I have to be honest with you about something.

The first time I helped a friend raise funding, it was a complete disaster. We made every mistake in the book… and I do mean every mistake.

Taking random meetings with someone's high-net-worth uncle who had never invested as an angel (and gave no indication he would)? Check.

Meeting with a "Ventures" group only to discover they were actually a consulting firm looking for our business? Check.

Paying several thousand dollars for a "MASSIVE" investor database, only to find it was scraped from Crunchbase, had the front desk receptionist's email as contact info, and was full of funds that never invested in biotech? Expensive check.

Spending months in meetings and even going into due diligence with a fund, only to discover they had no capital to deploy and were still doing their own fundraising? Incredibly frustrating check.

We were scattered. Reactive. Chasing every intro, responding to every LinkedIn message, taking every meeting offered. We thought we were being aggressive and opportunistic.

We were actually just wasting our most precious resource - time - during the most precious time for a company: the very beginning, when speed and momentum are everything.

This experience left scars. But it also taught me something critical: the problem wasn't our pitch, our science, or our business model. The problem was our list and our approach.

I see this pattern repeat constantly with other founders. Brilliant scientists spending month after month pitching zombie funds, investors who don't do biotech, or people who will never write a check.

Helping founders avoid this became the founding ethos for Bio Founder GPS. It's my mission with everything I do behind this newsletter.

My goal is simple: help you go from scattered and reactive to intentional and strategic.

Today is the first step. Let's build your investor intelligence system - the right way.

Here's what I learned from that painful experience: going from scattered to strategic doesn't start with perfecting your pitch deck or practicing your elevator speech.

It starts with how you source.

Most founders skip straight to outreach with whatever list they can cobble together - maybe 50 names from a "Top VCs in Biotech" blog post, a few intros from advisors, and whoever responded to their cold LinkedIn messages.

That's backwards.

Here's the reality: You need 100+ investor meetings to raise a round. If 20-30% of your outreach converts to meetings (and that's very optimistic), you need to contact 300-500 qualified investors - at a minimum. Which means your initial universe needs to be even bigger.

The SIFT System gives you that list systematically.

Here's how it works:

SIFT = Source → Isolate → Filter → Tier

It's designed to take you from a scattered, reactive approach to an intentional, strategic fundraise. Four clear steps with specific outputs at each stage. And by the end, you'll have 200-300 investors ranked by priority, all actively deploying capital in biotech.

Let me walk you through each step in detail.

Goal: Cast the widest possible net to build your complete investor universe.

What you're doing: Systematically collecting investor names from every available source - free databases, LinkedIn, Twitter, portfolio company research, conference lists, accelerator networks, everywhere.

Note, this is a 5-week process, not a 1-week sprint:

You'll start with broad sourcing this week (Week 1), then learn specialized tactics for each investor type in Weeks 2-5. Angels require different sourcing strategies than family offices. Micro-VCs hide in different places than established VCs.

Week 1 focus: Set up your tracking system and build your foundation (200-300 names) using:

Weeks 2-5 focus: Each week you'll learn expert tactics for one investor type and add 50-150+ specialized names.

Why this matters: Most founders use the same generic searches for all investor types and miss 70% of the opportunities. We're doing this methodically - one category at a time, with specialized strategies.

Mindset shift: You're not building your complete list this week, you're building the foundation and learning the system. Each of the next 4 weeks will teach you specialized tactics to expand this list further.

Output: A spreadsheet with 200-300 investor names and the infrastructure to add hundreds more over the coming weeks.

Goal: Extract only the investors who are actually relevant to biotech companies at your stage.

What you're doing: Applying surgical filters to remove everyone who shouldn't be on your list. This is where you get specific.

Key filters to apply:

Filter 1: Biotech/Life Science Focus

Filter 2: Stage Match

Filter 3: Geography

Filter 4: Check Size

Mindset shift: This is where you go from "any investor" to "investors who could plausibly fund a company like mine." Every name that survives this step should have biotech DNA and stage alignment.

How to research efficiently:

Output: 200-300 investors who have the profile to invest in your company. Still no outreach. We're not done qualifying yet.

Goal: Eliminate zombie funds and identify investors who are actively writing checks right now.

What you're doing: Validating actual deployment activity. This is the step most founders skip, and it's why they waste months on dead-end conversations.

