40+ Investor databases for easier VC outreach (free access) | How to execute your own Offline Outbound.

The right way to choose your pricing model & VC Jobs

👋 Hey, Sahil here — Welcome back to Venture Curator, where we explore how top investors think, how real founders build, and the strategies shaping tomorrow’s companies.

• 40+ Investor databases for easier VC outreach (Free Access)

• The right way to choose your pricing model by Gaurav Vohra, founding team at Superhuman.

• The rise of “Offline Outbound”: How to execute your own Offline Outbound.

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VENTURE CURATORS’ FINDING

📬 My Favourite Finds

Media Posts:

• The Big Book of Venture Capital — Q3 2025 Edition. (Link)

• Startup legal document pack – essential legal docs for founders. (Link)

• The startup valuation guide for founders. (Link)

• a16z guide: How to hire a strong founding team? (Link)

• Marc Andreessen’s Guide on Productivity. (Link)

• Andrew Chen on showing traction before you have traction (Link)

• Peter Walker shares lead investor trends in Seed + Series A rounds (Link)

Reports/Articles:

• Vibe coding for beginners - all in one guide. (Link)

• The AI dilemma: To compete with China, the U.S. needs Chinese talent. (Link)

• Hiring in the Age of AI. (Link)

• Designers should look to Demis Hassabis. Not Jony Ive.(Link)

• More articles are now created by AI than by humans. (Link)

• Bitter lessons building AI products. (Link)

• Marketing website case studies lie – The maths, the mess, the exit. (Link)

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📜 DEEP DIVE

40+ Investor Databases for Easier VC Outreach (Free Access)

This one’s a little different. Normally, we break down topics and share insights, but today we’re giving you something bigger: a massive database of investors. Some of these lists we found online, others we painstakingly curated with the Venture Curator team. We’ve double-checked everything to make sure it’s accurate, and we hope it makes your fundraising journey easier.

Before diving in, feel free to check out our previous fundraising tips on the Archive Page.

Here’s what’s inside each database:

• Investor/VC Name

• Portfolio Companies

• Stage & Sector Focus

• LinkedIn & Twitter Links

• Email Contacts (for selected database)

Here we go: The Ultimate Investor Databases for Free

• 2000 US VCs Link to Access

• VC Firms That Accept Cold Outreach From Founders Link to Access

• Best European VC funds Link to Access

• Best family offices around the world Link to Access

• Corporate venture arms Link to Access

• 100 VC firms investing in SaaS Link to Access

• 100 best VC funds in the UK Link to Access

• 250 US AI Angel Investors Link to Access

• The Ultimate List of 750+ Seed Funds Link to Access

• 300 Australian Early-Stage Investors Link to Access

• 350 Most Active Angel Investors in the US Link to Access

• 900 Climate VCs Link to Access

• All accelerators by number of investments Link to Access

• Data investors in Asia Link to Access

• Early-stage web3 investors Link to Access

• French VCs Link to Access

• Gen AI Investors in Asia Link to Access

• 250+ Latin America VC Firms & Angel Investors Database: Link to Access

• List of VCs Investing in India Link to Access

• Top 100 Pension Funds in the World Link to Access

• Top 100 Venture Funds by Number of Investments Link to Access

• 150+ African Angel Investors Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link): Link to Access

• Top 300 Angel Investors in the Middle East Link to Access

• Seed & Series A US VCs (via Folk) Link to Access

• Mercury’s Investor Database (most active Seed & Pre-Seed investors) Link to Access

• 350+ Indian Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link): Link to Access

• Airtree’s 168+ Australian VC firms: Link to Access

• 6000+ European VC Firms Contact Database (LinkedIn Links) Link to Access

• Deep Tech Investors Mapping (from hello tomorrow): Link to Access

• VC investors in the Netherlands list: Link to Access

• 400+ French Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link): Link to Access

• European Tech VC Funds (by EuroVC): Link to Access

• 2000+ US VCs grouped by Fund stage, Fund focus, Location: Link to Access

• HealthTech Venture Investor List: Link to Access

• NYC Early Stage VC firms list: Link to Access

• 2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) Link to Access

I hope this will be useful in your fundraising journey. You can also check out our previous write-up on fundraising in our archive page.

