Best for tech founders · USA, UK & EU
The first step is free, it’s a one-pager review and targeted investor outreach. If investors request your full deck, the optional £300 investor follow-up service takes it from there.
First outreach is free £300 investor follow-up USA, UK & EU founders
Who it’s for
Raise is Matthew Smith’s investor-introduction service for pre-revenue, pre-seed tech founders.
How it works
The first step is a free one-pager review and outreach. You only pay if you want the full £300 investor follow-up service.
Free first step
£0 Your first outreach is free
Step 2 — Optional
£300 fixed fee
The investors
Matthew’s network is built from solid relationships. Your one-pager only goes to investors who are a genuine fit.
Investor names stay confidential until an investor asks to meet you, and your materials go out clean, with contact details and links removed.
Recommendations
Public recommendations from founders Matt has worked with, visible on his LinkedIn profile and on each individual founder’s profile. They are not a promise of investment.
See all recommendations on LinkedIn
Matt has been ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ the missing piece in my startup journey. If I could give more than five stars I would. He has been a golden nugget I didn’t know I needed. He presented my startup to investors that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to as a first time founder. And the feedback, suggestions, guidance and the direction received from both Matt and investors have cleared the path for me to know exactly what must be done to secure investment. I am no longer shooting in the dark and hoping I get lucky, I now have a fully structured roadmap and targets to hit that demonstrates when done I am investment ready. I couldn’t have done it without the support from Matt. If you are a founder seeking investment, I recommend Matt a 1000 percent.
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I chose to work with Matthew very, very deliberately. As a first-time, early-stage founder, I have had a genuinely brilliant experience being guided by him…
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Mat has been pivotal in our seed raise. Constant support and advice whenever we need. His drive behind and constant support/introductions have helped us close a further £200,000 in our Seed raise. Mat has comprehensive understanding of the Education…
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Matt is easily the best startup mentor I’ve worked with since I founded my startup. Grateful for your guidance Matt! A critical difference is that he’s actually a founder, so he’s done this before, and is able to provide guidance that…
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I’ve had the pleasure of working with Matt and I can confidently say his input has been instrumental in elevating my investor outreach. Matt helped fine-tune my investor deck with precision…
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Matthew Smith is a highly experienced investor who truly understands both sides of the table—the perspective of investors and the challenges founders face. What sets Matthew apart is the genuine time and effort he puts into guiding founders, helping them…
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(he’s Michelin in this line of work) When Matthew reached out to me on LinkedIn, I was cynical and guarded. As a female founder who had been through betrayals in business, and who…
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About Matthew Smith
It was sold to IRIS Software Group, backed by private equity firm HG Capital, then one of Europe’s largest software houses. Matthew runs Raise from Manchester, UK, and has a strong social media following as an expert tech founder and tech funding specialist.
Will this work for you?
Raise is not for every founder. Here is who it is for, using the same criteria as the website. No one can promise an investor will invest or meet you.
This follows who Raise is for, and how the service works: one-pager first, with no guaranteed outcome.
Questions founders ask
The same answers as the Raise website, on the questions people usually start with.
Yes. Your first outreach is free. Just email your one-pager overview as a PDF. You only pay if you want the optional £300 investor follow-up service.
Then you don’t pay anything. You only decide on the £300 investor follow-up service once you know how many investors have asked to see your full deck.
No. Raise never takes equity, now or on any future investment.
No. The free first step costs nothing. The optional investor follow-up service is one fixed fee of £300. There’s no success fee, no commission and nothing else to pay, now or later.
No. The £300 covers the deck sends, question handling, introductions and the final feedback report, not an outcome. No one can promise an investor will invest or meet you, and the fee is non-refundable.
A mix of angels, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and some hand-picked VCs. Typical cheques are $50K to $250K, with some going up to $1M and beyond. Each one is matched to your sector, investment thesis, geography and cheque size.
The £300 investor follow-up service is optional, and you only choose this if investors specifically asked for your full deck. It covers sending your full deck to all the interested investors who wanted to see it, coordinating their questions and sending them back to you, and warm intros when investors ask to meet you. At the end of the process, you’ll receive a full feedback report specifying exactly what investors like and dislike about your proposal. The work runs in a 30-day process.
Yes. Your deck only goes to the investors who ask for it, and it isn’t shared further without your OK. Before anything goes out, all contact details and links are removed. Investor names stay confidential until an investor asks to be introduced.
Matthew Smith runs Raise. He sold his last tech business, Results Squared, for $18 million to IRIS Software Group, backed by private equity firm HG Capital, then one of Europe’s largest software houses. He is an expert tech founder and tech funding specialist, based in Manchester, UK, with 15,000+ tech founders and investors following him across social media platforms. Read the IRIS announcement.
Raise’s standard terms are short and simple: one fixed £300 fee for the optional investor follow-up service, no equity, commission or success fee, and full confidentiality. You can read the full terms here.
The terms, plainly
Raise does not offer a money-back guarantee on the £300 fee. These are the actual terms from the website.
Your first outreach is free. You only decide on the optional £300 investor follow-up service once you know how many investors have asked to see your full deck.
The optional investor follow-up service is one fixed fee of £300. There is no success fee, no commission and nothing else to pay, now or later. Raise never takes equity.
The £300 covers the deck sends, question handling, introductions and the final feedback report, not an outcome. No one can promise an investor will invest or meet you, and the fee is non-refundable.
Matthew isn’t a regulated financial adviser or broker and doesn’t give investment advice. You agree any investment terms directly with the investor. Raise is non-exclusive, and the standard terms are here.
This page is a sample video sales letter for review. It is not published and should not be indexed. All facts on this page are taken from the live Raise website at techfounderfunding.com. Recommendations shown here are public LinkedIn recommendations already used on that site; they are individual opinions and are not typical or guaranteed results.
Raise does not publish a results dashboard of funds raised. No additional performance numbers have been added here. Paying for the optional follow-up service does not guarantee investment or a meeting.
Ready when you are
The first step is free: a one-pager review and outreach.
Choose how you’d like to email Matthew atangelinvestor1000@gmail.com