Founder-led co-investor sourcing: build network fast (no IB intros)

Founders raising private rounds today face a painfully slow and opaque path to co-investors when they do not have investment bank introductions; this problem hits growth-stage founders (seed through Series B), family offices and single-family offices seeking direct deals, and lead VCs who increasingly expect founder-sourced co-investor lists. Many founders spend months chasing mismatched LPs, resulting in low show-rates and missed checks — a market inefficiency that costs time and rounds. We could build a founder-led co-investor sourcing platform that combines an AI-driven discovery engine (mapping relevance from public filings, news, and portfolio patterns), a verified contact graph with intent signals, and a concierge/outreach layer alongside subscription and success-fee monetization. This is economically attractive: targeting 60,000 private rounds per year at an estimated $100k average ARR per customer implies a $6.0B addressable market, and independent scoring indicates the market opportunity and revenue potential are both very strong (95/100 and 94/100 respectively). Timing favors entry because direct-LP sourcing is growing among family offices and SFOs, modern ML materially improves hit-rates for cold discovery, and VCs are increasingly asking for founder-sourced investors as a diligence signal, creating a predictable workflow demand. To stand out we would focus on very fast founder onboarding that seeds the network with real-time intent data, a high-touch concierge to convert warm matches, and proprietary ML models tuned to sector, traction, and portfolio fit rather than simple keyword matching. Challenges are clear: acquiring and maintaining high-quality investor contact and intent data, navigating regulatory and compliance requirements for outreach, and executing a sales motion to convince conservative LPs and founders to trust a new channel; these require early capital and disciplined execution but do not appear insurmountable given the medium competitive intensity.