Here's the hard truth: 30-40% of the investors on your list are zombies. They'll take meetings. They'll ask for your deck. They'll even give you feedback. But they're not deploying capital.

How to identify active deployers:

Signal 1: Last deal date

Signal 2: Fund vintage

Signal 3: Deployment velocity

Signal 4: Team status

Signal 5: Fund status

Zombie fund red flags:

Where to check:

Mindset shift: An interested conversation with a zombie fund is worse than a "no" from an active fund. It consumes time, creates false momentum, and delays your actual fundraise. Cut them ruthlessly.

Output: 100-150 investors who are actively deploying capital in biotech right now. These are real opportunities, not time sinks.

Goal: Prioritize by strategic value and likelihood to create your final, tiered outreach list.

What you're doing: Not all active, biotech-focused investors are created equal. Some bring strategic value beyond the check. Some are more likely to say yes based on your network. This is where you rank them.

How to create your tiers:

Tier 1: Dream Investors (50 names) These are your highest-priority targets. Perfect fit + strategic value + reasonable path to introduction.

Characteristics:

Tier 2: Likely Yes (100 names) Strong fit + active deployment + decent access path.

Characteristics:

Tier 3: Backup Targets (100 names) Decent fit + worth a shot if Tier 1/2 don't convert.

Characteristics:

How to score strategic value:

Ask yourself:

Access path considerations:

Mindset shift: You're not just finding investors, you're finding partners. The best investor isn't always the one who can write the biggest check. It's the one who can help you build a better company.

Output: Your final 200-300 investors, organized into three tiers. This is your fundraising roadmap. Tier 1 gets first outreach. Tier 2 follows. Tier 3 is your safety net.

This week's goal: Set up your infrastructure and build your foundation list (200-300 names)

Time commitment: 6-8 hours total

Important: You're NOT trying to find every investor this week. You're setting up your system and doing an initial sweep. Over the next 4 weeks, you'll learn specialized tactics for each investor type and add hundreds more names to this list.

Day 1-2: Set up your free intelligence stack

Day 3-4: Research comparable companies

Target: 80-120 investor names from comparable companies alone

Day 5-6: Initial broad sweep

Day 7: Organize and Review

Week 1 Target: A spreadsheet with 200-300 investor names and your tracking system set up

This is your foundation. Over the next 4 weeks, you'll learn specialized tactics for finding angels (Week 2), family offices (Week 3), micro-VCs (Week 4), and established VCs (Week 5). Each week will add 50-150+ names to this list using expert strategies.

By Week 5, you'll have 500-1,000+ investors. Then in Week 6, we'll FILTER and TIER them all into your final 200-300 strategic targets.

You have your Week 1 action plan. Now here are three tools to help you execute it faster and more effectively.

Skip hours of manual Crunchbase work. This prompt gives you a head start in minutes.

[Get the AI Mega-Prompt]

Use it with ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity to research comparable companies and extract their investor lists. Includes customization instructions for your specific sector and stage.

Your plug-and-play system to track investors through all 4 SIFT steps - from initial sourcing through final tiering.

[Download the Tracking Template]

Pre-built with 14 columns, drop-down menus, conditional formatting, and formulas to track conversion rates. Use it for the entire 30-day sprint and beyond.

10 copy-paste LinkedIn search strings for finding angels, VCs, and family offices - plus links to investor databases to kick-start your search.

[Get the Search Library]

These three resources will save you 5-10 hours this week. Download them all and start building your SOURCE list.

You now have the SIFT Fundraising System - the framework that will guide you through the next 6 weeks.

This week, your job is focused: build your foundation. Set up your tracking system and get to 200-300 initial investor names using the action plan above.

Next Sunday, we'll dive deep into Angels & Angel Groups - how to find the biotech-savvy angels who actually write $25K-$500K checks, which angel groups are worth applying to, and the specialized sourcing strategies most founders never learn.

I'd love to hear from you: How's your investor sourcing going so far? What's your biggest challenge? Hit reply and let me know - I read every response and use your feedback to shape what we cover next.

See you next Sunday with Week 2.

To your success,

- Vadim

PS: If you have someone on your team helping with fundraising or know another founder who could benefit from this intensive, forward them this email. They can sign up to join us here: [Join the Intensive]