Build AI agents with OpenClaw: a step-by-step guide for founders. | Cold outreach fundraising tips from a founder who raised $1 billion.

Surprising data on founders compensation in 2026? & 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.

• How to raise money with cold outreach: tips from a founder who raised $1 billion.

• How founders can build AI agents with OpenClaw: a step-by-step guide.

• What founders actually pay themselves in 2026?

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• How to find one metric to rule them all. (Link)

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📜 DEEP DIVE

How to raise money with cold outreach: tips from a founder who raised $1 billion.

The probability of success for a high-growth company is predicated on your ability to raise capital. As a leader, you will never achieve your maximum entrepreneurial potential without being able to raise capital quickly and successfully.

Capital is the lifeblood of any high-growth company. It has to be treated as a key priority. It can never be outsourced or downgraded to a second priority.

Brett Adcock, the founder and CEO of Figure AI, secured $1 billion in 2025. Also, his previous ventures, Adcock has successfully raised significant capital: Vettery was acquired for $110 million, Archer Aviation went public with a valuation of $2.7 billion and raised over $1 billion. He shared the framework for founders to raise capital. So read along -

“Remember - Investors are looking for certain traits. Without these, you have little chance of raising a single dollar. Let’s talk about how you can use the formula to build a repeatable process for raising capital.

Fundraising Formula:

Image Source: Brett Adcock

You need to maximise the number of shots on goal in fundraising. Aim to get as many meeting attempts with investors as possible. The above formula for capital raising is a combination of -

1. the number of qualified investors you are targeting, combined with

2. the company idea & overall branding.

The first step in the fundraising process is defining success. The ultimate goal is to raise capital successfully. If you work backwards from there, getting to a lead investor “term sheet” is the next clear milestone. And if you work backwards once more, the goal is to maximise the number of unique investor meetings.

The Fundraising Formula is a way to compute how to maximise the number of qualified investor meetings. Fundraising is about talking to 200 investors and finding the 1 person who will take a bet on you. I’ve always experienced really low conversion rates in these efforts - it’s never been easy for me to raise capital. And that’s quite normal.

Here is the sensitivity to each part of the formula:

1. Qualified investors: You want to drive this number as high as possible. I speak to so many founders who are “waiting for referrals”. This inevitably means this number is too low. You want to identify every possible investor on the planet or else your equation will point to low odds of success.

2. Outreach: This is your reach-out process to investors. I gauge this as a percentage conversion rate. This will be really sensitive to the way you are reaching out (referral vs. cold email) and the messaging associated with the reach-out process (e.g. subject and body of a cold email). There is an art to this. The conversion rate can greatly increase if you treat it as a recursive project to get better.

3. Idea: This is the company idea, and it’s fixed. There is very little you can do besides pivot your company to a new idea. The idea will instantly either A) resonate or B) turn off investors based on their industry focus or their internal thesis of the market/industry.

4. Branding: This is how well-branded or attractive your company is at first glance. You have limited time to impress an investor enough for them to commit to a meeting. There are many ways to drive this up, including a nice investor deck. But ultimately, that’s a small lever, so don’t stress too much over this.

5. Investor Meetings: This is the output of all your hard work. The goal is to drive up the number of qualified investor meetings as high as possible. You want to do 50-200 of these meetings. The more qualified investor meetings, the higher your odds of raising capital.

Building the Fundraising Machine:

Source: Brett Adcock

I believe in building and executing on a highly structured “machine” for fundraising processes. This machine is something you can wash, rinse, and repeat. This should be similar to how you would run a sales or marketing team.

I track this process in a Google sheet, similar to how you track items in a CRM. Let’s break down the key elements of the formula so you can go out and execute it yourself.

Key Elements of a Fundraising Machine:

1. Qualified List of Investors: This is a list of investors who are tailored specifically to your company. Start with investment groups that match well with your company sector. Research to find an investment partner who covers your specific industry and maturity. Ideally, you have found 100% of every investor on the planet that you think could give you a term sheet.

2. Outreach Process: Reach out to investors with the goal of setting up a meeting. Try to get as many referrals as possible, then move to outbound for the rest.

3. Pitching: Your first interaction with the investor that includes them previewing the deck. Optimise the conversion rate from the first meeting to the term sheet.

4. Term Sheet: Receiving a term sheet is the ultimate goal for the first leg of capital raising. Negotiate quickly and fairly to get the lead investor signed up.

The entire process from start to finish will take at least 3 months. Spend 30 days preparing the investor deck and data room, mapping out investors, and your cold email template. The next 30-60 days are for investor outreach and meetings. Once you have a term sheet, it generally takes <10 days to negotiate and sign, and you usually close in 30 days.

Additional Capital Raising Insights:

1. Show metrics and customers that can potentially correlate to long-term success for early investors to understand your product’s potential.

2. Understand VC mandates and match them to your industry to avoid spinning your wheels.

3. Showcase your “Championship Team” - there’s no way you’re building a great product without a #1 team.

4. Aim for 80% of investor pitches to come from outbound processes (cold calls or emails) and 20% from inbound processes (referrals).

