Participating in startup events and meeting with investors is tough work. And even more so if you happen to be an introvert. In this blog post, Iryna Krepchuk shares her tips to founders on how to raise money as an introvert.
When it comes to fundraising, founders can adopt different strategies to reach investors. Naturally, people with extroverted personalities may be more visible and easier to find, but that does not necessarily mean that they’ll be more successful at fundraising. At the end of the day, fundraising is about building trust and meaningful relationships, and introverts often excel at that.
So, if you think that small talk and chit-chatting are not your thing, consider the following when fundraising:
💫 If you wish to decrease the number of daunting initial meetings, do more homework to identify whether the fund might be interested in your case. Also, you can send your deck or make a quick loom explaining what you do.
💫 If conferences give you anxiety, try booking your networking slots, but make sure to include a break in between. (Pro tip: Offer an investor to have a meeting in a quieter space if the time allows; I sometimes offer to take my meetings outside if the weather is nice).
💫 If the whole idea of pitching on stage gives you chills, sing your co-founder/colleague up; pitching competitions give visibility but have nothing to do with actual fundraising.
💫 If you feel that selling your startup to investors with words is not your strongest side, put your thoughts on paper and support your vision with data. You can always use additional materials to draw the whole picture and then dive into the individual points later on.
💫 Finally, remember that investors also have different personalities, and you don’t have to change yourself to match their energy. Otherwise, you’d need to be in that energy for the years to come.
It’s true that there are still biases out there, but I don’t know of a single fund that makes its investment decision based on how outgoing and outspoken you are as a founder. What we look for are founders who are personally invested in their startup, who have great market and industry knowledge, who can attract great talent, and who excel at seeing the big picture while being on top of every aspect of the company. For this, being an introvert or an extrovert makes no difference.
And I could not leave this post without mentioning that *apparently* all those famous guys like Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg are introverts too. Do whatever you want with this information.