Yusto O

CEO, Agriloom |

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@SonOfDavid219 @Agriloom is an AI agricultural procurement and payment platform enabling large urban buyers to buy directly from scattered market supply and directly make payments at scale.

[Jasiel Martin-Odoom @Jasielinvests]

A lot of pre-seed founders approach angel fundraising the same way they woild approach applying for jobs: find a list, send applications, hope someone responds. That approach works occasionally, but it is not a strategy.

Angels invest from different theses, write different check sizes, bring different networks, and operate on completely different timelines. Treating them as interchangeable is the first thing that gets founders into trouble.

Three things have consistently worked for founders trying to get on an angel's radar.

Direct outreach, done specifically. This means identifying investors whose background or portfolio suggests genuine fit, then writing something short enough to respect their time and specific enough to prove you did not copy-paste it. My first angel investment came this way. It is not the easiest path but it is a real one.

Syndicates and angel groups. Platforms like @hoaqclub, @NairobiBAN, and Kili Ventures pool smaller checks and give founders one name on the cap table instead of several. Seventy percent of my angel investments have come through syndicates. For founders, the value is in its efficiency. One conversation can lead to multiple checks.

Conferences and startup events, approached as relationship infrastructure rather than pitch opportunities. The goal is not to close someone in a hallway after one conversation. It is to be in the room consistently enough that when a conversation does turn to fundraising, you are not a stranger. Getting a speaker slot is worth pursuing specifically because it changes who initiates the conversation.

Which of these does your current outreach strategy actually lean on?

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@geoffreywoo @Agriloom is an AI agricultural procurement and payment platform enabling large urban buyers to buy directly from scattered market supply and directly make payments at scale.

[James @JamesJames518]

All the best startup accelerators to apply in 2026 (below FULL spreadsheet):

[ Top-Tier ]
1. Y Combinator (~$500k, 7% on $125k + uncapped SAFE)
2. a16z Speedrun (~$500k for 10% + $500k follow-on)
3. Techstars (~$220k, bumped from $120k in fall 2025)
4. Founders Inc (~$100-250k for 4-7%)
5. Sequoia Arc (~$1M, terms per company)
6. South Park Commons (~$1M total, $400k for 7% + $600k guaranteed)
7. HF0 (up to $1M uncapped for 5%, repeat founders only)
8. On Deck ODX (DISCONTINUED 2022, skip)
9. Pear VC PearX (~$250k-2M for ~10%)
10. 500 Global Flagship (~$150k for 6%)

[ AI / ML Specific ]
11. AI Grant (~$250k for 7%, Nat Friedman + Daniel Gross)
12. AI Fund (~$1M+, Andrew Ng, studio model)
13. NVIDIA Inception (credits + perks, no equity)
14. Microsoft for Startups (up to $150k Azure credits, no equity)
15. Google for Startups AI Accelerator (credits, no equity)

[ Vertical / Deep Tech ]
16. SOSV (~$525k across IndieBio, HAX, Orbit)
17. IndieBio (biotech, ~$525k = $250k for 6-8% + Genesis SAFE)
18. HAX (hardware, ~$525k via SOSV)
19. Greentown Labs (cleantech, workspace + grants)
20. Activate (deep science fellowship, 2-yr stipend)

[ Crypto / Web3 ]
21. a16z crypto CSX (~$500k for 7%, SF in-person)
22. Alliance (~$500k, ALL18 starts Sept 7)
23. Outlier Ventures Base Camp (~$250k, per-chain verticals)
24. Coinbase Base Builder (varies, mostly non-dilutive)

[ International / Regional ]
25. Seedcamp (~€350k-1M first check, rolling, Europe)
26. Entrepreneur First (~$250k = $125k for 8% + uncapped MFN)
27. Antler Disrupt US (~$400k = $250k for ~9% + uncapped)
28. Brinc (~$100k, Asia + Middle East)
29. Station F (Paris campus, hosted-program terms)
30. Founder Institute ($499-999 fee + 2.5% Equity Collective warrant)

