What AI tools help build an investor target list?
Short answer
General AI assistants like Claude or GPT help most. I use them to explain, in plain steps, how to build lookalike audiences from people who already invested with us. Then I add job title, location and company size filters to narrow the list. We also use AI tools at Family Office Club for deal structure and pitch work, but the list itself comes from clear targeting rules.
Start with the people who already said yes
The best seed for a target list is your existing investors. If you have a list of people who already invested with you, you can upload it to an ad platform and ask it to find people who look like them. On LinkedIn and most other platforms, you start an ad and choose to create a custom audience.
I want to be honest about one thing. The AI tool is not what finds the investors. The AI helps you work the platform without wasting an afternoon on menus.
In this hot seat session I explain how I use an AI assistant to set up a lookalike audience.
Summary and key takeaways from this video
Use Claude or GPT as your step-by-step guide
I use Claude or GPT for this all the time. Ad platforms change their screens often, and instructions you find online go stale. So I ask the AI to walk me through the exact clicks.
"Talk to me like a 10-year-old. Make it deadly simple. Where exactly do I click to create a lookalike audience?."
That one prompt saves a lot of time. You can ask the same way about uploading a customer list or setting up a second campaign with tighter filters.
Filters that narrow the list
I usually run a separate campaign that targets a specific job title, in a specific city, at companies of a certain size. We learned some of this the hard way after spending seven or eight million dollars on social media and digital ads.
- Choose titles like founder, chairman, CEO or investor.
- Set the employee count to two or more, which removes many solo entrepreneurs who may be less wealthy.
- Know the tradeoff. Some solo entrepreneurs are very wealthy, so you may not want that cut.
- Keep each filtered group in its own campaign so you can see what works.
Where our other AI tools fit
We have a long list of AI tools at Family Office Club. They cover deal structures, real estate underwriting, one-liner scripting and pitch scoring. Those tools help make your story and your deal clearer. They do not decide who to approach, which still comes from your targeting rules.
This live forum walks through the AI tools our members use, from deal structure to pitch work.
Summary and key takeaways from this video
A target list also needs a human review. Members get quarterly feedback on their materials, and part of that is the investor set we would target if we were in their shoes. A tool can build a long list quickly. Judgment tells you which names to keep.
Here I explain how we help members build the top of their investor funnel.
Many sponsors talk to a securities attorney about their investor outreach before they send anything.
What I have said on this at our events
One thing that makes any target list better is a very specific investor avatar. If I say I am raising from high net worth people, or from family offices, that does not help at all, because it is too broad to search for. I get specific about who the investor is, then I build a database of that exact universe, find the contact details and the asset owner, and work the list as a system. The AI can help you build that database, but the specific avatar has to come first.
"So an investor avatar should be very specific. If you say, "Well, I'm raising capital from high net worth," that is too basic. Or, "I'm raising capital from family offices." Well, that's not going to help you at all."
"So how could you build a database of the 280 dry cleaners, or the 800 stem cell companies, or the 52 pieces of real estate in your niche? You know, suburbs of whatever real estate space you're looking at. Build a database of that universe so you can get their contact details, figure out the asset owner, and then work that list as a system."
Facts from this talk
- Richard says Family Office Club spent about seven or eight million dollars on social media and digital ads and learned its targeting lessons the hard way.
- Selecting job titles like founder, chairman or CEO with two or more employees filters out many solo entrepreneurs.
- Members get a quarterly review of their materials with 20 bullet points of feedback, including an investor set to target.
Sources
From Richard C. Wilson's Centimillionaire Strategies YouTube channel: Family Office Hot Seat: Real Capital Raising Advice for Founders & Investors | Monthly Webinar, 7 Strategies to Leverage Our Investor Club and Raise More Capital (Webinar Recording), Family Office Live Forum: Capital Raising, AI Tools & Investor Feedback (with Richard C. Wilson). Quotes come from the video captions, lightly edited for readability. Figures are the speakers' own estimates and experience.
General education only. Not legal, tax or investment advice.
Talk to a securities attorney to explore options around investor outreach rules, offering structure and investor eligibility rules. Do not use AI to write your own legal agreements.
Your next steps
- Export a list of your existing investors with their job titles and cities.
- Ask Claude or GPT to walk you through creating a lookalike audience on your ad platform.
- Build a second campaign filtered by job title, city and employee count.
- Review the names by hand and cut anyone who does not fit your offering.
- Many sponsors talk to a securities attorney about their outreach plan before they launch.
More questions on this
Can AI tools find investors for me directly?
In my experience the AI assistant guides you through the platform steps. You still decide who belongs on the list.
Should I filter out companies with only one employee?
In my experience, setting employees to two or more removes many solo entrepreneurs who may be less wealthy. It can also cut some very wealthy solo founders, so it is a judgment call.
Do I need a paid tool to start?
Not to start. An AI assistant like Claude or GPT and the audience tools inside the ad platform are enough for a first test.
Related questions
- How do I use AI to research family offices?Ask a tool like ChatGPT or Grok to run deep research on a specific person at a specific family office.
- How do I use AI to write investor update newsletters?Give the AI your real source material, such as deal notes, closings and milestones, and ask it for a first draft in your own voice.
- How do I use AI to summarize investor meeting notes?Start with a transcript of the meeting, give it to an AI tool with a specific request, and say what format you want back.
- How can AI speed up my investor due diligence preparation?Give AI your pitch deck and any emails where you already answered investor questions.
Work through it with the one-liner builder. See all ai for capital raising resources.