Alyx van der Vorm never sent a cold email. She never warmed up investor intros for six months. Instead, the founder and CEO of Clyx raised $14 million by doing something simpler: she started speaking.
Every meaningful check in that round came from a personal encounter. A talk she gave. A dinner she attended. A conference she almost skipped. van der Vorm argues the conventional fundraising playbook is broken because it asks founders to chase investors. Her experience suggests the opposite approach works better.
“The best investors don’t want to be pitched. They want to discover you,” van der Vorm said.
Reverse the Power Dynamic
The core problem with cold outreach is noise. A partner at a top-tier fund receives hundreds of pitches each week. Even an exceptional deck lands in a crowded inbox. Data from Qubit Capital shows nearly half of all cold emails to investors are never opened. Among those read, the conversion rate to a meaningful next step sits around 7.5%.
But a less obvious problem exists. Cold outreach inverts the power dynamic. When a founder pitches, they seek. The investor holds all the leverage.
van der Vorm found every great investor relationship started from a moment where the investor came to her. The engine behind those moments was a room where she was speaking, teaching or showing up as someone with something worth saying. She was never chasing.
Find the Right Rooms
None of the relationships that led to van der Vorm's $14 million round started with an email. They began with talks at events, founder dinners and conferences. At one dinner in Soho, she gave a 10-minute talk on the neuroscience of friendship. The host made three introductions the following week.
None of these were formal investor events. They were rooms where people who cared about the mission happened to be. In New York and San Francisco, these gatherings happen every day on Eventbrite, LinkedIn Events and through alumni networks.
“You don’t need to find yourself in prestigious halls,” van der Vorm said. “Any room where the right people are present and you’re there as a voice rather than a business card will do.”
Why This Matters
For first-time founders, fundraising often feels like an impossible game of cold emails and warm intros. van der Vorm’s story offers a practical alternative. Instead of optimizing outreach, founders can engineer the rooms they are in. Speaking at events or joining dinner conversations creates natural discovery. It also flips the power dynamic from one of need to one of shared mission.
van der Vorm acknowledges her Harvard background opened some doors. But she argues a diploma alone does not build a mission people instinctively care about. Her company addresses the mental health toll of social media, a problem investors see in their own families. That self-evident problem did half the pitching for her.
The lesson extends beyond her network. Founders who focus on being discoverable rather than chasing backers may find the path to funding shorter than they expected.
