red bull & cheetos mode

and should I start a VC website competition?

Author

Jorian Hoover
March 03, 2026

Hey friends, it’s Jorian—welcome to Into the Ring. I’m a startup fundraising coach and have worked with 50+ founders who’ve raised over $190M.

I hope that wherever you are, springtime is starting to bring better weather. After lots of cold & rainy days, it’s been great to have some more days in the 60s/70s with some sun. Generally, the more time I spend outside, the happier I am.

For today’s newsletter, I’ll discuss my gripe with VC websites, review the latest fundraising rounds Tier 1 VCs led last week, share my recommended VC newsletters/podcasts, and give a deep dive on when you need to enter red bull & cheetos mode during fundraising prep.

Last, thank you for being part of this Into the Ring tribe of 1.8K+ startup founders and operators/investors from OpenAI, Anthropic, a16z, Lightspeed, etc. If you think someone else might like this newsletter, they can sign up here.

Now onto today’s newsletter!

In today’s issue:

  1. Jorian’s 1min take: VC websites

  2. What funding rounds did Tier 1 VCs lead last week (Feb 21-27, 2026)

  3. This week’s recommended VC essays & podcast episodes

  4. Today’s deep dive on how to fundraise like a pro: entering red bull & cheetos mode when fundraising

1. Jorian’s 1min take: VC websites

VCs, can we please do better when it comes to your websites?

Some VCs are really clear about what they do and don’t invest in, average check size, etc. on their website. Often done through an FAQ page.

But other VC websites are SO CRYPTIC that you have no clue what they do or don’t invest in.

VCs, I understand that you want optionality, but if you’re so vague on your website, founders may think you have no direction. Or might not think you’re a good fit for them.

I’d much rather you be more specific on your website (and an FAQ page is a great way to handle that) and be honest that sometimes you make exceptions. That way the founder who is in your sweet spot feels confident in getting connected with you, and the one that’s an exception knows it might be an uphill battle.

I don’t want to throw specific VCs under the bus, but I’m tempted to start an annual award for the most clear and least clear VC websites :) — let me know if you want me to start this!

3. This week’s recommended VC essays & podcast episodes

  • Newsletter: “The Game on the Field Has Changed” (link) by Tomasz Tunguz, Partner at Theory Ventures. Last week, Jack Dorsey announced that Block’s headcount would be reduced from 10,000 to 6,000, and the stock surged 24%. Tunguz talks through what the implications are for other software businesses.

  • Newsletter: “Services Won’t Become Software” (link) by JC Bahr-de Stefano of Better Tomorrow Ventures. There’s a theory that AI will enable services to become software, and Bahr-de Stefano breaks down why he believes this isn’t fully true.

  • Newsletter: “What’s My Stage Again?” (link) by Euclid Ventures. If I had a dollar for every time a founder asked “should I call this a pre-seed or seed, or a seed or series a, I could buy a Bugatti. Euclid breaks down just how confusing the stage names have become in recent history.

  • Podcast: “How Capital is Powering the AI Infrastructure Buildout” (link) by Sarah Guo, Partner at Conviction, interviewing Neil Tiwari, Managing Director at Magnetar Capital. The AI buildout is requiring tons of capital expenditure, and Guo & Tiwari break down the financial instruments being used to fund it.

4. Today's Deep Dive on How to Fundraise Like a Pro: red bull & cheetos mode

If you’ve worked with me before, you’ve probably heard me utter the phrase “red bull & cheetos mode”

In this mode, you need to get your red bull & cheetos ready because you need to grind & do hours and hours of tedious work. And so obviously, you need some caffeine and an unhealthy snack to help you :)

One of the areas in fundraising prep where you need to enter red bull & cheetos mode is building out your investor list.

I will say that again. When you are building out your investor list, you will almost certainly need to enter red bull & cheetos mode.

Why investor list building requires red bull & cheetos

The difference between a well-researched, robust investor list and one that you whip together quickly can lead to a night-or-day difference in your fundraising outcome.

Ideally, a strong investor list has 100+ VCs that you’ve thoroughly researched, tiered based on quality & your interest, and determined which partner would be best to speak with. Putting this together allows you to have a blueprint to navigate warm intros to VCs and have a deep bench you’re working from as you execute on your fundraise.

The problem is, putting together this VC list will require some amount of red bull & cheetos mode.

Why?

Because let’s assume you try to put this investor list together quickly, without red bull & cheetos. In order to do it quickly requires either working off an existing list you found online or from another founder, outsourcing the work of putting together the list, skipping elements of the list building process, or relying on AI to do the research for you. Or some combination of all of these things. Unfortunately, each of these comes with its problems:

  • if you work off an existing list you found online or get one from another founder, it might be outdated … and it definitely won’t be tuned to exactly your company and preferences

  • if you outsource the work of putting together the list, you are trusting someone else to understand who are the best investors for you and in what order you would tier them

  • if you skip elements of the list building process (like truncating the list or not determining which partner is the best fit), it’ll be harder to work off the list when you execute your fundraise

  • if you rely on AI to do the research for you, again you are trusting someone else (or in this case, something else) to understand who are the best investors for you and in what order you would tier them

I’m not suggesting you have to do 100% of the list-building yourself and that you can’t outsource, automate, and/or leverage AI for parts of it.

But I am saying that there’s an important personal touch that’s key to creating an investor list, and if you as the founder aren’t heavily involved in it, then you’ll likely pay the price when fundraising.

And so why the red bull and cheetos?

Because many of the steps to build an investor list are DARN tedious. Reviewing hundreds of VC websites, researching what their investment criteria are, determining a tier, finding which partner is the best fit for you, etc. Not to mention, mapping intros to mutual connections.

Leverage outsourcing, automations, and AI in a smart way

So what’s the good news? There are ways you can leverage outsourcing, automations, and AI to help reduce the amount of red bull & cheetos mode you need to endure. Here are just a few examples:

  1. while I don’t recommend just copy-pasting any VC lists you find and thinking you’re done, you can use various VC lists & databases online and from other founders to shortcut building your top-of-funnel VCs that you want to research

  2. VC websites can be cryptic and sometimes plain unhelpful (come on, VCs!), and so leveraging AI to help understand a VCs typical check size & investment areas can be helpful (though sometimes AI can make stuff up, so be a bit careful)

  3. you can outsource or have someone on your team do some initial research into each of the VCs, or even find the ideal partner, and then you can confirm the work they’ve done to research this

  4. for mapping warm intros to VCs, there are AI & software tools to help ease the process — for example, my good friend Ben Gusberg runs a company called Cape, which leverages AI agents to map out your warm intro paths and ask for warm intros

When it comes to building a strong investor list for fundraising, don’t forget what the goal is: to build a deep bench of investors who you want to invest in your company. And so even if building it requires some amount of red bull & cheetos, just know that it’s for a good purpose.

You’ve got this, founders.

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