The VC Inbound (and a Bit of Outbound) Survey 2026: Top-9 Patterns Worth Knowing Before You Raise
Top patterns from 67 validated VC responses on decks, NDAs, referrals, and cold outreach
Hi guys, it’s Denis!
This time I’m not unpacking someone else’s report – I ran this one myself. Together with R136 Ventures and OpenVC, I put together the VC Inbound and (a Bit of) Outbound Survey 2026 – a look at how investors actually handle decks, NDAs, cold emails, and referrals from founders. Not what we say in panels, but what we actually do.
Want to download the full report? The link is at the end of this post 👇
A quick note on the sample
The survey ran from December 15, 2025 to March 30, 2026, and 67 validated respondents made it into the final dataset.
A few things worth knowing before you read the numbers:
72% of respondents are VC firms, with syndicates, PE, family offices, and angels making up the rest,.
79% of respondents are focused on AI, B2B Software, or Fintech.
Most are doing fewer than 10 deals a year – the weighted average is ~7-8 deals.
Respondents are mostly focused on North America and Western Europe as investment geographies, but are themselves mostly located in Europe (65%) – so read the “by geography” splits as directional, not as a clean read on how e.g. US-based investors behave.
Several regional slices represent fewer than 10 respondents, so those cuts are directional, not statistically robust.
36 firms agreed to be named as participants, so let’s list them straight away (in alphabetical order):
A HUGE thanks to partners!
This survey wouldn’t exist without the support of R136 Ventures (the firm I am personally part of, full disclosure) and OpenVC, who helped push distribution to a wider pool of investors across geographies. Thank you! 🙏
Now, let’s get into the findings.
1. Decks should come in early – and as a plain attachment, not a link
87% of investors want the deck as the first-touch material, and 60% say a plain blurb and round description alone is enough. Onepagers are also (surprisingly) in the game – 34% see them as good incoming material, and 22% would ideally want the dataroom straight away.
Separately, the survey also found that email attachment beats every link format – 76% prefer it that way, over Docsend or Google Drive links. If there’s one operational takeaway for founders: send the deck as an attachment, first message, no link required.
2. NDAs are a later-stage ask – and it depends heavily on where your investor sits
Only 4% of investors want to sign an NDA before reviewing any materials, while 45% prefer no NDAs at all. Still:
31% will sign if the startup insists, and
19% will sign at the due diligence stage
which means 55% of respondents are eventually willing to sign an NDA, just later in the process than some founders assume.
Geography matters here too. North America and Western Europe investors are the least eager to sign NDAs at all, while 11% of Emerging Markets-focused investors are actually ready to sign first, before seeing anything. There’s no single global playbook on this.
3. Mobile-ready decks? Not yet needed – VCs still open your deck on a laptop first
That was quite a surprise! 69% of investors open pitch decks first on a laptop, and 100% of investors do their actual analysis on a laptop or desktop. Mobile plays a bigger role at the analysis stage than at first-open, though – 39% do at least some analysis on mobile, 1.5x the share that open the deck there first. Optimizing your deck for mobile-first viewing is nice to have, not a priority.
4. Nobody treats inbound as their primary channel – but almost half have invested off it anyway
0% of respondents said inbound is their primary sourcing channel. And yet:
42% have invested in a cold-inbound startup at least once, and
Another 36% never have, but are open to it.
So cold inbound is a genuine numbers game for founders – not a lost cause, just not anyone’s first channel.
The geographic split here reflects market competitiveness. Investors in less saturated, emerging markets are simply more open to reviewing cold emails than investors in developed markets, where inbound volume is high enough to make filtering the default. In short, LatAm and SEA-focused investors show the highest share of "yes" to monitoring cold emails
This openness translates into deals, too – Middle East-focused investors have done the most cold-sourced deals of any region. The two data points overlap, but this second one matters more: it’s not just who’s willing to read a cold email, it’s who’s actually investing off the back of one.
5. 71% of VCs believe most of what lands in their inbox is AI-generated – and don’t seem to mind
71% believe 3-4 out of 5 pitches they receive are AI-generated. Combined with a separate finding from the survey – 84% say they don’t care whether the deck itself was built with AI tools – the message for founders is clear: nobody’s penalizing you for using AI to draft outreach or design a deck. The content and fit still have to hold up on their own.
6. VCs refer other VCs – but almost all of them attach a condition
90%+ of investors are open to referring other VCs to founders. But look closer:
Only 13% do it openly, in most cases, and
55% – the overwhelming majority – only refer if they personally like the founder.
Referrals run on trust, not favors. Being likeable to the investor in front of you matters as much as your pitch.
What about geo specifics? Globally-focused investors are 100% open to providing referrals in some form, while nobody among Emerging Markets, Middle East, SEA, or LatAm-focused respondents said they refer “in most cases” without conditions.
7. Most VCs believe they respond honestly – but a third admit they’re picking a reason that “looks good”
Only 16% rarely respond with a straight “no.” But when asked more honestly about the reasons behind a pass:
51% say they usually share the real reason, while
33% admit they’re trying to pick a reason that still looks good, and
9% generally don’t provide a reason at all.
But the first two options likely amount to the same thing in practice – the reason given is probably real, just chosen to keep the door open rather than close it outright. Together that’s 84%. Either way, founders probably still aren’t getting the full picture behind a pass.
8. Startup updates are underrated as a re-engagement tool
91% of investors opt in to receive regular startup updates, and 55% say they see real value in them (not just “just in case”). More strikingly, 37% say an update has directly triggered a past investment. If you’re not sending regular updates to your no-list, you might be sitting on an underused re-engagement channel.
9. Most outbound is triggered by a warm signal, not a cold list
81% of investors proactively reach out to fewer than 40 startups a year. And when they do reach out, the trigger is rarely a cold list – 61% were told about the startup by someone in their network, 54% did their own research based on data, and 49% saw an update on social media. Only 4% credit ChatGPT or another LLM as the trigger.
10. A Few Notes to Self (What’s Next)
A few honest reflections after running this survey:
I initially loaded up more on the inbound side than the outbound – next time the outbound scope is going to be bigger.
I should get more respondents across different investor types. One example that stood out: syndicates in this sample only referred to their portfolio founders, nobody else – a genuinely interesting pattern, but the syndicate sample here is too small to fully trust.
I need to publish faster. Data collection wrapped up 3 months ago, and things move fast enough these days that even a 3-month lag already feels stale.
Got thoughts on any of this? DM me or reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Get the Full Report
👉 The complete 56-page VC Inbound and (a Bit of) Outbound Survey 2026 is available via this link on Papermark.
Huge thanks again to everyone who took the survey, for everyone who read it, and to R136 Ventures and OpenVC for supporting it! If you’re an investor and want to take part in the next edition, leave your details here.