5. Build a well-branded investor deck, as it’s often the first impression investors have.

6. Recognise that interested investors move quickly. If they’re not hurrying, it’s likely a sign you don’t have a deal.

7. Focus on finding a “lead” investor who can give you a term sheet and lead your round.

8. Balance fundraising time with product development, as fundraising can be distracting for founders.

Remember, fundraising is a competitive process. Once the round is complete, put your attention back to the product and get building. I suggest setting up a quarterly “nurture” sequence to keep investors updated.”

Many founders still struggle to write cold emails to investors. They’re often confused about what to include, how to reply, what to send, and how to follow up.

With this in mind and drawing insights from leading founders and investors, we’ve created an all-in-one guide: Investor Outreach Email Sequence Pack: 20+ Proven Templates Used & Approved by VCs.

More than 100+ founders are already using it and have found it extremely useful.

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📃 QUICK DIVES

How founders can build AI agents with OpenClaw: a step-by-step guide.

AI agents are quickly moving from demos to practical tools people actually use every day. Instead of manually prompting models again and again, an agent can run tasks for you - checking emails, researching topics, scheduling work, or sending updates through messaging apps.

Recently, Alex Prompter shared a way to architect an AI agent using OpenClaw. What’s useful about his approach is that instead of experimenting randomly, you start with a structured blueprint that defines the entire system: the workflow, the tools, the guardrails, and how the AI should behave.

Below is a simplified and practical breakdown of how this method works.

First: understand what OpenClaw actually does

OpenClaw is a local-first AI agent framework. Instead of running in the cloud like most AI tools, the agent runs directly on your own machine and connects to messaging platforms such as:

• WhatsApp

• Telegram

• Discord

• Slack

• Signal

You can interact with your AI agent through these apps the same way you would message a colleague.

The system works with three main components:

1. The LLM (the brain)

This can be Claude, GPT-4o, or DeepSeek. The model handles reasoning, understanding instructions, and generating decisions.

2. OpenClaw (the body)

This is the execution layer. It performs actions like:

• browsing the web

• accessing email

• scheduling calendar events

• running automations

• triggering scripts

3. Skills (the capabilities)

Skills extend the agent’s abilities. For example:

• search the internet

• read emails

• send notifications

• Run scheduled jobs

• interact with APIs

Together, these components allow the AI to think, decide, and execute tasks.

The key idea: design the entire agent before building it

Instead of manually experimenting with configurations, Alex recommends prompting Claude to generate a full agent architecture first.

You describe the goal of your agent, and the AI generates a detailed blueprint including:

• the agent’s purpose

• which messaging platform to use

• Which LLM works best

• What skills are required

• The system prompt that defines the agent’s behaviour

• the workflow logic and decision paths

• safety guardrails

This makes the build process much more structured.

The prompt used to design the agent

"You are a world-class OpenClaw agent architect.

OpenClaw is a local-first autonomous AI agent that runs on your own
device and operates through messaging platforms like WhatsApp,
Telegram, Discord, Signal, and Slack. It connects to Claude,
GPT, or DeepSeek as its brain, and uses Skills to extend
its capabilities.

My goal: [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT YOUR OPENCLAW AGENT TO DO]

Build me a complete OpenClaw agent blueprint with:

AGENT NAME & PURPOSE: [Name + one-line objective]

RECOMMENDED CHANNEL: Which messaging platform to use and why (WhatsApp / Telegram / Discord / Slack / Signal)

LLM SELECTION: Which model to connect (Claude / GPT-4o / DeepSeek) and why for this specific use case

SKILLS NEEDED: List each skill the agent requires, what it does, and how to configure it (browser search, cron scheduling, email reader, calendar manager, note generation,  web scraping)

WORKSPACE SETUP: How to structure the workspace and agent sessions for this task

SYSTEM PROMPT FOR THE AGENT: Write the full system prompt that goes into OpenClaw for this agent's behavior, tone, and decision rules

TOOL CONNECTIONS: Which tools to enable (browser, cron, canvas, email, calendar, etc.) with exact purpose for each. For example - 
- browser → research tasks
- email → inbox automation
- calendar → scheduling meetings
- cron → recurring tasks
- canvas → document creation

WORKFLOW STEPS:
1. Trigger → Action → Output
2. Decision point → If X then Y, if Z then W (Map every step completely)
For example - User sends message → agent searches sources → summarizes insights → sends response

SAFETY GUARDRAILS:
- What permissions to restrict
- Confirm-before-acting rules for destructive actions
  (deleting emails, sending messages, etc.)
- How to run: openclaw doctor to check for risks

EXAMPLE COMMANDS TO TEST IT: Give me 5 real commands I can send via WhatsApp/Telegram
to test this agent immediately

Be specific. Production-ready. No placeholders."

How to actually build the agent

Once Claude generates the blueprint, the build process is straightforward.

