How to use LinkedIn to stay top of mind with investors

Most founders know investors will read their pitch deck.

Fewer founders think about what investors will find when they look them up on LinkedIn.

But they will.

During a recent Funding Mastermind for Focused For Business’ community of startups, expert mentor Lucy Whittington explored how founders can use LinkedIn to stay visible, credible and top of mind with investors before and during a fundraise.

Lucy is one of Focused For Business’ Funding Accelerator expert mentors and a sales and marketing specialist who helps SaaS, tech and professional service businesses find simpler, smarter ways to launch and grow. In this session, she challenged founders to stop treating LinkedIn as optional and start seeing it as part of investor due diligence.

Her point was direct:

“You can’t not be on LinkedIn.”

Investors may not comment. They may not like your posts. They may never tell you they have looked. But as Lucy reminded founders, LinkedIn is full of lurkers, and some of those lurkers may be future investors, customers, advisors or introducers.

That means your LinkedIn presence can quietly influence how investors understand you before you ever get into the room.

LinkedIn is part of investor due diligence

When founders think about investor due diligence, they often think about financials, pitch decks, product demos, customer traction and legal documents.

All of that matters.

But investors are also people.

Before they speak to you, they may do what most of us do before meeting someone new: look you up.

Lucy explained that investors are likely to check your LinkedIn profile in the same way you might look at someone’s profile before hiring them. They want to understand who you are, what you do, what you say and how you show up publicly.

That means LinkedIn is not just “social media”.

For founders raising investment, it can become part of the evidence trail.

It can help investors see:

What you are building
How clearly you explain the problem
Whether the business appears active
Whether you understand your market
How you respond to setbacks
Who is engaging with you
What kind of founder you seem to be

None of this replaces the pitch deck.

But it can shape the first impression.

Your profile should show what you are building now

One of the most useful exercises Lucy gave founders was simple:

If an investor looked at your LinkedIn profile right now, what would they learn about you in 30 seconds?

The answers were telling.

One founder recognised that his profile might suggest he did not enjoy interacting with people. Another said his profile was more about his previous career than what he was building now. Another founder had a strong professional background in her sector, but was unsure how much to share about her current fundraising journey and business progress.

That is very common.

Many founder profiles still read like CVs.

They tell people what the founder used to do, but not what they are building now.

For investors, that creates work.

They have to connect the dots themselves. And busy people often do not.

Your LinkedIn profile should make it clear:

Who you are
What you are building
Who you help
What problem you solve
What stage the business is at
What you are looking for now

If you are running pilots, say so.
If your waitlist is open, say so.
If you are currently raising, say so.
If you are seeking conversations with a particular type of investor, customer or partner, say so.

This is not about being pushy.

It is about being easy to understand.

Your company page is the shop window, but your profile builds trust

Lucy made an important distinction between your LinkedIn company page and your founder profile.

The company page matters. It is your shop window. It should look like the lights are on.

That does not mean you need to post constantly. Updating it once a week or once a fortnight may be enough, depending on your business and stage.

But your founder profile often matters more.

That is where investors see the person behind the business.

For early-stage companies, this is important because investors are not only backing the product. They are backing the founder’s ability to communicate, sell, learn, adapt and build.

Your company page can show the business exists.

Your personal profile can show why people should believe in it.

If there are co-founders, their profiles matter too. Lucy pointed out that one founder may be naturally more visible, while the other may be quieter or more technical. But if both are part of the founding team, both may be checked.

A completely inactive co-founder profile does not help the story.

They do not need to become LinkedIn influencers.

They do need to look present, credible and connected to the business.

Use LinkedIn to show momentum, not perfection

A lot of founders wait too long to post.

They think they need a major announcement.

A funding round closed.
A new partnership was signed.
A product launched.
A big customer won.

Those posts are useful, of course.

But they are not the only posts worth writing.

Lucy encouraged founders to share “momentum signals”. These are the smaller signs that show the business is moving forward.

That might include:

Opening a waitlist
Testing an MVP
Learning something from a customer conversation
Running a pilot
Receiving useful feedback
Welcoming an advisor
Speaking to a new group of users
Refining the proposition
Changing direction based on evidence
Exploring a new market

These updates are not about pretending everything is perfect.

They are about showing that the business is alive.

Investors are often watching progress over time. A single impressive post may help, but a consistent trail of useful updates can be more powerful.

It helps people see that you are learning, listening and moving.

Do not be too shy about what you need

Founders can sometimes be cautious on LinkedIn.

That is understandable.

You may not want competitors to see everything. You may not want to expose what is not working. You may not want to look like you are asking for too much.

Lucy’s advice was more nuanced than “share everything”.

There will always be things you keep behind the curtain.

But there are usually ways to talk about progress, challenge and opportunity without giving away sensitive information.

For example, rather than saying:

“We have no customers in this region and we urgently need some.”

