Founders spend weeks perfecting their deck. Meanwhile, the VC who receives it spends about 90 seconds deciding whether to take the meeting. That’s not cynicism \u2014 it’s math. A partner at a mid-size Nordic fund sees 30\u201350 inbound pitches a week. They can’t read every one carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what actually gets them to say yes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warm intros still dominate in the Nordics. A cold email with a great deck gets maybe a 5% response rate. A forwarded note from someone the VC trusts \u2014 a founder they backed, an advisor, a co-investor \u2014 gets 50%+. This is why your network matters, and it’s one of the reasons we spend time on intro strategy before we even touch the deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“I don’t think I’ve funded a single company from a cold email in the last three years. Every deal came through someone I already knew.”<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 Partner at a Nordic seed fund, speaking off the record<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The first slide and the last slide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If they do open the deck, they look at the cover (what is this company?) and the ask slide (how much, for what, at what stage?). If those two make sense together \u2014 interesting space, reasonable ask, right stage for this fund \u2014 they’ll flip through the middle. If not, they close it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team, then traction, then market<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At seed, the order is almost always: who are these people, what have they built so far, and is the market big enough to care? Later stages flip this \u2014 Series A is more about metrics and market position. But early on, VCs are betting on founders. They want to see relevant experience, speed of execution, and some sign that customers want what you’re building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They Google you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This sounds obvious, but founders forget it. Your LinkedIn, your company website, any press or content you’ve published \u2014 all of it gets checked. One founder we worked with had an outdated LinkedIn that still listed a previous startup as “current.” Small thing, but it created doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What they’re filtering for<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The VC isn’t asking “is this a great company?” at the screening stage. They’re asking “could this be relevant to our fund?” That means: right geography, right sector, right stage, right check size. You can be a great company and still not fit a particular fund. That’s not rejection \u2014 it’s misalignment. A good targeting strategy saves you from wasting time on meetings that were never going to convert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n