Harvard researchers surveyed 885 VCs: Only ~10% of deals were cold inbound from founders. So if your plan is "send more emails," you're optimizing the smallest channel.
Join SunDAO Investor Speed Dating to get 1:1 conversations with VCs looking at early AI startups. Small online session. Direct investor conversations.
Registration link in the comment 👇
Raising for your AI startup right now?
On 30th of June you can pitch up to 10 funds and venture capital (VC) firms that are actively deploying into AI.
Back to back 1:1 conversations. Real feedback from people writing checks today.
Some of the best news I get to share this quarter.
We just opened registrations for the first @sundaoventures Investors Speed Dating: Artificial Intelligence Edition.
A bit of context on why I am personally excited about this one.
Our last #Web3 edition sold out within days and put 10 active funds across the table from founders raising real rounds:
- FBG Capital,
- GEM,
- LBank Labs,
- edge Ventures,
- tokentus,
- Cointelegraph Accelerator,
- Legion,
- Whitechain,
- Token Ventures,
- Dracoon Ventures.
By the end of the session, every founder had pitched every investor, and follow ups started the same week.
AI was the obvious next step. The frontier moves there now, and our investors community and network has been pulling toward it for months.
So on 30th of June we are doing it again, this time built specifically for AI founders.
Pure AI, applied AI, infrastructure, agents, vertical AI products. If you are raising now or preparing to raise, I would love to see you in our event.
Seats are limited and founders who register early get priority in the matching.
Full story and registration link in the comments.
If you know an AI founder raising right now, send this their way. We will take good care of them.
👇
One thing we pay attention to at @sundaoventures is founder energy. Not in the vague motivational sense, but in a very practical sense: does the founder make people feel that the company is moving?
Early-stage startups rarely have enough proof. The product is unfinished, the team is small, the market is uncertain, and the numbers are usually still early. So investors and employees are often underwriting the founder before they can fully underwrite the company.
The best founders create momentum in every interaction. They make decisions quickly, stay close to customers and product, talk about what is coming next, and make people feel that problems are real but solvable. They do not deny difficulty, but they also do not transfer anxiety to everyone around them.
This matters because early-stage companies spend most of their time doing two things: recruiting talent and raising capital. In both cases, people are making a bet before the outcome is obvious.
Founder energy is part of that bet.
Most people underestimate how hard angel investing is. The problem is not only judgment. It is access and portfolio construction.
Early-stage returns are driven by a small number of outliers. If you only write 2 or 3 checks, you may be taking startup risk without enough exposure to the power law.
That is why serious angel investing needs more than conviction. It needs quality deal flow, good terms, diversification, and people around the table who can challenge your thinking before you write the check.
This is one reason we built @sundaoventures as an collective investor intelligence network. The value is not simply seeing more deals. It is seeing better deals, reviewing them with operators and other investors, and building a portfolio with more discipline than one person investing alone.
Angel investing can work. But it is much harder when you do it in isolation.
A lot of first-time founders start in the wrong place. They start with the product. Build the MVP. Hire developers. Set up the company. Make the deck. Think about fundraising.
But the real starting point is much simpler: Is this a problem people actually care about?
Before writing code, I would rather see a founder do a few things well:
- Talk to real users.
- Find a painful repeated problem.
- Build a simple prototype.
- Show it to people.
- See if anyone asks when they can use it.
- Get a waitlist or early commitment.
- Then build.
This sounds obvious, but many founders skip it because building feels like progress. Sometimes it is. But sometimes it is just hiding from the harder question: does anyone really want this?
At @sundaoventures , when we look at early-stage companies, we do not expect everything to be figured out. But we do want to see evidence that the founder is learning from the market, not just building from imagination.
A startup does not become investable because the product exists. It becomes investable when the founder can show that the problem is real, the user is clear, and the market is starting to pull.
Jeff Bezos makes a simple but important point here: one reason the U.S. produces so many large startups is risk capital.
Not just capital. Risk capital.
In many markets, founders are asked to prove too much too early: revenue, profitability, low risk, clear path, perfect timing.
But the biggest companies usually do not look safe at the beginning. They look uncertain, expensive, and maybe even unreasonable.
This is one reason we think a lot about capital access at @sundaoventures . Ambitious founders do not just need advice or events. They need investors who understand how to underwrite uncertainty.
You cannot build serious startup ecosystems only with accelerators, mentorship, and pitch competitions. At some point, someone has to be willing to take real risk.
On May 21st, @sundaoventures hosted the first Career Accelerator Webinar.
Thank you to all the ambitious professionals who joined us live!
We mapped out an exact roadmap to our program.
If you couldn't make it live, here is what you missed:
1: Why traditional job hunting methods are holding you back.
2: The strategy to get your resume noticed by decision-makers.