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📃 QUICK DIVES

The right way to choose your pricing model by Gaurav Vohra, founding team at Superhuman.

One of the most expensive mistakes early-stage startups make isn’t a tech decision — it’s pricing. Teams spend months debating:

• “Should we be freemium?”

• “Should we do a free trial?”

• Or worse — they pick one at random, build around it, and realise later it was the wrong bet.

Gaurav Vohra, part of the founding team at Superhuman, shared one of the clearest frameworks yet for deciding how to price your product and when to stay away from free altogether.

Here’s the breakdown founders should know.

1. Freemium vs. Free Trial: know the difference

• Freemium = free access forever, limited functionality

• Free trial = free access for a limited time or usage

Freemium changes your entire business model. Free trial is just a funnel experiment. Decide on freemium first; it’s a company-level decision.

Source: Growth by Gaurav

2. When to go freemium

Freemium only works under certain strategic conditions:

Competitive pressure: If cheaper or free competitors can steal the market fast, freemium might be necessary. It’s a defensive play to cement users before rivals do. But beware the “price war trap.” Once you and your competitors start undercutting each other, you eventually end up at $0.

Network effects: If your product gets stronger with more users, freemium fuels growth. Slack, Dropbox, and ChatGPT are examples where user scale itself improves value.

Data flywheel: If free users’ data makes your product smarter (like Grammarly or ChatGPT), a free tier is strategic. It feeds model improvement or enables monetization via ads or new revenue streams.

If none of these are true, skip freemium.

3. When to go on a free trial

If you don’t need a permanent free tier, a time- or usage-based free trial might still make sense.

Competitive necessity: If every similar product in your category offers a free trial, you’ll likely need one too. Calm and Headspace are great examples.

Reaching lower-intent customers: Once you’ve saturated high-intent buyers, you may need to expand to lower-intent users. That’s why mature products like Salesforce or Adobe use trials to widen the funnel.

Hard-to-explain value: If your product’s “aha” moment only happens after people use it, free trials help. Example: Readwise — users only see value once they connect highlights and start receiving emails.

Rule of thumb: If you can’t describe the value well, let users experience it first.

4. The hidden costs of “free”

Free is never really free. Every additional user means higher infra and AI usage costs, more support tickets, more edge cases, and more moderation overhead. Especially with AI products power users can destroy your margins fast. Set usage caps early.

5. Freemium vs. Paid — global vs. local optimization

Ask yourself: Is going free a global strategy or a local optimization?

Spotify’s ad revenue (around 12% of total) looks useful, but the real reason they’re freemium is competitive pressure and audience expansion, not ads. Most startup teams confuse small optimizations for strategic moves. Always ask if “free” actually helps you win the market or just distracts from your main product.

6. Evaluating if your pricing decision worked

Free trial vs. pay up front is easier to test. Compare activation (day 1–30) and revenue retention (month 1–3) between groups. You can A/B test it.

Freemium vs. paid is harder because it changes everything — funnel, CAC, engagement, support, even product roadmap. Instead, evaluate hypotheses: Did we beat competitors? Did we create network effects? Did we collect valuable data? If not, “free” wasn’t worth the cost.

7. What Superhuman learned the hard way

Superhuman tested both freemium and free trial. Both backfired.

• Freemium experiment: 4x virality inside teams, but less than 25% activation or monetization. Looked great on paper, killed revenue.

• Free trial: Users took the product less seriously. Paying up front created stronger behavior change and better retention.

Their conclusion: paying is part of the product experience.

Don’t copy pricing models blindly. Ask three questions before adding “free”:

1. Does free make my product more valuable (via network, data, or virality)?

2. Can I afford the cost of free users?

3. Will customers value it more if they pay first?

Sometimes the fastest way to grow isn’t going free — it’s charging early, proving value, and letting results spread on their own.

