Investment thesis

The specific kinds of company a fund has told its LPs it will invest in — sector, stage, geography, cheque size.

Example

'Pre-seed and seed B2B infrastructure in Europe, $500k–$2M cheques.'

Most rejections are a thesis mismatch, not a judgement on you. Researching the thesis first saves months of pitching the wrong people.

Venture capital (VC) — Professional investors who manage a fund of other people's money and invest it in high-growth startups in exchange for equity.
Fund — A pool of committed capital with a fixed life — typically ten years — that a VC invests and then returns to its LPs.
Angel investor — An individual investing their own money, usually at the earliest stage.

Who the investors actually are — Angels, VCs, accelerators, family offices, corporate VCs, private equity, venture debt. They want different things — pitch them differently. (12 min)
How a VC fund actually works — A VC is not a person with money. They manage a fund with its own investors, and that single fact explains almost everything they do. (15 min)
What investors are actually assessing — Team, market, traction, insight, and whether the outcome can be large enough. In roughly that order, and mostly in the first ten minutes. (10 min)
The fundraising process end to end — Prepare, list, introductions, first meetings, partner meeting, diligence, term sheet, legals, close. Three to six months, run as a process. (15 min)