Why Most Founders Waste Months on the Wrong Investors

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-16

Any founder who's raised money knows what investor due diligence feels like from the receiving end. The questions about your model, the customer contracts, that awkward gap in your CV, the calls to people you worked with years ago. Investors do that work because they're making a long-term bet on you. Here's the thing, though. That same scrutiny rarely flows in reverse. In two decades of helping founders raise, I've found that most can tell me everything about their own metrics, their ambition for the business, or the ideal team they want to hire. Ask them about the people they approached for funding, and the details get thin fast. ### The numbers behind the blind spot Why does this happen? DocSend's research on pre-seed rounds found founders contacted an average of 71 investors to close a round. Our own founder survey showed a quarter of founders spend more than half their working week on fundraising. With that much time eaten up, only about one in three do any serious research on investors. That gap can cost you dearly. Months pitching people who were never a fit for your stage or sector. Time that should've gone into building. And sometimes years spent untangling a relationship that was misaligned from day one. ### Why the market makes founders skip the homework Today it's an investor's market, and that's where the trouble starts. European startups raised €21.41 billion (around $24 billion) in the second quarter of 2026, two-thirds more than a year earlier. But 65% of that went to just 42 companies raising €89 million ($100 million) or more, while early-stage deal numbers fell. When capital concentrates in fewer, larger deals, angels hold the leverage. And that's precisely when founders ask the fewest questions, even though they most need the answers. Founders often tell me they can't afford to be picky. They don't have time for due diligence, and asking too many questions might put an investor off. I get the pressure. Fundraising is fiercely competitive, and when capital is hard to secure, chasing every opportunity feels safer than filtering them. But a little research upfront is exactly what saves you. Knowing an investor's criteria and track record tells you whether an approach is worth a week of your time at all. The ones you do pitch arrive already warm, and the process moves faster because of it. > "We talk constantly about product-market fit, but much less about investor-founder fit." ### What you're actually checking for Start by deciding what you want from each investor. If you're raising from 10 angels, maybe you want two or three to take an active role and the rest to stay silent backers. Then check the basics: - Is this person who they say they are, and do they invest at the level and stage they claim? - Which companies have they backed, which have they run, and where have they sat on a board? - Do you actually get on with them, beyond the pitch? - Do you both want the same thing from this company, on a similar timeframe, with a realistic view of growth and exit? Sector experience matters more than general enthusiasm. And that last point, alignment, is what stops the relationship souring later. ### How to do it without interrogating anyone Most of this work happens quietly, before the first meeting. LinkedIn, company websites, and public registers will tell you a great deal. In the UK, Companies House shows directorships and filings, and the European e-Justice Portal searches company registers across the EU. None of it takes the investor's time, and none of it feels intrusive, because they never see it. The most useful step is finding the companies an investor has already backed and speaking to those founders. Get an introduction, or simply ask the investor for a reference. A founder who has worked with them will tell you more in ten minutes than a pitch deck ever could.