The Mintround blog
Practical writing on fundraising, pitch decks, and investor outreach for early-stage founders.
11 cold-email mistakes that get founders marked as spam
Eleven concrete cold-email mistakes, from unverified lists and generic blasts to the wrong ask, that get founder outreach ignored or marked as spam.
The investor CRM spreadsheet: a template that actually works
The columns that matter in an investor CRM, how to run the pipeline through them, and how to seed the whole thing from a verified CSV export.
How to research an investor in 15 minutes before a meeting
A 15-minute checklist to research an investor before a call, covering portfolio, thesis, recent deals, socials, mutual connections, and what they pass on.
Finding pre-seed investors in Europe: where they hide
European pre-seed capital is scattered across angels, micro-funds, and country ecosystems. Here is where to look and how to filter by stage and geography.
How to find angel investors (5 channels that actually work)
Where angel investors really are, how to tell the active ones from the dormant, and how to get their contact details without a warm intro.
How to raise pre-seed without connections
No warm network? Pre-seed is the stage where cold outreach works best. Here is the sequence that gets first-time founders their first cheques.
How to build a pitch deck that gets the meeting
A pitch deck has one job: earn the next conversation. The slide order that works, what each slide must answer, and the mistakes that get a pass.
What to put in your investor data room
When an investor leans in, a clean data room keeps the momentum. The documents to have ready before diligence starts, and what not to overshare.
How much should you raise at pre-seed and seed?
Raise enough to hit the next milestone with margin, and not so much that dilution hurts. How to size the round from milestones, runway, and dilution.
SAFE vs priced round: which should you use?
Most early rounds use a SAFE, some use a priced equity round. What each one is, when each makes sense, and the terms that actually matter.
Run your fundraise as a process, not a scramble
Momentum closes rounds. How to batch your outreach, create real competition, and run a tight timeline so investors move on your schedule.
What traction actually means at each stage
Traction is not one number. What counts as proof at pre-seed, seed, and Series A, and the metrics investors trust over vanity figures.
Pre-seed vs seed: what each round means and who funds it
The line between pre-seed and seed is fuzzy, but the expectations are not. What each round buys, what investors look for, and who writes the cheques.