PocketFund
How it works

From signup to closed round.

Five steps, end to end. The platform handles matching, NDAs, data rooms, and bid leaderboards so the conversation stays about the idea — not the logistics.

  1. 1

    Sign up — founder or investor

    Two minutes. We ask for the basics — name, email, role, a one-line pitch — and route you to the matching portal. Founders sign a one-time NDA; investors apply for empanelment so founders know they're real.

  2. 2

    Tag your idea (founder) / Set your thesis (investor)

    Founders pick from 22 industries × 7 stages × 11 investor types so the match engine knows exactly who should see the idea. Investors set thesis filters once — sectors, stage, ticket range, geography — and we surface only deals that fit.

  3. 3

    Match scoring on 18 signals

    Industry · sub-vertical · stage · round type · ask range · geography · co-founder traits · prior investor network · operator background · domain depth · capital type · cheque-size fit · timing · thesis keywords · momentum · founder-market fit · co-investor signal · revealed preferences. The engine picks the top investors-per-idea and the top ideas-per-investor; you see why each match scored as it did.

  4. 4

    NDA-gated data rooms + structured discussion

    Investors sign a viewing NDA before the data room unlocks — granular per-file permissions, optional watermarks, full audit log. Conversations stay in-app: messages, calendar invites, file shares, status updates, all under the same thread. No founder is chasing investors over five inboxes.

  5. 5

    Bid leaderboard → close

    Investors place bids inline. The leaderboard shows valuation, instrument, conditions in real-time. Founders accept / counter / reject; the winning bid moves to term sheet. PocketFund tracks the close; the success fee invoices once the round is funded — never before.

What you don't have to think about.

The mechanics that usually eat fundraising time. They're solved once, on the platform, for everyone.

  • Cold-email outreach + tracking who replied
  • Manually re-explaining your stage / sector / round to every investor
  • Lost decks, rogue sharing, no audit trail
  • Side-channel SMS / WhatsApp / DMs that vanish
  • Rebuilding your pipeline tracker every quarter
Founders

From first line to first intro.

Day 0

Write idea card

Takes ~12 minutes. 280 words + deck.

Day 0

Matching runs

Top 20 investors routed within 2 hours.

Day 1–7

Pockets & replies

Median 6 replies, 2–3 intro calls.

Day 14–45

Close the round

DD, term sheet, commitments tracked in-app.

Investors

From pocket to portfolio.

Daily

Curated feed

5–15 new ideas/day — none below 70% thesis fit.

Anytime

Pocket & note

Shortlist with private tags and stage flags.

In-app

DD & data room

One-click access. Watermarked. Audit-logged.

Close

Commit & track

E-sign term sheet. Portfolio view auto-updates.

What you unlock

You also get access to a member-only resource library.

The day you create an account, the Library, Forum, Founder guides, Investor playbooks, document Skeletons, and interactive workbooks open up. They're gated for non-members so the signal stays high.

Curated library

9 books for founders · 9 for investors. YouTube channels, podcasts, newsletters — every entry has a one-line summary, Amazon link, and Google Books search.

Member-only · 50+ items

Document skeletons

Battle-tested copy-paste templates for the docs founders ship: pitch deck, one-pager, PRD, MVP scope, financial model, cap table, investor update, customer interview, co-founder agreement.

Member-only · 9 templates

Interactive workbooks

Apply Zero to One and Sarthak Ahuja's Daily Coffee with Startup Fundraising to your own startup. 40 fillable exercises that auto-save locally.

Member-only · 2 live · more coming

Founder guides

Deep, opinionated walkthroughs: writing the one-pager, the 10-slide deck, the data room, term sheets, co-founder agreements, negotiating the close, bridging to Series A, investor Q&A scripts.

Member-only · 9 guides

Investor playbooks

For partners, principals, angels, and syndicate leads: written thesis, the 30-min first meeting, parallelised diligence, cheque sizing, term-sheet anatomy, SPV ops, allocation discipline, exits.

Member-only · 9 playbooks

Discussion forum

Channels for fundraising, term sheets, diligence, product, hiring, show-and-tell. Real founders and investors swapping notes, not LinkedIn-grade posturing.

Member-only · 1.8k threads

The PocketFund blog

Weekly posts from the team — fundraising playbooks, market signals, product updates, and founder stories. Q1 funding pulse, matching-engine teardowns, real-deal walkthroughs.

Member-only · 80+ posts

Changelog

Twice-weekly product updates. Tagged New / Improved / Fixed. See exactly what shipped and when — sub-accounts, bulk CMS, theme system, discussion bidding.

Member-only · v6.9 → v7.4

Activity feed

Every page you view and key click is captured locally so you can pick up exactly where you left off. View it from your account profile, clear it any time.

Member-only · private to you
Common questions

Frequently asked.

How much does PocketFund cost a founder?
Free to launch your idea. We charge a 0.5% success fee only when a round closes, capped at $10k. See pricing.
Why are resources gated for members?
The forum, library, skeletons, workbooks, founder guides, investor playbooks, blog, and changelog all sit behind login. Two reasons. First, a verified-member-only forum stays high-signal — founders get answers from real, accountable investors instead of LinkedIn drive-by takes. Second, our skeletons and workbooks include real artefacts from rounds that closed on the platform; the founders who shared them did so on the understanding that they're not public Google-able assets. Sign-up is free for both founders and investors.
What activity does PocketFund capture about me?
Once you're logged in we capture page views and key clicks (NDA signs, bids placed, messages sent, profile saves, resource clicks) — locally, in your browser. You can see the full feed on your account profile and clear it any time. Nothing is uploaded; the feed exists so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
How are investors verified?
Every investor goes through a verification — accreditation docs, LinkedIn, professional references, and (for funds) AUM + prior deal proofs.
Who owns the data in my idea card?
You do. Ideas are yours. Visibility is fully under your control — public, matched-only, or private link.
Is PocketFund a broker-dealer?
No. We're a matching and workflow platform. Transactions happen directly between founders and investors — or via partner broker-dealers for regulated offerings.
Does PocketFund invest itself?
Not today. Our only incentive is matching the right founder with the right investor.

Try it on your idea.

Two minutes to launch a project. Two minutes to apply as an investor. We handle the matching from there.