We encourage you to invite your current investors and prospective investors to Demo Day. For your current investors, it’s a gift -- the event is invite-only and investors love getting the invite. For prospective investors, it also is a gift -- and more importantly -- can help drive them towards action.
Look at this spreadsheet to see the top ranked funds according to Alchemist.
If you need help researching investors in your market area, fill out this form.
There are three ways to invite investors:
* If you don’t know the investor but want to invite them, please fill out this form with their name, company name and email, if possible. We will email them an invite.
* If you know the investor, please fill out this form and we will send them an invite separately. Or you can go into the Vault and click on the Invite Contact button - we’ll extend an invite out from there.
* OR, you can use this email template and invite them yourself:
Subj: Invitation to Alchemist Demo Day at [Demo Day Venue] in [Demo Day Venue City] on [Demo Day Date ie. Friday, September 20th]
[First Name] -
As you may know, I'm a Founder in the Alchemist Accelerator, an initiative focused on seed-stage enterprise-monetizing startups, underwritten by Cisco, Khosla Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and others (more info below!).
As a founder in the program, I have the right to nominate investors to attend our Demo Day (which is otherwise an invite only affair).
I thought you'd enjoy seeing the companies -- and the crowd will be a fun group too. If you would like to come, I'm happy to connect you with the program's director, Ravi Belani, or you can register via the official invitation below.
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Subject: [First Name] - Alchemist Accelerator Demo Day Invitation on [Demo Day Date ie. Friday, September 20th]
[First Name] -
We are excited to invite you to the Demo Day for Class <Class #> of the Alchemist Accelerator!
We are showcasing the startups in our latest class to friends and investors. The Demo Day is the first time we will announce the companies publicly.
You can attend the Demo Day in person, or remotely via an invite-only video feed. The Demo Day will take place on [Demo Day Date ie. Friday, September 20th] at [Demo Day Venue], [Demo Day Venue Address]:
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Registrations (First come, first serve seating in Presentation Room)
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Class <Class #> Demo's & Presentations
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Reception & Drinks
If interested in attending, you can nominate yourself here.
As you know, all our startups monetize from enterprises. Our program focuses heavily on customer development. This is a momentous day when our budding startups will be able to showcase all of their hard work for the first time publicly. It also marks the time when many will be officially open to institutional investors that want to explore things further.
At a previous Demo Day, 3 companies received term sheets and 1 company was acquired within 7 days of the Demo Day. Because of that -- and out of respect for everyone's time -- we highly encourage (and will prioritize) funds that send decision makers to attend our Demo Days.
The event is invite-only. If you cannot make it -- or would like us to extend an additional invitation to a person of the press or an investor whom you think would be a good fit -- email us back their email, or better yet, nominate a person of the press here and / or nominate an investor here.
We look forward to having you.
Our best,
The Alchemist Team
Alchemist is a venture-backed accelerator focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises (not consumers). CB Insights rated Alchemist the top accelerator in 2016 based on median funding rates of its grads (YC was #2). The accelerator’s primary screening criteria is on teams, with primacy placed on having distinctive technical co-founders. The organization provides seed investment into companies it admits (typically $36K), and provides founders a structured path to traction, fundraising, mentorship, and community over the course of a 6 month program. Our backers include many of the top corporate and VC funds in the Valley -- including Khosla Ventures, DFJ, Cisco, Siemens, GE, and Salesforce, among others. The accelerator seeds around 75 enterprise-monetizing ventures / year.
Funds that have invested in Alchemist companies include Alta, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer, Citrix, Data Collective, DFJ, Felicis, Founders Fund, Greylock Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, K9 Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, NEA, Redpoint Ventures, Salesforce.com, Social Capital, Tugboat, True Ventures, US Venture Partners, and Voyager Capital. The full list can be found here.
Backers / Core Mentors in the Accelerator program include:
* Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
* Vinod Khosla, Founder and General Partner, Khosla Ventures
* Dafina Toncheva, General Partner, US Venture Partners
* Ashu Garg, General Partner, Foundation Capital
* Adam Pisoni, Co-Founder, Yammer (MSFT)
* Timothy Chou, Stanford Lecturer, Former CEO, Oracle-on-Demand; Author, The End of Software
* Elaine Wherry, Co-Founder, Meebo (GOOG)
Select Press:
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On Demo Day, while we have a few means for investors to connect with you if they are interested, we find that being proactive personally is surprisingly helpful. And it’s good to have a parallel effort of 2 or 3 members of your team at the reception spread out talking to VC’s, collecting cards, etc.
We will have a mobile web app that will automatically connect investors to you if they express interest. We will also have a physical brochure.
Lastly, if an investor wants to meet, but you have enough cash / can wait to meet after the Demo Day, send this email below
Thank you for your interest in meeting.
Right now, we are heads down on customers and product. We are happy to invite you to our Demo Day when we will kick off our institutional raise. If that's of interest, please fill out this form, and we will extend you an invite. We can also set up a meeting with you immediately after our Demo Day if you like.
We are taking a limited amount of capital in now in advance of our Demo Day. However, we will not be able to meet given time constraints. If you would like to invest without having a meeting, we can send you the Alchemist SAFE that we are taking a limited amount of capital on now if you are able to make a quick investment decision with no meeting / limited information.
My best,
[Your Name]