You might say:

“We are currently exploring opportunities  in this region so we know where the next wave of demand will be strongest.”

That is not hiding the truth.

It is communicating in a way that supports the business.

Good founder communication is not about sharing every detail.

It is about sharing the right signals.

Use Lucy’s MOPS framework to structure your LinkedIn

Lucy introduced her MOPS framework as a way for founders to think about LinkedIn more strategically.

MOPS stands for:

Message
Offer
Positioning
Sales process

It is a sales and marketing framework, but it works well for fundraising because fundraising is also about moving people from awareness to interest, and from interest to conversation.

Message: what problem do you solve?

Your message is the core idea people need to remember.

What problem are you solving?
Who has that problem?
Why does it matter?
Why is it urgent?
Why are you well placed to solve it?

Founders need to repeat this more than feels natural.

People are busy. They do not see every post. They may only catch one or two things you say.

Do not assume they know your message because you have said it once.

Offer: what can people do now?

Your offer is what is currently available.

That may be a product, trial, pilot, MVP, demo, waitlist, research call or investment opportunity.

Founders sometimes talk about the vision but forget to tell people what action they can take now.

If people can join a waitlist, say so.
If you are looking for pilot users, say so.
If you are raising, say so.
If you want introductions to a particular type of customer, say so.

People are more likely to help when the ask is clear.

Positioning: why are you different?

Positioning shows where you sit in the market.

Investors want to know that you understand the landscape.

What are you doing differently?
Which part of the market are you focused on?
Who are the alternatives?
Why is your approach stronger, faster, cheaper, more accessible or better timed?

You do not need to attack competitors.

But you do need to show that you know the market you are entering.

Sales process: how do people move closer?

Lucy encouraged founders to think about investors as a different kind of customer.

LinkedIn may be the place where they first hear about you.

Then they may read your profile.
Then they may look at your posts.
Then they may notice who engages with you.
Then they may follow you quietly for a while.
Then they may respond, ask a question, accept a connection request or agree to a conversation.

That is a journey.

And your LinkedIn presence can support it.

Repeat yourself until you are bored of yourself

One of Lucy’s strongest points was that founders need to repeat themselves.

A lot.

Founders often worry they are saying the same thing too often.

But the reality is that most people are not seeing everything you post.

As Lucy put it, you may feel as if you are repeating yourself constantly, but your audience may only see one or two updates in every ten

That means consistency is essential.

You should have a small number of core messages that you return to again and again.

The problem you solve.
Why it matters.
Who you help.
What you are building.
What you are learning.
What you are looking for.

For creative founders, this can feel frustrating.

Lucy’s advice was brilliant:

Apply your creativity to saying the same thing in different ways, rather than trying to say something completely new every time.

That is how you become memorable.

Make your values visible through what you say

Founders often talk about values in abstract terms.

Innovation.
Integrity.
Community.
Resilience.
Access.
Impact.

There is nothing wrong with those words, but they can feel empty unless you show what they mean in practice.

Lucy encouraged founders to communicate values through stories, decisions and opinions.

If access matters to you, talk about why the current market excludes people.
If customer care matters, share what a customer conversation taught you.
If resilience matters, explain how you responded when something did not go to plan.
If quality matters, talk about why you chose not to rush something.

You do not need to announce that you have values.

Show people how you make decisions.

That is much more convincing.

Five types of LinkedIn posts founders can write

Lucy gave founders five useful content themes to get started.

These are practical because they stop LinkedIn feeling like a blank page.

1. Problem posts

Talk about the problem in your market.

What is broken?
What is frustrating customers?
What is more expensive, slower or harder than it should be?
What do people misunderstand?

This helps both customers and investors understand the opportunity.

2. Progress posts

Share what is moving forward.

This might be a product update, pilot learning, waitlist milestone, research finding, customer insight or product decision.

You do not need to wait for a huge milestone.

Small proof points can build confidence over time.

3. Founder point of view posts

This is where you say what you believe.

Not just “this problem exists”, but “this is why I care about solving it”.

These posts help people remember you, because they show the founder behind the business.

4. Proof and momentum posts

Share evidence that others are engaging with the business.

That might include customer feedback, testimonials, partnerships, advisory board support, pilot users, events, grants or relevant conversations.

Lucy made a helpful point here: if you receive three good pieces of feedback, that could be three posts, not one.

Do not compress all your evidence into one update.

Build a drumbeat.

5. Personal brand posts

This does not mean posting for the sake of ego.

It means helping people understand how you think.

What decisions are you making?
What have you learned?
What has challenged you?
Where have you changed your mind?
What kind of leader are you becoming?

Investors want to know who they may be backing.

This helps them see that.

The goal is not to go viral

Lucy was clear that founders do not need to chase viral content.

The goal is not to become famous on LinkedIn.

The goal is to be clear, credible and memorable.

