5 creative ways to grow your LP pipeline
Hi John,
In many ways, fundraising is a numbers game. So today, I want to help you add Limited Partners (LPs) to your top of funnel fundraising pipeline for free.
Here are five creative ways to find individuals who may be thinking of asset allocation.
Yours,
Myrto Lalacos Founder, The Emerging VC
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5 CREATIVE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR LP TOP OF FUNNEL
1) Find recently liquid people
Every IPO, acquisition and tender offer creates a cohort of newly liquid individuals: employees, early executives, advisors, angels. Many are actively looking for places to deploy, and most of them are easy to find on LinkedIn.
The playbook:
→ Search strings like “investor at [company]”, “angel investor at [company]” on LinkedIn. Anthropic & SpaceX are good contenders here.
→ 1st-degree connections go on the immediate outreach list. For 2nd-degree, find a mutual connection most likely to make a warm intro.
2) Mine local angel network member lists
Every angel network, syndicate, operator collective and founder-investor community in your geography is a map of plausible LPs. Members are already allocating to private markets, so they understand the asset class.
The playbook:
→ Angel Capital Association directory, local angel groups, accelerator mentors, syndicate leads, university alumni investor groups, event attendee lists.
→ Search the keyword “investor” or “angel” on LinkedIn. That will surface angel investors for you in your 1st and 2nd degree network.
→ For each group identify members, check size, sector focus, co-investment behaviour, and who in your own network already knows them
→ Opening line: “I saw you are active in [network] investing in [sector]. I am also investing in [thesis], so would love to compare notes. Open to chatting?”
3) Run a GP-to-GP LP swap
Reach out to fellow GPs in your network. Propose a simple exchange: one LP introduction from your network for one from theirs.
The rules that make it work:
→ Pick similar size LPs.
→ Both sides send a short forwardable blurb to allow the other to introduce you.
→ Each intro includes a sentence on why the LP is relevant.
→ Deliver first. Send your intros before chasing theirs.
It’s better for LPs to diversify within venture and invest in more than just one VC fund.
4) Scrape family office conference speaker and attendee lists
LP events publish their speaker rosters prior to the event. Attendee lists leak through LinkedIn posts around the event date. This is a good source of named, categorised, qualified LPs that you can find online.
How to work it:
→ Target events: Opal Family Office events, Campden Wealth, iGlobal Forum, FINTRX summits, Family Office Exchange, SuperReturn.
→ Pull speaker bios directly from the event site or names on social posts.
5) Go through your entire network one by one
Your LinkedIn connections and email contacts are the single most under-worked LP list you own. You have an existing relationship with every person on both lists, which is permission enough to reach back out.
How to extract all your contacts:
→ On LinkedIn: Settings & Privacy → Data Privacy → Get a copy of your data. Select "Want something specific?", check Connections, and click "Request archive." Download the CSV when it lands in your inbox (usually within 10 minutes).
→ On Gmail: Go to contacts.google.com, click Export in the left panel, select Contacts under the dropdown, choose Google CSV, and download.
→ Merge both into one Google Sheet. Dedupe on full name.
→ Take out anyone who does not fit your LP Archetype.
→ Add columns for Current Role, Company, LP Archetype.
→ Work the list 20 to 30 names at a time. Get as many meetings in the diary as you can.
Good luck! If you found this useful, forward this email to a GP in your network who is in fundraising mode.
SOME EXCITING NEWS
I am happy to announce that The Emerging VC has partnered with two leading fund formation and administration providers. Both are running free sessions on choosing your fund jurisdiction, forming your fund, and setting up the back office functions that keep it running.
If that is relevant, or you are considering changing your current fund admin provider, join the sessions below.
Fund Formation Outside the US: Jurisdiction, Entities and Back Office Functions with Jacqueline Kressner, Commercial and Growth Lead at Infra One — Wed Nov 4, 8am PT
🎟️ Register here.
US VC Fund Formation and Operations with Rachael Qualls and Aaron Van Son, Venture360 — Thu Nov 5, 8am PT
🎟️ Register here.
IN OTHER NEWS
👉 I run this newsletter as an independent resource for emerging managers. If you’d like to support the work, you can contribute here.
👉 I will be at Web Summit this year. If you are heading there too and want to meet up, let me know!
👉 The other free sessions The Emerging VC is running that you should check out:
