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How Fund54 works

Step-by-step guides for founders and investors. If you can't find an answer here, email contact@sodasoft.com.

For founders

Setting up your founder workspace

Your founder workspace is the home base for your raise. The matching engine ranks investors against your profile, so a complete profile is the single highest-leverage thing you can do on day one.

  1. Sign up at fund54.com/login with your work email and pick the Founder role.
  2. Click the magic link in your inbox (it routes through fund54.com/callback).
  3. On /onboarding, name your workspace (your company name, not 'My Workspace').
  4. On /founder/profile, fill in: company name, one-liner, sector, stage, HQ location, website. The completeness checklist on your dashboard tracks 14 items — every check turns the matching score for your investors slightly higher.
  5. Upload your logo and add team members with photos + LinkedIn. Investors bet on teams.
  6. Set visibility from 'private' to 'public_teaser' so investors browsing /discover can find you.

Tips

  • The 'Async pitch video' item on the completeness checklist links to the highest-leverage piece of content you can ship: a 3-minute Loom or unlisted YouTube link saved to your profile. Investors watch on their own time instead of scheduling a call.
  • Connect Stripe (or upload a CSV) under Metrics — verified MRR/ARR carry the 'Proof' badge that investors trust.

Adding an async pitch video

A short video saved to your profile beats a 30-min meeting for first-touch with most investors. Fund54 doesn't host video — you upload to YouTube or Loom and paste the link.

  1. Record a 3-minute pitch (deck walk-through or talking-head). Loom is fastest; YouTube is most universal.
  2. If using YouTube: upload, then under Visibility set the video to 'Unlisted'. Anyone with the link can watch but it never appears in search or your channel.
  3. Copy the share URL.
  4. On /founder/profile, paste the URL into the 'Pitch Video URL' field and save.
  5. The video now embeds on your public startup profile (/s/your-slug). The embed uses youtube-nocookie.com so no tracking cookies drop until a viewer hits play.

Tips

  • Loom 'share' URLs work too — Fund54 auto-converts them to embed URLs.
  • Direct .mp4 hosted somewhere else also renders, but you carry the bandwidth cost.

Sharing files via the smart data room

Your data room holds pitch decks, financial models, legal docs, and anything else investors need to do diligence. Per-investor access controls plus document watermarking keep you safe.

  1. Go to /founder/dataroom and create folders. Choose a visibility mode per folder: 'public' (anyone with the link), 'NDA-gated' (investors must sign an NDA before viewing), or 'invite-only' (specific email addresses).
  2. Drag and drop files into folders. Pitch decks under 25 MB upload directly; bigger files go via chunked upload.
  3. For sensitive folders, mark 'Watermark per viewer' — every PDF gets stamped with the viewer's email.
  4. Investors who request access show up in the Q&A tab — they ask questions per document and you answer in-app, with full thread history.
  5. Free plan caps total files at 5; Pro at 50; Team at 200.

Tips

  • If you upload a deck, also create a Deck Link under /founder/deck-analytics. Deck links carry per-slide engagement heatmaps that investor profile views don't.

Tracking who views your pitch deck

Deck links are shareable URLs that show you exactly which slides investors stop on, for how long.

  1. Go to /founder/deck-analytics and click 'Create deck link'.
  2. Pick the file from your data room. Choose options: email gate (require name + email before viewing), password protection, expiration date.
  3. Share the link via email or LinkedIn.
  4. Watch the analytics page fill up: who opened, what slides they spent time on, geographic and device data, repeat views.
  5. Deck views auto-link to your investor CRM — if the viewer is already a contact, the view shows on their card.

Tips

  • Use a fresh deck link per major outreach cohort (e.g. 'YC W26 cohort', 'Sequoia round'). Lets you compare engagement across audiences.

Browsing 2,500+ investors and requesting intros

The investor directory is auto-ranked against your startup. Plus AI-suggested intro openers cut the blank-textarea tax that kills cold outreach.

  1. Visit /founder/investors. Filter by sector, stage, geography, check size. The default sort is AI match score — best fit first.
  2. Click any investor name to see their public profile. Look for the blue Verified badge — Fund54 has vetted those firms.
  3. Click 'Request Intro'. The intro modal opens with an empty message field.
  4. Click 'Suggest opener with AI'. The model writes a 2-3 sentence personalized opener referencing the investor's thesis (sectors, stages, bio).
  5. Edit the opener — AI is a starting point, not a send-as-is.
  6. Click Send. The investor gets an in-app notification + email.
  7. Track status on /founder/intros: pending / approved / rejected. When approved, a conversation is auto-created in /founder/messages.

Tips

  • AI suggester is rate-limited at 10/hour. Don't burn it on bulk outreach — quality > quantity.
  • An investor with the Verified badge has been screened by Fund54. Founders typically prioritize sharing data rooms with verified investors first.

