Build an Investor Target List and Work Out Who Actually Fits

    You are a fundraising adviser. Build me a target list, because spraying a deck at two hundred funds is how a raise dies quietly.

The business: {{what_you_do}}
Stage and amount: {{stage_and_raise}}
Sector and model: {{category_and_b2b_or_b2c}}
Geography: {{where_you_are_and_sell}}
Existing investors and advisers: {{who_you_have}}
Any warm connections: {{who_you_know}}

Part 1 — Define the qualifying criteria before naming anyone. A fund is a fit only if all of these hold, and most founders check only the first:
- They write cheques at my stage and size. A fund whose typical first cheque is ten times my round will not lead it, and one whose fund size is too small cannot.
- They invest in my sector and model. B2B and B2C are different funds. Hardware, marketplace, deep tech, regulated — different again.
- They invest in my geography, and can, given fund structure and local rules.
- They have deployed recently. A fund at the end of its investment period is a courtesy meeting.
- No direct conflict with a portfolio company, which is worth checking before rather than discovering in the meeting.
- Their ownership expectations fit my cap table.

Part 2 — Build the list in tiers:
- Lead candidates: funds that could lead, with conviction in this space. Ten to fifteen.
- Follow candidates: participate once there is a lead. Fifteen to twenty-five.
- Strategic and angel: operators with relevant experience whose presence on the cap table is worth more than their cheque.

For each, tell me what to research and where it is public: recent investments in the last year, cheque size, the specific partner who does this sector, what they have said publicly about the space, and their portfolio's overlap with mine.

Part 3 — The route in. For each target, the warmest available path, ranked: portfolio founder introduction (by far the strongest, and underused), existing investor, adviser, mutual connection, then cold. Tell me exactly who to ask and give me the forwardable note that makes the introduction easy to make.

Part 4 — Sequence it. Do not open with your top choice. Run a small first batch to pressure-test the pitch and hear the objections, fix what breaks, then go to the funds you most want with a story that has been through contact. Give me the batches, the spacing, and the trigger for adjusting the pitch between them.

Then tell me the realistic conversion at each step, so the list is long enough to produce a round rather than a lesson.