If you're an investor, you know this pattern: your inbox fills up with cold pitches, intro requests, and "quick 15-minute calls." Some are incredible opportunities. Most aren't.
The challenge? Real signal hides in the middle 75-80% of inbound. A cold email or deck rarely reveals what actually matters: founder quality, genuine market insight, meaningful traction, or true thesis fit.
The result? You waste time on unqualified pitches, miss deals buried in noise, repeat the same screening questions dozens of times, and constrain how visible you can be without drowning.
As one seed-stage investor put it:
"I want to be accessible to founders, but I can't take 20 coffee chats a week and still do my job. Something has to give."
How Delphi changes the game for investor-founder conversations
Delphi solves this by turning your judgment into an always-on digital mind. It answers founders in your voice, runs real screening conversations, and returns structured signals you can act on.
At Precursor, Charles Hudson trained a Delphi on his posts, talks, and investment memos. Within days:
Founders used it to prepare for meetings with him
His team spent less time triaging repetitive questions
Portco founders stress-tested updates before check-ins, so live time with Charles focused on strategy instead of surface-level Q&A
"The best portfolio check-ins I have are when founders come prepared. With Delphi, they already know my perspective on fundraising and strategy, so our time together goes further."
— Charles Hudson, Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures
What you gain:
Consistent screening signals across traction, team, market, and timing that you can actually compare
Optionality with every founder through an always-open, update-friendly door
Partner time focused on the right conversations, not surface-level Q&A
Scalable accessibility — be helpful to 1000 founders without taking 1000 calls
How to set up your Delphi
Your Delphi can be configured to handle founder screening, provide helpful guidance, or both. Setup involves three main areas: Content (training your Delphi to think like you), Purpose (how your Delphi handles conversations), and Alerts (what signals you get notified about).
Training your Delphi to think like you
Your Delphi learns from the content you upload about how you understand building startups, evaluating opportunities, and working with founders. This is powerful because it transforms all your accumulated knowledge into an always-available resource that founders can learn from directly-without requiring your time.
Why this works:
Founders get immediate access to your investment philosophy, decision-making frameworks, and advice on building companies
Your Delphi can answer nuanced questions about your thesis, what you look for in teams, and how to think about market timing-based on your actual thinking
Portfolio founders can stress-test ideas and get feedback that reflects your perspective before taking up meeting time
The more content you upload, the more authentic and helpful your Delphi becomes
How to use it:
Upload your existing content:
Blog posts and essays about your investment approach
Interviews and podcast appearances
Your X (Twitter) account
Investment memos or thesis documents
Portfolio announcement posts explaining why you invested
These materials already contain your voice, perspective, and decision-making framework, so founders can learn directly from your accumulated knowledge.
Don't have much content yet? Use Delphi Interviewer:
Delphi will interview you on everything you know about building companies, evaluating startups, and working with founders. This interactive session builds your Delphi's mind from scratch by extracting your insights through conversation.
Configure it for screening
When configured for screening, your Delphi runs structured conversations to surface high-quality opportunities and filter out poor fits before they reach your calendar. This is powerful because it lets you maintain a high bar while staying accessible-every founder gets a thoughtful conversation, but only the strongest signals reach you.
Why this works:
Your Delphi asks the same core questions to every founder, so you get comparable signals across hundreds of conversations
Founders can pitch anytime, and your Delphi responds instantly-no scheduling friction, no missed opportunities
The private reflection step ensures your Delphi evaluates each conversation against your actual criteria before deciding whether to advance
You can be helpful to founders who aren't a fit right now while keeping the door open for future updates
How to use it:
Copy this template into your Purpose and customize the questions and evaluation criteria to match your investment approach. Add as many questions as you need in Step X-your Delphi will ask them one at a time, reacting to what it learns.
Add your own questions in Step X and define what signals matter most to you. This approach is conversational, curious, and progressively focused-not a rigid questionnaire.
Alerts: Surfacing conversations that matter
Once your Delphi is talking to founders, Alerts help you identify which conversations deserve your attention. Write them in natural language, and Delphi will automatically interpret when to notify you.
Two types of alerts:
Keyword-based alerts (for precision)
Best for exact terms you care about.
Example: "Notify on Robotics."
Context-based alerts (for nuanced signals)
Best for intent-driven triggers that analyze the full conversation.
Example: "Alert me when a founder in fintech shares >$1M ARR and plans to raise within 6 months, excluding crypto exchanges."
What happens when an alert fires:
You can chain multiple automated actions:
User tagging -Automatically tag by industry, stage, geography, or themes
Follow-up message -Send founders a thank you and invite them to return with updates
Notify me -Get an email when conversations match your criteria
Without alerts, you'd manually review every conversation. With them, you only see the 5-10% that match your criteria.
How to share your Delphi with founders
Once you've set up your Delphi, the next step is actually using it. When a founder reaches out asking for time, advice, or feedback, you have a choice: take the call yourself, or invite them to talk to your Delphi first.
Sharing your Delphi link doesn't mean you're unavailable or uninterested. It means you're giving founders a faster path to answers while protecting your time for the conversations that matter most.
Here are example responses that work well:
When a founder asks for general advice or feedback
"Thanks for reaching out! I'd love to help. I've trained a Delphi that thinks like me and can answer questions about my investment approach, what I look for in founders, and how to position your startup for investors like me. Start a conversation here: [your Delphi link]. If there's strong alignment, I'll reach out to schedule time."
When someone asks to "pick your brain"
"I appreciate you thinking of me. Given the volume of inbound I get, I've set up a Delphi that can answer most questions about my thesis, what I invest in, and how I evaluate startups. It's trained on my talks, posts, and investment memos, so it's a great way to see if we're aligned before hopping on a call. Here's the link: [your Delphi link]."
When you receive a cold pitch via email
"Thanks for sharing this with me. Rather than going back and forth over email, I've built a Delphi that can have a real conversation with you about your startup and help you understand whether it fits my investment focus. If it looks like a strong match, you'll hear from me directly. Chat with my Delphi here: [your Delphi link]."
When someone asks for an intro to discuss their startup
"I'm happy to help, but I want to make sure it's a good fit first. I've set up a Delphi that can learn about your startup and give you feedback on whether it aligns with my thesis. It asks the same questions I would, and if there's strong signal, I'll follow up to connect. Here's the link: [your Delphi link]."
When a portfolio founder has a recurring question
"This is exactly the kind of thing my Delphi is great for. I've trained it on my advice around fundraising, hiring, and go-to-market strategy. Try asking it there first: [your Delphi link]. If you need to go deeper after that, let's book time."
When following up after a conference or demo day
"Great meeting you at [event]. Rather than trying to squeeze everything into a quick follow-up call, I'd love for you to chat with my Delphi first. It'll ask you about traction, team, and market in a way that helps me understand the opportunity better. If it's a fit, I'll reach out to schedule a deeper conversation. Here's the link: [your Delphi link]."
The key elements that make these work:
Respectful and genuine: you’re not brushing them off, you’re offering a faster, better way to get aligned
Clear value proposition: you explain what the Delphi is and why it’s helpful for them, not just for you
Open door: if there’s real fit, you make it clear you’ll follow up personally
No false promises: you’re not committing to a call, but you’re also not closing the door
These responses work because they frame your Delphi as a tool that helps both of you. Founders get immediate, thoughtful engagement. You get structured signal without calendar overload.
Ready to scale your founder conversations?
Delphi turns scattered inbound into a steady stream of qualified, structured signal. You spend less time triaging, more time meeting the right founders, and your voice scales without burning out your calendar.
Delphi
Open your mind.