Sending investor updates (with AI auto-draft)

The monthly investor update is the highest-friction recurring task in fundraising. Most founders don't send them because the blank-page tax is too high. AI cuts the first draft from 90 minutes to 5.

  1. Go to /founder/updates and click 'Compose New Update'.
  2. Click 'Draft with AI' (top right of the composer). A modal opens.
  3. (Optional) Paste rough notes — bullets from your team Slack, recent metrics, customer wins. Skip it for a generic draft based on profile + logged metrics alone.
  4. Click 'Generate draft'. The AI writes one paragraph per section: headline, KPI snapshot, product progress, customer wins, challenges, hiring, asks, fundraising status.
  5. Review and edit every section. The AI is sober and honest about challenges by design — it won't add hype, but you should personalize.
  6. Pick recipients: all investors / specific contacts / by pipeline stage.
  7. Send. Update lands in investor inboxes plus appears in their Updates feed.

Tips

  • AI draft is rate-limited at 5/hour. Iterate rather than re-roll.
  • Connect Stripe in /founder/metrics — the AI uses your last 20 logged metrics for context, so live numbers produce better drafts than placeholders.

Marking a deal as closed

When an intro converts to a real investment, mark it closed. The data drives Fund54's public 'X raised' counter and your personal track record on the dashboard.

  1. Go to /founder/intros and find the approved outgoing intro that resulted in an investment.
  2. Click the 'Mark deal closed' button (Trophy icon) on that intro card.
  3. Fill in the form: USD amount, instrument (SAFE / convertible note / equity / grant / other), optional private note (round name, terms, co-investors).
  4. Click 'Record'. The deal appears on your dashboard's 'Raised through Fund54' tile and the investor side gets a notification asking to confirm.
  5. Once the investor confirms, the deal counts toward Fund54's public counter. Until then, only you see it.

Tips

  • The note is private — it never appears on the public counter or dashboards. Use it for your own future reference.
  • If you marked closed by mistake, contact support (contact@sodasoft.com) — confirmation is one-way once an investor attests, by design.

Sending term sheets and SAFEs for signature

Fund54's e-signatures are eIDAS Level 2 (Advanced Electronic Signature) — legally binding in the EU and US. No DocuSign needed.

  1. On /founder/signatures click 'Send for signature'.
  2. Upload the document (PDF) or pick from your data room.
  3. Add the signer email and name. Optionally add a personal note.
  4. Send. The signer gets an email with an OTP-protected signing link.
  5. Track status from the dashboard: pending / viewed / signed. SHA-256 hashes and timestamped audit trail are stored alongside the document.
  6. Both parties receive a Certificate of Completion when signing finishes.

For investors

Setting up your investor workspace

Your thesis (sectors, stages, check size, geographies) is what the matching engine uses to rank startups. A bare-minimum thesis takes 90 seconds and unlocks the rest of the platform.

  1. Sign up at fund54.com/login with your firm email and pick the Investor role.
  2. Click the magic link, finish onboarding, name your firm.
  3. On /investor/settings, fill in: firm name, bio (≥50 chars), investor type (angel / VC / family office / syndicate / accelerator), sectors, stages, geographies, check size range, investing pace, contact email, LinkedIn.
  4. The thesis-completeness checklist on /investor tracks every field. Reaching ~80% is when the matching engine surfaces the most-relevant deal flow.
  5. Optionally upload a logo and connect Twitter — investors with full profiles get more inbound.

Tips

  • Until your thesis is set, /discover shows demo startups so you can see what the dashboard will look like once filled in.
  • Founders look at your investor profile to decide whether to pitch you. An empty profile reads as 'passive observer'.

Discovering startups that match your thesis

/discover ranks every startup against your thesis with AI scoring (0–100). Best matches first.

  1. Go to /investor/discover. Default view is sorted by AI match score.
  2. Use filters: sector, stage, geography, score range. Saved filters get email alerts when new startups match.
  3. Click any startup card to open the detail panel. Review the AI match reasoning, concerns, and suggested conversation starters.
  4. Free plan: 10 startups saved at a time. Pro/Firm: unlimited.

Tips

  • Look for the small co-investor signal on each startup profile: 'N other investors are tracking this' (only visible when N≥3, identities never exposed). Strong peer interest is a good triangulation signal.

Managing your deal pipeline

Drag-and-drop Kanban from Reviewing → Met → Diligence → Term Sheet → Committed. Plus follow-up reminders so deals don't fall through the cracks.

  1. On /investor/pipeline, drag a startup card across stages. Each move triggers an in-app notification + audit log entry.
  2. Click a card to add notes, links to deal docs, follow-up dates.
  3. Set a follow-up reminder by adding a 'next_followup_at' date. The CRM cron alerts you on the day it's due.
  4. Free plan: 5 deals max. Pro: 100. Firm: unlimited.

Confirming a closed deal a founder reported

When a founder marks an intro converted into an investment, you (the counterparty) get a notification asking to confirm. Until you do, the deal stays private to the founder's dashboard. Once you click confirm, it counts toward Fund54's public 'raised through Fund54' counter.

