The fundraising flywheel

A warm intro gets you one LP meeting. A commitment usually takes five or more.
The intro opens the door. Everything after it is repetition.

Run the math on a modest first close. €10M from LPs writing €250K tickets is 40 investors. At a 25% conversion rate, you need to meet about 160.

160 investors, and five-plus interactions each for the ones who commit. The constraint is not your list. It is partner time, used the same way every week.

So fundraising isn't a funnel you pour names into. It's a flywheel:
1.) Show up. One community, one thesis, until people connect your name to it.
2.) Reach out every week, not when the deck feels ready.
3.) Bring the same three proofs to every meeting: expertise, credibility, ability to deliver.
4.) Send the same update on the same cadence, from day one, to LPs who haven't committed yet.
5.) Trust compounds. Around 60% of allocators find new funds through peers, so your next intro comes from the last LP who felt informed.

The intro starts the wheel. Consistency keeps it turning.

GPs: how many meetings did your first LP commitment take?

LPs: how many did you need before backing your last emerging manager?

(The 40 → 160 funnel is an illustrative model, not fund data.)