Free tool
How many investors do you need to contact?
Enter your target raise, average cheque and conversion rates. The number that comes out is the list you must build before the first email goes out.
What you want to close this round.
The blended average across the round.
Cold outreach; warm introductions run higher.
How many replies become first meetings.
How many meetings end in a committed allocation.
2 or 3 if a lead brings follow-on cheques.
Every stage, worked backwards
At your rates: 200 replies, 80 first meetings, and 8 committed closes stand between the first email and 8 cheques.
| Stage | Needed | Assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Investors contacted | 1,667 | worked backwards |
| Replies | 200 | 12% of contacts reply |
| First meetings | 80 | 40% of replies become meetings |
| Term sheets closed | 8 | 10% of meetings end in a close |
| Cheques | 8 | 1 cheque per close |
| Amount closed | $2,000,000 | 8 cheques at $250,000 average |
Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
The funnel math, worked backwards
A raise is four conversions stacked together. Start at the money and divide backwards:
- Cheques needed = target raise ÷ average cheque
- Closes needed = cheques ÷ cheques per close
- Meetings needed = closes ÷ meeting-to-term-sheet rate
- Replies needed = meetings ÷ reply-to-meeting rate
- Investors to contact = replies ÷ reply rate
Every stage rounds up. Small changes compound: doubling the reply rate halves the list. Terms are in the glossary.
What moves each rate
Warm paths beat cold. An introduction from someone the investor trusts is the difference between contacting hundreds and contacting dozens, and Ishara shows the warm paths from your own network for every investor.
Fit beats volume. Investors whose cheque and thesis fit your raise reply more often. The directory of 32,822 investors filters by cheque size, stage and sector.
Follow-ups count. Many replies arrive on the second or third touch. Ishara email reminds you when nobody has replied and ranks your templates by the reply rates they earn.
Then run the list as a pipeline
The number only becomes a raise if every name moves through stages you can see. Find my investors ranks the directory against your raise with a reason beside every name and sends the shortlist into a staged pipeline in one step.
Selling to governments instead? The bid pipeline calculator runs the same arithmetic for tenders.
Frequently asked questions
How many investors should I contact when fundraising?
Work backwards from the money. Divide your target raise by your average cheque to get cheques needed, then divide by your meeting-to-term-sheet, reply-to-meeting and reply rates in turn. At a 12% reply rate, 40% reply-to-meeting and 10% meeting-to-term-sheet, a $2M raise at $250k cheques means contacting about 1,700 investors. Warm introductions and a well-targeted list shrink that number dramatically.
Where do the default conversion rates come from?
They are cold-outreach starting points. Your real rates depend on how warm the path is, how well each investor fits your cheque size and sector, and whether you follow up. Replace them with your own numbers as your raise produces data.
Does the calculator store or send what I type?
No. All of the math runs in your browser on this page, including the two charts. Nothing you enter is stored, transmitted or logged.
What do the two presets do?
They set the reply rate only. Warm intros sets it to 25 percent and Cold sets it to 8 percent, then the funnel, the curve and the table recompute from your other inputs.
Start with the market already inside.
32,822 investors, government tenders across six markets and a CRM that starts free. Bring your data from any CRM or spreadsheet in an afternoon.
Free plan · 32,822 investors · six markets