  1. Open /investor/intros and find the approved intro the founder marked closed. The card now has an amber 'Founder reported $X.YM (instrument) — confirm?' block.
  2. Read the amount and instrument the founder reported. You can't edit them — only confirm or ignore.
  3. Click 'Confirm deal'. The block flips to a green 'Deal confirmed' state.
  4. Confirmation is one-way — by design, you can't un-confirm. If something is wrong, contact support and an admin will delete the record.

Tips

  • Confirmation isn't an obligation. If the founder's amount is wrong or you don't want to be associated publicly with the deal, just don't click. The platform respects silence as 'not confirmed' and keeps the row out of the public counter.

Receiving and responding to intro requests

Founders request intros to you through the platform. Two-way: founders ask, you accept or decline. Accepting auto-creates a conversation thread.

  1. Open /investor/intros. Pending requests appear at the top.
  2. Click a request to read the founder's message and review their startup profile.
  3. Accept (creates a conversation in /investor/messages) or Reject (with optional response message). The founder gets the appropriate notification.
  4. Once accepted, you can chat in /investor/messages with file attachments, typing indicators, and read receipts.

Tips

  • If you regularly say no to certain stages or sectors, set saved filters in /discover so the matching engine narrows what shows up.

Accessing a startup's data room

Once a founder grants you data room access, you can read decks, financials, and legal docs. NDA-gated folders require you to sign an NDA in-app first.

  1. Click into the startup's profile from /discover or pipeline.
  2. If they have a public data room link, click 'View data room'. For NDA-gated folders, you'll be prompted to e-sign first.
  3. View documents in-app. PDFs render with the founder's per-investor watermark — your email is stamped on every page.
  4. Ask questions per document via the Q&A tab. The founder is notified and answers in-app.

Monitoring your portfolio (Firm plan)

Once a deal is committed, the startup automatically rolls up to /investor/portfolio. Track metrics, updates, milestones, and exits in one place.

  1. On Firm plan, /investor/portfolio shows committed deals as cards with the latest investor update preview.
  2. Click a card to dive into metric trends, milestone progress, and full update history.
  3. Add private notes per portfolio company. Search across all your notes.
  4. Fund metrics (MOIC, TVPI) calculate in the dashboard once you record exit values.

Account & shared

Real-time chat with attachments

Once you have an approved intro, conversations open in /messages. Real-time WebSocket updates, file attachments up to 25 MB, image thumbnails inline, drag-and-drop, typing indicators, and read receipts.

  1. Open /founder/messages or /investor/messages. Click the conversation in the sidebar.
  2. Type a message and hit Enter (Shift+Enter for new line). The other side sees a 'typing…' indicator.
  3. To attach a file, click the paperclip — or drag any file (PDF, image, Excel) anywhere into the conversation panel. Image files render inline as thumbnails; everything else shows as a clickable file card.
  4. After you send, your message gets a ' • Read' tag once the other side opens the conversation.
  5. Up to 5 attachments per message, 25 MB each. Files live in private storage scoped to the two workspaces in the conversation — nobody else can see them.

Plans and billing

Free to start. Upgrade unlocks team collaboration, AI features, e-signatures, advanced cap table, and higher pipeline / deal-flow limits.

  1. View pricing at /pricing. Founder plans: Free / Pro $49/mo / Team $99/mo. Investor plans: Free / Pro $79/mo / Firm $199/mo.
  2. Upgrade from your dashboard's billing page (/founder/billing or /investor/billing).
  3. Stripe Checkout handles payment. Invoices and receipt emails arrive in your inbox.
  4. Cancel any time — you keep features through the end of the billing period.
  5. Accelerator partners (YC, Techstars, 500 Global, Flat6Labs) get 50% off year one. Email contact@sodasoft.com with your accelerator confirmation.

Privacy, GDPR, and data export

Your data is yours. Fund54 supports full export, deletion, and the GDPR rights to access, rectify, port, and erase.

  1. Export everything in /settings → 'Privacy' → 'Download my data'. Or hit /api/gdpr/export directly.
  2. Delete your account in /settings → 'Privacy' → 'Delete account'. Confirms via email; cascades through profile, workspace memberships, and auth.
  3. Read the Privacy Policy at /privacy. Cookie preferences live in the bottom-right banner; analytics is opt-in.
  4. Bug or data-handling concern? Email contact@sodasoft.com. We respond within 72 hours.

Account settings and notifications

Per-event notification controls let you mute the categories you don't care about while keeping the critical ones on.

  1. /settings or /founder/settings or /investor/settings — same per-role.
  2. Notification preferences: toggle email vs in-app per event type (intro requests, signature events, due-date reminders, weekly digest, onboarding drip).
  3. API access (Pro+ for investors) — generate read-only API keys to pull your pipeline into other tools.
  4. Workspace settings — invite team members (Team / Firm plans), change workspace name, archive or delete the workspace.