That is a much more useful standard.

A post does not need thousands of likes to be valuable.

It may only need to be seen by the right investor, advisor, customer or introducer.

This is especially important for founders in niche sectors. Your audience may be small, specialist and highly valuable.

The right ten people matter more than the wrong ten thousand.

Good LinkedIn content should sound like you

Good founder content should feel like it comes from the founder.

Lucy warned against posts that sound over-polished, generic or obviously written by AI.

That does not mean every post needs to be raw or messy.

It means it should sound human.

Lucy suggested founders should write how they speak. For founders who do not find writing easy, she recommended using voice notes, recorded conversations, pitch transcripts or interviews as raw material.

That is useful advice.

Sometimes the best content is already there.

It is in the answer you gave on a pitch call.
It is in the way you explained the problem to a customer.
It is in the story you told a mentor.
It is in the question you answered for an investor.

Use those materials.

They already sound like you.

Use AI to help, not to replace your thinking

Lucy is not anti-AI.

But she is anti-generic content.

AI can be very useful for LinkedIn if you feed it your own thinking, voice notes, transcripts, pitch answers, emails and ideas.

It can help you organise your thoughts.
It can turn a rambling voice note into a draft.
It can suggest structure.
It can help you repurpose answers from calls.
It can make posting easier.

But it should not decide what you think.

If you ask AI to create generic posts about your sector, you will probably get posts that sound like everyone else.

That does not help investors understand you.

Lucy’s rule was simple:

Put more of you in, and you get more of you out.

Comments are part of your visibility strategy

LinkedIn is not only about posting.

It is also about commenting.

Lucy encouraged founders to set aside time each week to engage with other people’s content.

That could include:

Investors
Sector experts
Potential customers
Other founders
Advisors
Accelerators
Industry commentators
People your investors follow

This is not about leaving empty comments like “great post”.

It is about adding something useful.

Ask a good question.
Share a relevant experience.
Add a practical observation.
Connect the post to your market.
Offer a thoughtful disagreement, politely.

This helps you become visible in the right networks.

It also shows that you are not just broadcasting. You are participating.

Do not start with a cold pitch in DMs

Lucy and Hatty both made the same point about LinkedIn DMs.

Do not start by sending your pitch deck cold.

That is rarely the best opening move.

Lucy compared LinkedIn to a networking room. You would not walk into a room, interrupt someone and immediately ask for money. You would start a conversation.

The same applies online.

A stronger approach is:

Engage with their posts first.
Comment thoughtfully.
Refer to something they have said.
Ask a relevant question.
Start a real conversation.
Move towards the ask when there is context.

Hatty added that she is much more likely to respond to someone who has already engaged with her than someone who sends a pitch deck out of the blue.

That is worth remembering.

Investor outreach is not just about volume.

It is about relationship-building.

Make yourself searchable

Lucy also pointed out that public LinkedIn content can be found by search engines and AI tools.

This means LinkedIn is not only about the LinkedIn feed.

It may also influence what people find when they search for you, your company, your sector or the problem you solve.

To make that work, founders should ensure their public profile is switched on and that the phrases they want to be known for appear consistently in their profile and posts.

That might include:

Your sector
Your customer group
The problem you solve
The category you are building in
The product type
The market opportunity
Relevant investor phrases

Do not overdo it.

Just be clear.

If you want to be known for something, say it consistently.

Start with one practical action

By the end of the session, Hatty encouraged founders not to overcomplicate this.

The point was not to leave with a huge LinkedIn strategy that never gets implemented.

The point was to take one useful action.

That might be:

Update your headline
Rewrite your About section
Make your profile public
Post one problem-led update
Share one piece of customer learning
Comment on three investor posts
Ask one thoughtful question
Explain what you are building now
Add your current raise stage to your profile
Set aside 15 minutes a week for engagement

Small actions matter.

They create visibility.

They help investors understand you.

And they make it more likely that, when someone does look, they find a founder who is clear, credible and worth remembering.

Final thought

LinkedIn will not raise your round for you.

But it can make the raise easier.

It can help investors understand what you are building before they meet you.
It can show that your business is moving.
It can demonstrate that you know your market.
It can help you stay visible with people who are not ready to invest yet, but may be later.
It can turn cold outreach into warmer conversations.
It can make you easier to remember.

The question is not whether you need to become a LinkedIn influencer.

You do not.

The better question is:

When an investor looks you up, what do you want them to find?

Want to become more visible to investors?

If you are preparing to raise investment and want to understand how to build a stronger fundraising strategy, take a look at Focused For Business’ 90 Day To Equity Investment’ programme.

The programme is designed to help founders get clearer on their investment story, improve their funding readiness and to ensure they are confidently approaching the right investors.

Watch the 90 Days to Equity Investment programme video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1n9NqmLrYA&t=2s

FAQs – LinkedIn