Some investors limit their activities to a specific region: Some might invest only in Silicon Valley, others may focus only on Germany, and some accelerators will be based in a specific region or city. Do your research and leverage your location as best you can.<\/p>\n

Of course, an increasing number of companies are going fully remote, which makes it harder to argue that you have a local affinity. However, if 70% of your team is based in Europe, but the CEO is in San Francisco and the company is a Delaware C-corp, don\u2019t make the mistake of describing yourself as a European startup.<\/p>\n

Do you have school affinities or any other \u201cspecial sauce\u201d?<\/h3>\n

Some investors may invest predominantly in certain niches: women, people of color or founders who went to MIT, Stanford, Harvard or the like.<\/p>\n

In fact, most universities have investment clubs or connections with investors who have a particular affinity with higher learning institutions.<\/p>\n

Which industry are you in?<\/h3>\n

Are you in finance, healthcare, consumer hardware or climate tech? Some investors specialize in specific industries that others will avoid at all costs.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen people make the mistake of describing a finance play as a healthcare startup because there is an indirect link to health. Gofundme, for example, is often used to fund medical expenses but it\u2019s a crowdfunding or financial tech platform. If its founders had used the medical angle to tell the company\u2019s story, some investors might have had a problem.<\/p>\n