Welcome, investor!
In 5 minutes, you will know exactly how to use OpenVC to access quality, qualified deals.
Table of Contents
What is OpenVC and is it right for me?
OpenVC allows tech investors to directly connect with founders.
If you are a VC firm, angel investor, startup incubator or accelerator, startup studio, then OpenVC is right for you. We also welcome RBF and debt providers, as well as "free money" (grants and subsidies).
Our service is completely free - no commission, no subscription. We monetize via premium features and advertising.
NB: If you're a service vendor or software vendor, don't sign up to the investor list - you will be rejected. Instead, contact [email protected] and we can add you to our Perks marketplace.
How to sign up and get started
Go to OpenVC.app. Click "Sign up", then "I'm an investor", and select your investor type (VC, angel, accelerator...).
If you're an angel investor:
If you're not an angel investor, you have to pick whether to join a new firm or join an existing one.
How to receive deal flow from OpenVC
1. Whitelist [email protected]
All deal flow will be sent to you from [email protected]. If you're not receiving deal flow, it's 99% because you haven't whitelisted the address.
Not sure how to whitelist an email? Here's a 2-min tutorial.
2. Activate "Direct email"
OpenVC gives you 2 or 3 options to receive deal flow:
To activate direct email, log in to your OpenVC account, then click your profile picture, then "My profile", click "Edit profile", and change the Settings "How to get in touch".
We recommend starting with "Email address" and fine-tuning things down the road. Any questions, contact us at [email protected].
3. Optimize your OpenVC profile
If you don't receive deal flow, or if your deal flow is poorly qualified, it's probably because your OpenVC thesis is not optimized.
Here are a few points to pay attention to:
The more specific you are, the better deal flow we can send you.
How to access top 1% deals on OpenVC
We have recently soft launched OpenVC Flow.
OpenVC Flow allows you to directly request decks from top 1% rounds before they close. This include startups with exited founders and/or hypergrowth and/or significant funding secured.
To access these top deals, log in to OpenVC with a investor account, then head to the Flow page and follow the steps. Currently, investors are limited to 3 requests/day to prevent abuse.
This feature is free, but if you have previously unanswered decks, you be prompted to reply them before being able to request more decks.
Another important point: when you use the "Request deck" feature, your OpenVC profile will be automatically updated to accept cold emails. This is necessary to make sure that you receive the deck you requested.
You can always manually revert back to "Intro preferred" in your Settings:
How to improve your Reply rate
Every firm and investor on OpenVC has an Open Rate and a Reply Rate.
How do we collect that data?
When a founder uses the OpenVC deck viewer, we track whether the investor opens the deck and whether the investor replies to the founder by clicking the Reply buttons. Then we compile these stats over the past 30 days.
So if you want to boost your metrics, just open the decks and reply with the two buttons 😉
Right now, we're slowly rolling out those metrics on different pages of the app, so you may not see them in your interface.
I have more questions about OpenVC
OpenVC is a young project and we need your feedback to improve!Â
Please email us at [email protected] to share your thoughts. We try to reply within 24 hours.
Thank you for using OpenVC!