Today we’re announcing “The Brief”, a free & private document sharing tool that hacks the fundraising process so Founders and VCs can get the right meetings, faster. It’s like DocSend, but it was designed specifically for Founder and VC communication.

Here’s how it works:

1) Craft your pitch  —  you control how VCs see your business
2) Target the right VCs  —  you control who sees your company Brief
3) Track everything in one place  —  you control the intro process

Designed for Founders, by Founders, The Brief is a 1:1 tool. Unlike something like AngelList, VCs can only see the information you send to them directly. It’s private.

Fundraising doesn’t suck because it has to — it sucks because it’s stuck in time.

As Founders of 10 companies and investors in more than 300, we’ve seen fundraising problems from both sides of the fence.

Our startup funding ecosystem remains largely analog, creating too much friction. Everyone is wasting time on drawn out email exchanges and meetings with the wrong matches.

To get unstuck in time, we built a software tool for Founder and VC communication that’s complete and lets you leverage your network.

The Brief lets Founders and VCs see their mutual connections, the pitch deck, and answers to the questions VCs care about most –– all in one place.

Every VC is different, but there are a few core signals most look for. A little structure goes a long way toward increasing speed and clarity for everyone.

Why top Founders like The Brief

1. 1. Stand out
      The Brief gives you control by including your pitch deck, but it also helps you focus and amplify your message. And, right in The Brief tool, there are fundraising advice videos from top VCs on the best ways to pitch persuasively.

1. 1. Be understood
      The Brief helps Founders send a unique pitch that better articulates their strengths. With more complete and structured data, VCs won’t overlook what makes you great, so they can give a quicker “yes” to the meeting.

1. 1. Get networked with the right VCs
      Because fundraising success relies largely on personal connections, The Brief is networked. Use the tool to see your connection strengths and find the best intro paths to the right VCs.

1. 1. Go deeper, faster
      Get to the important parts of the meeting faster by sharing more complete and structured data before the meeting.

1. 1. No change to workflow
      The Brief works in email, with no change to the workflow for you.

1. 1. Always private
      Founders have complete control over who sees their Brief. Nothing is public.

1. 1. Always free
      We’ll never charge for NFX products, ever.

Why VCs like The Brief

1. Less friction
   Shortcut to the info that matters. The Brief gives VCs the information they need in the first introduction email.
   ‍
2. Less chance of missing great companies
   The Brief helps VCs quickly see what makes the company interesting, including mutual connections.
   ‍
3. More signal, less noise
   The Brief helps Founders better target their pitches to VCs’ stages and interests. Once a meeting takes place, they can get to the heart of the conversation faster.
   ‍
4. No change to workflowThe Brief works in email, with no change to the workflow for the VC. Easier still, a VC can setup landing pages where Founders can submit their pitches.
   ‍

Why we build software at NFX

We want to change how startups are funded. Because we’re software builders ourselves, we believe software is the best way to do it.

We take a very long-term and broad perspective on how our industry will evolve, and how we can play a role in helping it improve.

Our guiding principles are collaboration and access. We are collaborative people by nature. We invest with an average of 6+ other investors in our funding rounds and as an early stage fund. Collaboration is how our company succeeds.

We hope the software we build multiplies collaboration between Founders and VCs and increases the access of new Founders into the ecosystem.

Here are the three tools we’ve launched to date:

1. Signal  —  the Founder-VC network to help fix fundraising

2. VC Match  —  a tool for Founders to find the right VCs fast

3. The Brief  —   a tool for creating, managing and targeting VC communication

Give feedback to the NFX Products team here

About NFX

NFX is a Pre-Seed and Seed venture fund based in San Francisco. As Founders ourselves, we built 10 companies with more than $10 billion in exits across multiple industries and geographies​. We’re building software and distributing content to help early-stage Founders unlock speed, defensibility, and edge.

If you want to submit a Brief to NFX for review, here’s how:

If you can’t find a mutual introduction through the Brief tool… rather than sending a cold email it’s best to submit a Brief through one of our private Brief pages.