Course

Find, Attract, and Close the Investors Who'll Back You

Deborah Choi

6x Founder · Angel · MD of Founderland

Build a stronger pre-seed or seed raise, from investor list to outreach.

Most founders raise the hard way: chasing the same visible investors everyone else emails, sending materials before they're ready, and hoping a warm intro appears. You know the round is possible. You just can’t tell who is actually a fit, how to reach them, or whether you look fundable when they check you out.

Over four live weeks, you’ll build the core pieces of a credible pre-seed or seed raise:

  • A targeted investor list of people with a specific reason to care about your company

  • A founder brand that reads as fundable in the places investors actually check, starting with LinkedIn

  • And an investor-ready data room with the documents investors expect once conversations get serious.



    Every week, you'll leave with something you can use. By the end, you’ll have a clear fundraising strategy, a target list of best-fit investors, stronger positioning, and the materials and outreach plan to start or accelerate your raise.

What you’ll learn

Go from unsure who to approach to a targeted investor list, stronger positioning, and a raise you’re ready to run.

  • Define your funding target, timeline, investor fit and biggest readiness gaps

  • Sharpen the traction, financial assumptions and proof points investors are most likely to question

  • Leave with a clear fundraising strategy and readiness map

  • Learn how to identify relevant funds, angels, exited founders and operators beyond the obvious names

  • Use AI and research workflows to surface candidates, then verify who is genuinely a fit

  • Leave with a targeted investor list and a specific reason each person belongs on your list

  • Strengthen your LinkedIn profile and founder narrative around credibility, insight and momentum

  • Build the core materials that support your raise, including your executive summary, deal memo, FAQ and competitor view

  • Leave with stronger positioning and an organized, shareable data room (investors expect this!)

  • Prioritize who to contact first and choose the right outreach path for each investor

  • Build messaging, follow-up and sequencing that does not depend entirely on warm introductions

  • Leave with an outreach plan, investor messaging and clear next steps for the weeks after the course

Learn directly from Deborah

Deborah Choi

Deborah Choi

Contact

6x Founder · Angel · MD of Founderland

Founderland
The University of Chicago
See all products from Deborah

Who this course is for

  • The first-time raiser
    You need outside capital to reach the next stage, but you’ve never raised a pre-seed or seed round before.

  • The bootstrapper going after capital
    You've built with your own money and revenue, but you've hit the ceiling of what you can do alone.

  • The overlooked founder
    You've pitched, but the warm intros and famous VCs haven't materialized.

What's included

Deborah Choi

Live sessions

Learn directly from Deborah Choi in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Every session is recorded and shared, so missing an occasional class does not mean missing the material.

Community of peers

Compare investor targeting, outreach approaches and what is working between sessions, while keeping momentum through the four weeks.

Your investor list, built with you

Build a targeted list of relevant funds, angels, exited founders and operators, with a clear reason each belongs on your radar.

Optional Friday office hours (1:1, first come, first served)

A limited number of 20-minute Friday slots are available each week for individual feedback on your investor list, positioning, data room, outreach or wherever you are stuck.

A real deliverable every week

Each session produces something you can use immediately: your fundraising readiness map, investor list, positioning and data room, and outreach plan.

AI workflows that do the heavy lifting

Use practical prompts and research workflows to surface investors, pressure-test your materials, and find the questions you have not prepared for, without outsourcing the judgment investors actually care about.

Maven Guarantee

Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.

Course syllabus

4 lessons • 4 projects

Live sessions

2 hrs / week

One 90-minute live workshop each week, Wednesdays. Recorded if you miss it.

Projects

2-4 hrs / week

Each week you build one real asset: your readiness map, your brand, your angel list, your data room. Most take 2 to 3 hours.

Async content

1 hr / week

Short readings, templates, and prompts to support each week's build, plus session recordings if you miss one. Light, most of the work happens live and in your weekly project.

Week 1

Jan 5—Jan 10

    Week 1: Get clear on your raise

    2 items

Week 2

Jan 11—Jan 17

    Week 2: Build your investor universe and get on their radar

    2 items

Frequently asked questions

Maven for Teams

Reimbursement

Get your company to pay

Everything L&D needs: email template, receipts, and certificate of completion.

Get reimbursed

Team discount

Learn with your teammates

Save 20%+ when 2 or more teammates enroll in the same cohort.

Save 20%+ with a team

Private cohort

Run a cohort for your org

A dedicated cohort with a custom schedule and curriculum, tailored to your team.

Book a private cohort

$450

USD

Jan 5—Jan 29
Enroll