FundraisingHackers.com

Please support Socap.ai on Product Hunt today (hunted by Garry Tan, Y Combinator CEO) as we're coming out of closed beta! https://lnkd.in/djKTjxgC P.S. Comment "Supported", and I'll send you a FREE gift — a link with 1000s of top VC/Angel/Founder/Executive connections from me & Slava Solonitsyn

?? After 5 months of closed beta testing, Socap.ai is out — try it out for FREE now and get warm intros to virtually anyone! As repeat founders and YC alums who raised over $180M (Slava Solonitsyn is also an ex-VC with 2 unicorns from a seed portfolio), we've accumulated tens of thousands of connections across email/LinkedIn/messengers over the last 15 years. We've long realized that our most valuable capital is our SOCIAL capital — simply put, our network. Best partnerships, best hires, best investors — we found them all either directly in our network or via intros from people we know. It used to take us months and a bunch of human helping hands to manage it as a system — and now we've built an app that can handle all of the dirty work (enrichment, research, and automation) plus, it is a delight to collaborate in. ?? In a nutshell, Socap.ai is an AI?networking copilot for entrepreneurs?like you — and all you need to do to start getting value is connect your email account. We've been testing it in closed beta with hundreds of founders/investors during the last 5 months — started to open up access last Monday and already went viral (2000+ comments on LinkedIn)! ?? See the full launch and create your own free account today: https://lnkd.in/djKTjxgC

?? Collab alert — hosting a webinar for founders with Alexej Pikovsky (repeat founder and ex-VC/PE) — sharing our insights on fundraising during tough times (such as now!) and why the right GTM strategy is crucial for that! I will share details about our "Socap.ai parallel fundraising playbook" and how to turn advisors/investors into taskforce members who'll make valuable intros. ?? Next Monday — 9 PST / 18 CET ?? Registration link in the comments #fundraising #webinar #YC

Speaking at Slush (best EU tech conf) — done ? Excited to keep sharing how to use warm intros and introducing people to Socap.ai. A bit overwhelmed by messages but will recover and come back to everyone! :) Thanks to Ilia Semenov for the photo and Julius Thimm + Maryama Moalim for inviting.

My yesterday's “Intros” post went viral — 1800+ comments and counting, absolutely unexpected ?? We’re doing the best we can to message/reply to everyone but please stay patient if you haven’t gotten the link/a follow-up about the intros from us — we’ll get to everyone within the next week or so. But before most of you actually do request these intros, make sure that you know how to do them right! Here are the 2 golden intro rules you should follow: 1?? Try to prioritize sending personalized 1-1 intro requests whenever possible instead of asking for “random” intros or a bunch of intros at the same time. At Socap, we help you with the pre-intro step — getting in touch with the connector and letting them know who you want to get connected with. There’s no pressure on them to make all of the intros — in fact, they will likely say that they can make X, Y, or Z intros and that’s good enough. It’s your job to take that info in and send them a bit more personalized 1-1 intro request. The secret (and most important) part is: this intro needs to be easily forwardable. It’s not the intro that you write on the connector’s behalf — it’s an intro you write so that the connector can forward it with their personal commentary. And please-please-please don’t write intros from the perspective of the connector — this will not be met with gratitude by them. 2?? Once you’ve sent personalized 1-1 intro requests, wait for the connector to get back to you. Most people follow the “double-opt-in” protocol which means that they first need to get a “Yes” from the other side to connect you with them. If they don’t get back, simply follow up with them by asking if there was any response to these double-opt-ins. No worries if there hasn’t been - you just move on. This is why if you’re fundraising you need to have a funnel of 100+ intros at the minimum, and that will likely come from a bunch of people at the same time. ?? Here’s what a great forwarded personalized double-opt-in request should look like (a real example from one of the startups in the Socap.ai community - you rock Kostya Shishkin) — take notes and can't wait to see more of your intro requests! ?? #startups #intros #fundraising

Get a link with 1000s of warm introductions to top VCs/Angels/Founders ??

Together with Ilia Semenov, we’re hosting an unofficial Y Combinator meetup at Slush, probably the largest CEE tech event. Friends/folks from my network — come join if you’re planning on attending — or else DM me and let’s find some time to catch up (I’ll be in Helsinki 19-22). Register here: https://lu.ma/z9u7wegq We’ve been cooking cool things over at Socap.ai — an absolute must for any startup founder/VC/angel investor who’s proud of their network/connections/social capital.

Few people outside Y Combinator (the greatest startup accelerator in the world) know this, but YC has a private forum for founders called Bookface. On the outset, it’s no different from Indie Hackers or Pioneer or YC Startup School founders forums that you may have seen. There are profiles, channels, and posts. What makes the forum work, we think, are the details of how the YC network works. Curious and want to learn more? Read our blog post hand-crafted by Vasili Shynkarenka — the link is in the first comment.

?? Announcing our new experiment, Rally by Socap.ai! It’s a useful community for early-stage startup founders, inspired by Y Combinator’s Bookface. Vasili Shynkarenka, Slava Solonitsyn, and I (all YC alums) think many problems that founders have can be solved 10x better through other founders, but there’s no tool/place to do that well and at scale. For example, instead of googling how to launch on PH, reading blog posts, etc., you could ask for an intro to a famous hunter who’ll explain all that and hunt your product. We're building this place + software to make it work really well. What Rally is: ?? A network of highly-vetted founders; many are YC alums ?? Bookface-like forum for structured discussion ?? Chat for quick qs / asks ?? Searchable forum archives ?? Searchable and detailed founder profiles What you can use it for: ?1. Getting warm intros for fundraising, sales, hiring, etc. ?2. Getting individualized, comprehensive advice on all things startups, from cloud providers to burnout to PMF ?3. Solving problems of all kinds, from your app being banned at the app store to getting a $XXk cloud provider bill ?4. (Optional) Talking to other early-stage founders once a week during our office hours We think it’ll work because of highly-vetted members, self-selection by our thesis, and thorough moderation. Like YC, we’re also looking for ambitious founders working on interesting things that grow very fast. But, in addition to that, we only recruit founders who believe what we believe: that many problems they face daily can in fact be solved through other founders, that there’s no great tools that help with this, and that it’d be cool to have one. If you’re interested, you should try it out! Rally costs $49/month with a refund if you don’t find it useful. Drop + in the comments if you’re interested and we’ll reach out within 24h. Our process consists of an application and a Zoom interview. We’re planning to accept 30 founders in Oct-Nov to get things going, and then open up for more applications. Join the Rally! P.S. Read more in our announcement post (link in the comments) and check out our site!

???? Who should I meet/where should I go in London next week? I’m a repeat AI entrepreneur with an exit currently building Socap.ai (YC W23). Looking to hang VC/syndicate folks which are actively investing in their communities/portfolios — e.g. creating bonds/facilitating intros. We have something really cool to show/offer. Also happy to meet with startup folks who are currently fundraising for mentoring/advising — we’ve seen dozens of founders successfully raise recently. Going to be there from the 7th till the 14th of Oct. Defo planning to attend the Intercom event with Harry Stebbings and Des Traynor so can catch up there.