1. Step 1: Install OpenClaw using the terminal: openclaw onboard

2. Step 2: Run the setup wizard and configure:

• gateway

• messaging channel

• workspace

3. Step 3: Copy the architecture prompt and insert your goal.

4. Step 4: Paste it into Claude to generate the full agent blueprint.

5. Step 5: Implement the system prompt, tools, and skills inside OpenClaw.

6. Step 6: Test the agent using the example commands generated by Claude.

If you’re building products or running a startup, agents like this can automate surprisingly useful workflows.

Examples:

• Customer feedback summarizer - reads incoming support emails and generates daily insights.

• Investor research agent - Tracks funding announcements and summarises interesting companies.

These kinds of tools are increasingly becoming personal operating systems for knowledge work.

And frameworks like OpenClaw make it possible to build them locally with full control over how they operate.

What founders actually pay themselves in 2026?

Founder compensation is one of the most misunderstood topics in startups.

From the outside, people assume founders of venture-backed companies are paying themselves massive salaries. In reality, most founders keep salaries relatively modest because the real upside comes from equity, not salary.

A new report analysing (Creandum) compensation across hundreds of startups (from bootstrapped to Series D) shows a clear pattern:

Founder salaries increase steadily with stage, but the biggest payoff still comes from ownership.

Founder salaries grow with the company stage

Founder compensation tends to scale alongside funding and company maturity.

Median salaries increase consistently as companies raise larger rounds:

• Seed founders: ~€89K median salary

• Series A founders: ~€154K

• Series B founders: ~€199K

• Series C founders: ~€225K

Bonuses also become more common as companies scale. By Series C, around 70% of founders receive bonuses, reflecting more structured compensation systems.

Interestingly, Pre-Seed salaries actually declined about 12% year-over-year, suggesting early founders are conserving cash and extending runway rather than paying themselves more.

Another surprising data point: bootstrapped founders sometimes earn more than Pre-Seed founders. Many profitable bootstrapped companies generate enough revenue to support higher salaries even without outside capital.

The biggest salary gap is in geography

Where a founder builds matters a lot.

US founders earn significantly more than their European peers.

On average:

• US founder salaries are about 1.5× higher than European founders

• Companies that raised €100M+ pay ~€225K in Europe vs ~$350K in the US

The difference reflects several factors:

• larger funding rounds

• the higher cost of living

• stronger venture competition for talent

Even within Europe, there are interesting regional differences. Baltic and Nordic founders reported surprisingly strong compensation levels, sometimes surpassing those in more traditional tech hubs.

AI founders are not the highest paid

Given the massive funding flowing into AI startups, many people assume AI founders are earning the most.

The data says otherwise.

Median founder salaries by sector:

• FinTech: ~€142K

• CleanTech: ~€142K

• AI-native startups: ~€122K

Two structural reasons explain this.

FinTech companies often monetise quickly, allowing founders to justify higher compensation earlier.

CleanTech companies tend to have long development cycles, so higher salaries help compensate founders during the long journey to profitability.

AI startups, despite the headlines, still vary widely in funding size and maturity, meaning founder compensation hasn’t yet caught up with the hype.

CEOs actually earn less than revenue-focused founders

Another interesting trend: founders responsible for revenue tend to earn more than CEOs.

Median compensation by founder role shows:

• CRO / CCO founders: ~€133K

• CEO founders: ~€118K

• Product-focused founders: ~€85K

This reflects the current market environment.

Investors and boards are prioritising revenue generation and capital efficiency, rewarding founders who directly influence growth and sales.

The gender gap is shrinking, but representation remains low

Encouragingly, the pay gap between male and female founders is narrowing.

At Seed and Series A:

• Female founders earn within 3–5% of male founders

At Series C, female founders even slightly out-earned their male peers in median compensation.

However, there’s still a major representation problem.

Only 13% of founders surveyed were women, reflecting the broader startup funding gap where:

• only 2.3% of global VC funding goes to female-only teams

Equity still matters far more than salary

The biggest financial outcome for founders is still equity ownership.

And one factor dominates equity outcomes: how early you joined the company.

For example:

• Founder joining at incorporation: ~48–50% ownership

• Founder joining six months later: ~20–24%

That difference can translate into millions in exit value.

In other words, while salary matters for day-to-day life, the real financial impact comes from ownership and dilution over time.

How founders should think about compensation

The report suggests a practical framework for setting founder pay. Good founder compensation balances five principles:

• Alignment: Most founder wealth should come from equity, not salary. Salary should support focus, not create lifestyle inflation.

• Sufficiency: Pay enough to remove financial stress, but avoid draining company cash.

• Transparency: Compensation decisions should be documented, benchmarked, and board-approved.

• Accountability: Cash and bonuses should align with performance and operational impact.

• Consistency: Founder pay should evolve predictably with company maturity, not spike suddenly after funding rounds.

Founder salaries are rising again after the startup slowdown in 2023. But the data reinforces a core truth of startups: Founders don’t get rich from a salary. They get rich from equity.

Salary keeps the lights on. Ownership is what changes your life.

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