Something New For Founders

Something New For Founders

Hey, We had a great week here! Welcome to the 700+ of you who've joined us since the last issue. ICYMI, we launched updates to make access to capital even easier, including a discount for anyone who wants to upgrade and use our new mini CRM to reach out to 9k+ VCs and PE firms. Also:

📸 - Social Snapshot- starting startups

📊  - Q1 2025 early-stage investment

🎙️ - Are advisors valuable?

🆓 - Freebies to help you scale

Welcome to issue 119.


Spray-and-Pray Doesn’t Work in Fundraising 

Most founders blast emails to the wrong investors, then wonder why they don’t get responses.

Thunder.vc will match you with investors who are actually looking for deals like yours. Want a smarter list?

Talk To Us


Social Snapshot

 💭 Starting startups in 2025 by Greg Isenberg on X.


 

No new episode last week, but ICYMI, I sat down with Barry Stamos founder of Super Nova (3 exits), to talk about the value of advisors. Tune in learn to how the right advisors and mentors can completely change your trajectory. We get into the real tactics: how to find them, pitch them, and actually get value. Back this week!

Watch Now


Data Corner

Early-stage performance in Q1

Early-stage founders, don’t get distracted by the headlines.

According to this report by Crunchbase, Q1 2025 saw the biggest quarter for venture in nearly 3 years, but a third of that came from one deal: OpenAI’s $40B monster raise.

Seed and early-stage capital is still in a rut. Early-stage investment dropped to $24B: lowest in over a year. Seed fell 14% YoY to $7.2B, and that’s before the lag in reporting kicks in.

The story here is simple: late-stage giants are sucking up the air while early-stage founders are getting ghosted. You’re not crazy, it's just a hard market. Build lean, stay scrappy, and don't assume capital’s coming just because AI is hot. 


Raising Capital for your startup?

Thunder's mission is to guide founders toward the right path to reach their North Star, be it through securing equity or debt financing or navigating the path to a successful exit. 

Talk to us


Thunder 2.0: What’s New, and Why It Actually Matters for Founders

We’ve always believed that raising capital shouldn’t feel like shouting into the void. So we built Thunder to make investor outreach faster, smarter, and less soul-sucking.

"Thunder 1.0" did the job. Thousands of founders used it to get matched with investors, benchmark their companies, and raise capital faster than they could through cold outreach.

But let’s be honest: the experience could’ve been smoother. Uploads were buggy. The UX wasn’t perfect. The profile review took up time. And while the core product worked, it didn’t yet feel like the “investment bank for startups” we were aiming to be.

So we went back to the drawing board, and now, "Thunder 2.0" is live.

Here’s what’s new, what’s better, and why you should care.

1. 9,415 Active Investors. All Verified. All Matchable.

We’re not just a directory, we’re a matchmaking engine. Thunder now gives you access to 9,415 active investors across VC and PE, with new profiles added daily and dead leads scrubbed regularly. Stay tuned for Family Offices, Angels and more investor types.

You don’t need to scroll through endless spreadsheets or pitch to firms that ghost. You’ll get a curated list of investors based on your startup’s stage, sector, traction, and goals. For free.

No “submit and hope” stuff. Just real investors, actively deploying capital, matched to you based on fit.

2. VC + PE Under One Roof

Say you’re a high-growth startup on the edge of profitability. Maybe VC isn’t the right fit anymore. Maybe you want to explore PE.

With Thunder, now you don’t have to pick a lane upfront. We give you access to both venture capital and private equity investors (did I mention there are over 9k of them?) so you can explore different capital strategies, without bouncing between platforms or rebuilding a deck for each audience.

Whether you’re raising your Seed, your Series B, or looking for a strategic buyer, Thunder connects you with the right money.

3. Benchmarking Score: Know Where You Stand

One of the biggest mistakes founders make? Chasing the wrong investors and wasting months doing it.

Our Benchmarking Score gives you a clear view of how your startup stacks up. Are you ready for VC? Would PE be a better route? Are you even fundable right now?

We built this to help you stop guessing. Thunder’s scoring system uses real data points from thousands of companies and investor signals to tell you who’s likely to bite, and who’s not worth the time.