The rise of “Offline Outbound”: How to execute your own Offline Outbound.

In a world obsessed with AI and digital automation, some of the sharpest GTM teams are going the other way, offline.

They’re sending doormats, collectables, and cakes to prospects. It’s not nostalgia, it’s strategy.

Joseph Bath calls this new wave Offline Outbound — a modern take on Account Based Marketing built around physical, co-branded gestures that spark real relationships and unforgettable brand moments.

Instead of cold emails and ads, companies are showing up - literally.

Here’s how the best ones are doing it.

1. Delve’s “Doormat Experiment”

YC-backed Delve sent custom doormats reading “Your shoes look good. Do your SOCs 2?” to 100 hot prospects.

Image Source: LinkedIn Selin Kosalar

Cost: $6K | Views: 850K | Likes: 6K | Pipeline: $500K

It worked because the object fit the message.

The doormat was symbolic, funny, and relevant to Delve’s SOC 2 compliance product. It broke the digital pattern, sparked posts across LinkedIn, and sat in offices as a lasting reminder.

Lesson: Great offline ideas tie directly to what your product represents.

2. Weave’s “Labubu Run”

Weave (YC W25) wanted to stand out to engineering leaders. They sent collectable Labubu figurines wearing custom company shirts to 42 target accounts and their GTM lead personally ran 42 km across San Francisco to deliver them.

Image Source: Brennan LinkedIn

He met 42 CTOs face-to-face, sparked posts from teams like Sierra and Hightouch, and turned a physical stunt into viral digital content.

Lesson: Borrow cultural relevance (Labubus were trending) and turn delivery into performance — an experience people can’t help but share.

3. Artisan’s “Outbound Cakes”

Artisan (YC W24), which builds AI BDRs, sent custom cakes to target prospects. Each was iced with: “Hire Ava, she’ll make outbound a piece of cake.”

Image Source: Jaspar LinkedIn

They paired the physical drop with digital follow-ups — automated LinkedIn and email sequences. The mix of human gesture + AI efficiency created warm leads, viral reach, and a sharp brand image.

Lesson: A small, thoughtful drop — combined with smart digital follow-up — beats pure automation every time.

What makes Offline Outbound work

• Human connection: You stop being “just another sender.” You become a person — someone who showed up with intent.

• Differentiation: Everyone optimizes emails; few dare to break the channel. Going offline is the pattern interrupt.

• Longer brand life: A doormat or desk collectible keeps your brand visible for months — not seconds like an ad.

• Built-in content: Each drop creates a shareable story, multiplying impressions far beyond the initial gesture.

The trade-off: scalability vs. memorability

Offline Outbound isn’t for blasting 10,000 prospects. It’s for high-ACV, trust-driven deals where personal touch pays off.

It sits between Brand, Demand Gen, and ABM — less scalable than ads, but far more memorable and trust-building.

Why it works (by the numbers):

• Estimated CPM: ~$7 (vs. LinkedIn ads at $100–$200)

• $6K spend → $500K pipeline (≈ 1:83 ratio)

• Longevity: physical impressions last for months

Use it when:

• You’re launching, fundraising, or riding momentum

• You’re targeting high-fit accounts where one deal moves the needle

• You have a story worth sharing both offline and online

How to execute your own Offline Outbound

1. Find your hook. Pick something timely, intuitive, and shareable.

2. Co-brand the object. Make it feel like a shared moment, not an ad.

3. Set your goal. Pipeline? Relationship building? Account activation?

4. Get personal. Know who you’re sending to — and why.

5. Capture the content. Film, post, and repurpose — the content is the multiplier.

Offline Outbound isn’t a playbook. It’s a precision strike. Use it sparingly, when story, timing, and fit align.

Because showing up in person — with something worth talking about — still cuts deeper than any automated sequence ever will.

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