| name | vc-outreach |
| description | VC outreach and raise execution: investor target lists (partner-level, tiered), warm-intro and cold-email plays that convert to first calls, meeting prep and objection handling, the parallel-process pipeline (batching, momentum, follow-ups), and diligence through close (data room, references, term-sheet-to-wire). Use when a founder needs an investor list, wants intros or cold emails to VCs, is preparing for or debriefing an investor meeting, is managing an active raise pipeline, or is assembling a data room. Don't use for deck authoring (use vc-pitch-deck) or for round sizing, narrative, and term economics (use vc-strategy). |
VC Outreach
Runs the investor-facing raise motion: list → meeting → pipeline → close. Distilled from a 625-source fundraising corpus (NFX, Paul Graham, First Round, YC, Hustle Fund, real founder funnels with numbers); the raise is treated as an instrumented pipeline with health benchmarks, not a vibes campaign.
Paths
<skill-dir> = the directory containing this SKILL.md. Every references/… path below is relative to <skill-dir>; expand to an absolute path before reading when the CWD is elsewhere. All bundled files are reference (read-only).
Branches
| Invocation | Do |
|---|
| Run the raise end-to-end | Run Steps 1–5 |
| Build or refine the investor list | Read references/targeting.md in full; deliver the tiered, disqualified, referrer-mapped list |
| Get meetings (warm intro or cold email) | Read references/getting-the-meeting.md in full; produce the blurb/emails and the send plan |
| Prep or debrief an investor meeting | Read references/meetings.md in full; run its prep or follow-up checklist |
| Pipeline health, momentum, investor updates | Read references/process-and-pipeline.md in full; run the weekly review or produce the update |
| Data room, diligence, term-sheet-to-wire | Read references/diligence-and-close.md in full |
Steps — running the raise
Step 1: Verify the inputs.
Confirm the strategy exists (narrative memo, round spec, milestone map — invoke vc-strategy if missing) and the deck exists (teaser + full — invoke vc-pitch-deck if missing). Then stage the machine: data room seeded before kickoff, running FAQ document started, CRM live with the eight pipeline stages, calendar blocked (a 2–3-week pitch window plus daily raise hours), momentum answer scripted.
Done when: every pre-kickoff readiness item in references/process-and-pipeline.md is checked.
Step 2: Build the list.
Read references/targeting.md in full. Build 100–200 partner-level names, run the disqualification pass (expect to cut ~30%), tier A/B/C (~30/30/40) crossed with access quality, and map 2–3 candidate referrers per Tier A target.
Done when: every surviving target has a tier, a research note with a nameable opening signal, and Tier A targets have referrers mapped.
Step 3: Launch outreach.
Read references/getting-the-meeting.md in full. Fire all intro requests in the same window (the blitzkrieg) so meetings cluster; cold-email only where no warm path exists, per the spec; sequence practice-tier before Tier A.
Done when: every target has outreach sent and logged with a dated next step, and first meetings are landing inside the chosen window.
Step 4: Run meetings and pipeline.
Read references/meetings.md and references/process-and-pipeline.md in full. For every meeting: prep checklist, run sheet, ≤24-hour follow-up, same-day logging, new tough questions converted to appendix slides. Weekly: the pipeline review with its numeric triggers, the objections-ledger review, and the same-pace correction so no lukewarm fund runs ahead of a favourite.
Done when: a term sheet is in hand — or a stop rule has fired (~6 partner meetings with unfixable feedback; 30–40 hard nos; air in the straw), in which case deliver the halt-and-diagnose verdict instead of pushing on.
Step 5: Close.
Read references/diligence-and-close.md in full. Staged disclosure through diligence; route term-sheet economics and negotiation to vc-strategy; keep selling until wired ("your round is not closed until the funds wire"); then set the post-close machine: investor-update cadence and the next round's target list.
Done when: funds are wired and the update cadence is scheduled — or the raise was halted and the post-mortem delivered.
Corpus deep-dive
When a claim needs source-level evidence beyond these references and research/vc-funding/ exists in the workspace, search the corpus with kb search "<query>" --lex --topic vc-funding run from the research/ directory (always --lex; hybrid and vector modes hang). Compiled articles live at research/vc-funding/wiki/concepts/.
Reference index
references/targeting.md — list sizing, partner-level targeting, tiering, the disqualification pass, per-investor research, funnel math with real numbers. Load at Step 2.references/getting-the-meeting.md — the four access channels, forwardable blurb anatomy, referrer machinery, the cold-email spec with real exemplars, follow-up cadences and stop rules, deliverability engineering, pre-raise nurture. Load at Step 3.references/meetings.md — first-call run sheet, the question drills with answer scripts, partner-meeting mechanics, signal reading, the objections ledger, rejection handling and stop rules. Load at Step 4 and for any meeting prep or debrief.references/process-and-pipeline.md — pre-kickoff readiness, pipeline stages, batching and the same-pace rule, ethical momentum, weekly review with numeric triggers, raise telemetry, investor updates (pre- and post-raise). Load at Steps 1 and 4.references/diligence-and-close.md — staged disclosure gates, the data room (two access tiers + master index), reference-call management, reverse diligence on the investor, term-sheet-to-wire mechanics, signaling and round construction, announcement timing. Load at Step 5.