[ Pre-Seed / Idea Stage / Niche ]
31. Z Fellows (~$10k for 1%, pre-product)
32. ERA NYC (~$100k for 8%, generalist)
33. The Residency (community-first, no standard check)
34. Plug and Play (varies, often non-dilutive)
35. Build For Tomorrow (community + grants)

Four things worth knowing:

1. small program acceptance rates are higher than YC, not because they're easier, because the funnel is smaller. apply to 5-7, not 1
2. brand premium on YC is real but not infinite. Arc + Speedrun + HF0 carry signal too
3. "$X for Y%" is the only number that matters. uncapped MFNs are not free money, they dilute you on the next round
4. avoid any list still quoting Techstars at $120k, ODX as active, HF0 at $100k, or Founder Institute as "$10k for 4%". all wrong

Shared with you those where I am going to apply with my ideas and products

Terms shift annually. Verify on each program's site before applying

gl with successful raising

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@Techstars I am Yusto Omondi building @Agriloom AI agricultural procurement and payments Platform for Africa and beyond!

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@Sherifdeenolat2 AI agricultural procurement and payments

[Alex Monahan @Amonahan]

@Sherifdeenolat2 Make a good product & post non-stop about it

[SAMUEL OGBONNAYA @wealthy_Sam001]

@Sherifdeenolat2 From my experience, just focus on solving the problem. The investors follow suite

[Chris Ochoa @crochoa]

@Sherifdeenolat2 Read the Secrets of Sand Hill Road, cool insight from someone who has done it at multiple levels.

[Devansh @thenowhereway]

@Sherifdeenolat2 Most first-time founders think fundraising starts with investors.
It actually starts with users, traction, and people talking about your product.

[Adel Bucetta @adelbucetta]

@Sherifdeenolat2 the honest answer is that most angels are introduced through existing networks, not just your typical "make a list of all my contacts" approach. start by attending relevant events and joining online groups focused on early-stage investing to build those connections.

[iamfaheem @theAIdreamer]

@Sherifdeenolat2 Don't start with investors. Start with customers. Revenue is your best fundraising pitch. When I started BackendGlamor, I had no connections either. First I shipped something people paid for. That opened more doors than any cold intro ever could.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

🚀 We had 116 people tune in to the @TechOpsHub X Space on “Building Products in Africa’s Startup Ecosystem” 🌍💡

Big thanks to everyone who joined! 🔥

🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/c1jl7dAmC9

[Anuj @anujcodes_21]

🚨 Anthropic just showed a 28-minute workshop on how to actually do prompts for Claude.

Taught by the people who built it.

Free to watch. No signup. Pure gold

I've seen $300 courses that don't cover what they teach in the first 8 minutes.

Watch it and bookmark it now.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@AforeVC @Agriloom is an AI-powered agricultural procurement and payments platform that enables large buyers to discover real-time crop prices, source from fragmented smallholder farmer networks, and execute secure payments at scale across Africa.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@1752vc @Agriloom is an AI-powered agricultural procurement and payments platform that enables large buyers to discover real-time crop prices, source from fragmented smallholder farmer networks, and execute secure payments at scale across Africa.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@strikervp @Agriloom
is an AI-Powered market infrastructure and payments platform that makes it simple for big urban buyers to buy crops from numerous small farmers in Africa. We support price discovery, sourcing & aggregation, logistics and embedded payments to mobile money.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@ZeroShotFund @Agriloom
is an AI-Powered market infrastructure and payments platform that makes it simple for big urban buyers to buy crops from numerous small farmers in Africa. We support price discovery, sourcing & aggregation, logistics and embedded payments to mobile money.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@mantisVC @Agriloom
is an AI-Powered market infrastructure and payments platform that makes it simple for large buyers to buy crops from numerous small farmers in Africa. We support price discovery, sourcing & aggregation, logistics and embedded payments to mobile money.

[Yusto O @Yustto]

@basecasecapital @Agriloom
is an AI-Powered market infrastructure and payments platform that makes it simple for large buyers to buy crops from numerous small farmers in Africa. We support price discovery, sourcing & aggregation, logistics and embedded payments to mobile money.