This isn’t a vanity score. It’s an investor-fit compass.

4. Setup in Minutes: No Data Room Required

Building your Thunder profile is now stupid fast. All we ask for is your deck and a few details about your business. That’s it.

You don’t need a data room. You don’t need to answer 200 questions. And you definitely don’t need to write an essay about your founder origin story.

The platform was built to meet founders where they’re at, not where investors wish they were.

5. Mini-CRM for Smarter Outreach

Investor tracking sucks. Excel is clunky. Notion gets messy. Your Gmail inbox is a war zone.

With this new Thunder , we added a mini-CRM right inside the platform. You can:

  • Track who you’ve contacted

  • Update investor status manually or automatically

  • Mark who’s passed, in diligence, or ghosting

  • Focus your energy on the warmest leads

No more second-guessing who you’re waiting on. No more losing deals in the shuffle.

6. Investor Match Scores Now Have Context

We heard you loud and clear. Our original match scores felt like magic numbers. So we’ve added contextual breakdowns to help you understand why you matched with a particular investor (or didn’t).

Now you’ll know:

  • Which criteria you hit (and which ones you missed)

  • What stage they typically invest at

  • How aligned are your traction and vertical

It's like having a capital strategist in your pocket.

7. Upload Bugs Are Gone. (Seriously.)

I'm not going to pretend this is glamorous, but it matters: upload bugs are fixed.

Decks upload properly now. Data saves. Progress doesn’t disappear if your cat walks on the keyboard. You can thank our devs later. Plus, you don’t have to submit your profile for review: self-publish and access your list instantly.

8. Dynamic Progress Bar + Cleaner UX

You now get a clear, dynamic sign-up progress bar to see exactly what’s missing in your profile and what’s left to do.

It’s clean. It’s fast. It doesn’t make you want to punch your laptop.

We also did a full sweep on general UX improvements, especially on mobile, where the experience was previously less than delightful. If you still have any issues, though, let us know.

9. Search + Add Lead Investors to Your Round

In Thunder 2.0, you can now manually search for lead investors and add them directly to your round details. Whether you're proactively targeting a specific firm or trying to signal strong interest, this gives you more control over your fundraising narrative.

It’s a small feature with big implications, especially if you’re raising from a mix of inbound and outbound.

10. Angel Investor Profiles Are Fixed

Previously, some angel profiles had incomplete data or weird bugs. That’s now resolved. If you’re early-stage and want to bring angels into your round, Thunder’s got verified profiles, bios, and historical deal data to help you choose wisely.

Why We Did This

Fundraising is hard. It’s gotten even harder in 2025. Capital is more expensive. Term sheets are messier. And founders are wasting time chasing investors who were never a fit to begin with.

This version of Thunder was built to fix that.

We’re not trying to be another pitch platform. We’re building fundraising infrastructure for startups that want real outcomes, not just advice.

If you’ve used Thunder before, now’s the time to come back.

If you haven’t yet, you can set up your profile in 5 minutes, get matched to thousands of active VC and PE investors, and start tracking your raise like a pro.

Plus, we're still giving 20% off for anyone who signs up for Thunder Premium. Use the code PRODUCTHUNT20 when you sign up to access all the above, and more.

Start Raising Capital Like A Pro


Free Fundraising Resources

 

🤓 - Free pitch deck reviews - Submit your deck

💸 - Access working capital fast - Explore options for free

😍 - Free list of AI Recommended VCs - Apply for free

👨‍💻 - Free fundraising coaching session - Schedule 15 minutes with us

📝 - Playbook for Negotiating Term Sheets - Download it Here

💽 - Playbook for Setting Up and Sharing Your Data Room - Download it Here

✉️ - Playbook for Sending Investing Updates - Download it Here

Anirudh Sharma

Helping Tech Founders, Agency and Business Owners Scale their Business | Outreach Expert | AI Founder Crunchbase and Apollo Alternative | Data Driven Deal Sourcing and Deal Flow for VCs | Ex-BMW | Ex-H&M | CBS

3mo

How exciting to see these updates at Thunder.vc. It truly simplifies the capital access process for founders. 🚀 #InnovationInFunding

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