Tips to land your first investor in 2026
After sitting through hundreds of calls on our platform, we have seen some patterns in the successful founders versus the unsuccessful ones.
I wanted to share these tips with every founder in the circle. Since I sit in all of these calls as a listener, these takeaways are universal, and they are some of the best advice out there, because they are derived from real calls happening at Zar Funding.
Before we dive in, one line that is attributed to Sam Altman:
The best way to raise a lot of funds for your company is to build a great company in the first place.
Here are a few tips that are super important to understand before you go into any investor call.
Tip 1 · Research the investor before every call
Paste this exact prompt into any LLM of your choice (Claude or OpenAI) and replace the variables with your own.
Here's my company's website {Insert your company website}, and here's the website of the fund that I am going to meet {website of the fund}. I'm meeting {X, who works as Y at the fund}. Identify and analyze their rank in the fund, and gather all the information that might be helpful for me during the call. Study our business and then pick any relevant investments that they have made in the sector (give me a short snapshot in bullet points for the investments that are relevant to my startup's line of business). Fund's thesis should be in less than 100 words (mention sector, geography, check size if available, stage preference).
Output should be in this format:
Investor Name:
Investor Background:
Investor's Educational History (with years marked down):
Where the investor is based: (City where the investor lives)
Fund Name:
Do they lead the round?:
Fund's thesis and any notable investments:
Recheck your output before giving it to me, and follow the output format strictly. Suggest any notable points, like a recent round raise, that might help me get to know the investor well.
This helps you prepare better for your meeting, and it serves as a better ice breaker.
Tip 2 · Get your ducks in a row
All experienced founders are alike. All inexperienced founders are different in different ways.
Most newbie founders that I see are all over the place when they are talking to investors. Investors can sense unpreparedness, lack of proof, and lack of growth from a mile away.
Memorize the following metrics:
- What are you building
- Why is it important
- Why somebody cares about your idea, and what is the proof
- Revenue
- Growth (WoW, MoM, YoY)
- How many customers do you have
- What is your primary market right now, and your plans for the future
- Average time to close a deal
- Your famous customers
- Competitors and your MOAT
- Average deal size
- Market size
- How many team members do you have, and where are they based (give percentages only)
I will write a separate blog about how the best founders answer these questions.
Tip 3 · Tonality is everything
It is not about what you say, it is how you say it. Just like any sales prospect, investors are your prospects, and prospects mostly make decisions based on what they see and what they hear. If you do not sound confident with your metrics, even if you are saying everything right, it shows that the founder probably has no clue what is going on in the company.
Tip 4 · Always set up the next conversation on the first call
This, by far, is the biggest difference between a seasoned founder and a novice founder. Seasoned founders take the first call to familiarize the investor with what they are building, what their mission is, and how much they have built so far. The first call should be like a first date, where both of you are figuring it out mutually.
Within your call, always ask this question:
John, just for my understanding, how many people are involved from your firm when you guys eventually decide to invest in a company, or specifically in this deal?
Once the investor states a number, say:
John, if we see a fit for each other in this call, would you be open to involving the team in the next call? I can involve my team as well. My intention is to help every investor participating in this round get up to speed on our company. Is that fair?
So, what is the purpose of all this?
- It tells you there are other decision makers involved, and you are probably not talking to all of them on this call. Those decision makers should be involved too. It is not a one-person show.
- It gives them a reason to take the next call, involve the right people, and set the right expectation for when they come to that next call.
Bonus tip: always set up the call yourself on your calendar, then send the invite to the investors and say:
Hey John, feel free to involve the other decision makers you mentioned on the call as well.
Tip 5 · Having no system kills more conversations than laziness
- Make a dead-simple Google Sheet for the investors you are speaking to. One simple Google Sheet, that is it.
- Send regular round updates as follow-ups to the investors: who is investing, what is moving, and new customers signed. Give them a chance to speak to your customers or investors.
- Never follow up with "just following up" or "a reminder" or any cliche line. Use active language and mention what moved after your conversation.
- Always ask a question rather than ending with a plain nicety. People respond to questions, because it feels like they have a responsibility to answer the question being asked.
Tip 6 · Never take an intro from an investor who is not investing
Dead intros will only give you dead ends. The illusion with dead ends is that they always look active. Take referrals and intros from your investors, and offer your incoming investors the chance to speak with your current investors if they want. Build trust as early as possible in the conversation.
Also, if you want qualified intros, feel free to get in touch. We help startups set up qualified intros with the right-fit investors. :)