VC revisits his 5-100-500 rule: 5 weeks, 100 investor meetings, $500k seed round
dunkhippo33 · x · 2026-10-09
Investor dunkhippo33 revisits his 2016 "5-100-500 rule" for seed rounds: meet 100 investors over 5 weeks to close $500k; double everything for $1m. The trigger: founders who say "no one wants to invest" turn out to have pitched only 20-30 people — not enough signal to conclude you should give up.
He attributes fundraising struggles to:
- Gaps in the story: feedback from your first 20 meetings reveals them; repeated criticisms must be addressed even if investors are often wrong.
- Pitching the wrong investors: most VC websites look identical, making stage fit hard to judge.
- Misreading investor motivations: early-stage VCs want 100x+ multiples; angels, family offices, impact funds and corporates optimize for different things.
- Urgency: without a 5-week window, investors have no reason to commit now if they can get in later at the same price.
Related event: VCs Revive the 5-100-500 Seed Fundraising Rule(3 posts)→
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