do.
Do I need a lead investor?
At seed, usually yes in practice, because most angels wait for someone to set terms and price the round. At pre-seed, often no: those rounds are assembled from small checks rather than led. At Series A, always. The lead sets the price, takes the board seat, and the round does not exist without them.
What is a SAFE and why does everyone use one?
A SAFE is an agreement to give an investor equity later, when you next price a round, in exchange for money now. It skips the valuation negotiation and most of the legal cost, which is why most pre-seed and many seed rounds close on SAFEs rather than priced equity. The trade-off is that the dilution is invisible until it converts, which is usually at your Series A.
How much runway should a round buy me?
Enough to reach the next stage's evidence bar, plus the time it takes to raise on it. In practice that means 12 to 18 months at pre-seed and 18 to 24 months from seed onward, with 3 to 6 months of that reserved for the raise itself. Rounds closing less than 12 months apart usually signal either explosive growth or a cash emergency, and investors can tell which.
Can I skip pre-seed and go straight to seed?
Yes, if you already have the evidence a seed investor prices on. The stage names describe what you can prove, not how old the company is. A team with $20K MRR and real retention is raising a seed round on day one, and a team with a deck and a plan is raising a pre-seed in year three.
What is a good reply rate on investor outreach?
Between 10% and 15% on a well-targeted list. That is the number to judge your targeting by. Below 5% the problem is almost never the email copy: it is that the people receiving it do not invest at your stage, in your sector, or in your geography.
When should I start talking to investors?
Long before you are raising. The funds most likely to lead your next round should have been getting a short quarterly update for months, so that the raise opens a conversation rather than starting one. At Series A this is explicit: the round is largely won in the 12 months before the process begins.