3: How to position yourself as the obvious choice in any interview.
👇If you missed out on this first webinar drop a "NEXT TIME" in the comments below, and we'll make sure you get an invite when doors open for the next session coming soon!
If you are ready to stop waiting for the "perfect time" to scale your career, visit https://t.co/qWdTr2NpSs and let's get to work. Your career won't accelerate on accident.
☀️ The countdown is officially on. There are only 2 days left until we open the doors to the @sundaoventures Career Accelerator.
If you’ve been looking for a sign to pivot your skill set, build a bulletproof Web3 portfolio, and learn directly from industry pioneers who manage tens of millions in treasuries-this is it.
💻 What we’re covering in this exclusive, free webinar:
→The exact frameworks used by top Web3 teams.
→How to transition your current corporate or tech background into digital assets.
→A complete breakdown of our 12-week accelerator system.
May 21st is approaching fast. Don't look back in three months wishing you started today.
🔗 Register for the free webinar with the link in replies!
@sundaoventures Investors Speed Dating Wrap-Up
Huge thank you to all who joined us! We connected top-tier investors with the high-potential startups shaping the future of blockchain.
The session was packed with high-signal conversations and curated connections across:
→DeFi, Infrastructure, and Decentralized Tech
→AI and Stablecoins
→Interoperability and Frontier Projects
A special shout-out to all participating investors who are driving the industry forward:
- Whitechain
- @LBankLabs
- @Cointelegraph Accelerator
- @token_ventures
- The Global Emerging Markets Group (GEM)
- @EdgeVenturesVC
- @legiondotcc
- @DracoonVentures
- @FBGCapital
Why being part of a community matters more than ever...
The blockchain industry is volatile by design
Projects launch and die
Teams restructure
People change roles
The entire contact graph reshuffles every year.
In that environment, the default way most builders and investors operate:
- collecting contacts at conferences,
- sending cold emails or TG messages,
- building LinkedIn connections
...produces an asset that decays faster than you can use it.
We just published today our latest @sundaoventures weekly article that talks about the industry insights that we got from a 2000 emails outreach campaign across SunDAO’s full contact database and why being part of a community matters more than ever.
Check out the article in the Comments section 👇 or on our SunDAO @Substack account
Are you brilliant but feeling stuck? Knowing you’re capable of more is one thing, having a proven map to get there is another.
The SunDAO Ventures Career Accelerator isn't just about inspiration; it’s about execution. We’ve designed this for three specific groups ready to dominate the Web3 landscape:
💻 The Mid-Career Professional
You’ve paid your dues. Now, you’re tired of being passed over and want a structured plan to pivot your expertise into the frontier of digital assets.
🎓 The Recent Graduate
You have the drive but need a solid starting point. We provide the clear guidance and real-world frameworks that university didn't teach you.
🧩 The Dot-Connecter
You see the potential of Web3, but you don't know how it fits into your career specifically. We help you find your "wedge" and build a portfolio that proves your value.
Stop drifting. Start accelerating.
Our doors open officially on May 21st with an exclusive, free webinar where we’ll break down exactly how this 12-week program works.
🔗 Register for the free webinar, link in replies!
Send us your CV if you’ve got these things:
1. Create social media posts that average 2k+ views (bonus points if it’s education related) 💯
Bonus points if you:
1. Are a University student or recently graduated
2. Built an educational program (bonus points if you have active users)
3. Ran a community with over 200 people (bonus points if it was educational related)
We’re always looking for extraordinary talent.
This is a PAID part time and remote marketing role with benefits + training provided (no experience needed)
SunDAO Ventures: Investors Speed Dating Online Edition
The gap between "building" and "funded" is often just one high-signal conversation. On Thursday, May 14th, @sundaoventures is bridging that gap by connecting top-tier capital with the founders shaping the next era of blockchain.
We are hosting an exclusive Investor & Startup Speed Dating session designed to connect high-potential founders with the capital allocators shaping the future of blockchain. This curated, virtual experience offers direct, 1-on-1 speed dating sessions designed for efficiency and impact. We are focusing on quality deal flows.
The Focus:
💠 DeFi & Infrastructure
💠 AI & Decentralized Technologies
💠 Stablecoins & Interoperability
Who Should Join:
→Founders: Ready to pitch 1-on-1 to VCs and angel syndicates actively deploying capital.
→Investors: Seeking curated, early-stage deal flow and strategic networking.
The Details:
→Thursday, May 14, 2026
→6:00 PM – 7:00 PM GMT-6
Don't wait for a warm intro. Create your own.
Registration is open now! Link in replies
We are launching a new Investors Speed Dating event happening on 14th of May.
The event will be online, to allow the best startups from around the world to join.
Registration link in comments 👇