17 Apr 2025 4 min read

Decoding Investor Intent: It’s Not on the Website

When it comes to raising capital, founders tend to be optimists—or more precisely, pattern-seeking creatures in an environment that rarely rewards it. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the blind faith many place in investor websites. “We invest in innovation.” “We back visionary founders.” “We believe in patient impact.” Stirring stuff. But also about as informative as a weather forecast from a tarot reader.

This linguistic fog isn’t unique to venture capital, but it reaches its most opaque form when dealing with family offices. These are not institutions in the traditional sense. They are often personality-driven vehicles wrapped in bespoke legal wrappers. Some are run like tight ships with full investment committees and due diligence memos. Others are two siblings, a lawyer, and an intern who once did a Coursera course on bioinformatics.

They may or may not care about impact. They may or may not understand platform risk. They may say they’re interested in biotech because a cousin had cancer. Or because someone told them Moderna had a good run. Or because they’re bored with real estate and want to try something “exciting.”

For founders navigating this terrain, the ambiguity is maddening. You come armed with your pitch deck, your data room, your burn rate projections—and they respond with philosophical questions about consciousness or whether AI can be patented. It’s not that they’re unserious. It’s that the usual heuristics don’t apply. They’re not investing on behalf of pension funds or LPs. They're investing on behalf of themselves—their interests, their legacy, their dinner conversations.

So what can one do?

1. Ignore the Mission Statement, Study the Portfolio

Family offices rarely say what they actually do. But they almost always do what they’ve done before. If someone claims they care about “deep science and global health impact,” and their last three investments were fintech APIs and a whiskey brand, then you’ve learned something useful. Believe the capital, not the copywriting.

Look for patterns:

Are they stage consistent?
Are they lead or follow-on investors?
Do they cluster around a sector or scatter across trends?

This gives you a map—not perfect, but better than the North Star of their website.

2. Find the Human Inside the Capital Stack

Unlike institutional funds, which are (in theory) run by process, family offices are run by people. Sometimes just one. It could be the patriarch. It could be a son-in-law with a Wharton degree. It could be the chief of staff who actually manages the inbox. You’re not pitching an org chart. You’re pitching a worldview.

Which means that your job isn’t just to understand what they invest in—it’s to understand why. Was their interest in Alzheimer’s sparked by a personal story? Did they back a diagnostics startup because of a Forbes feature, or because their daughter interned there? This is not diligence. It’s anthropology.

3. Ask Better Questions Than They Do

When you're finally in the room (or Zoom), avoid the mistake of going straight into your script. Most founders treat fundraising like a monologue. But with family offices, it's a dialogue—and often a meandering one.

Good questions to ask:

“What led you to invest in [X company]?”
“How do you think about risk in science-driven businesses?”
“What does long-term value mean to you?”
“How hands-on are you post-investment?”

Their answers will tell you more about their appetite for your deal than any pitch deck ever will.

4. Don’t Confuse Interest with Intent

This may be the most painful lesson for founders to absorb: Interest is not commitment. A nod in a meeting is not a term sheet. A follow-up request for your deck is not a sign of imminent wire transfer. Many family offices, especially new entrants, are still figuring out how to invest. That means you’re not just pitching—you’re also educating.

Be patient, but not naïve. If you find yourself re-explaining your science for the fourth time to the same person, it’s not diligence—it’s drift. Know when to walk away.

5. Align Strategy with Psychology

The best founders don’t just ask for money. They design their pitch around the psychology of the capital source. If a family office is driven by legacy, show them impact. If they’re driven by returns, show them exit paths. If they’re intellectually curious, show them the novelty of your mechanism—but don’t lose the plot. You’re not here to impress. You’re here to raise.

Closing Note: The Investor Is Not Your Customer. But They Are a Stakeholder.

In biotech, it’s easy to believe the science will speak for itself. But capital allocators aren’t peer reviewers. They don’t care about statistical significance. They care about conviction. And most importantly, they care about fit.

Just like with dating (a metaphor I’ve shamelessly used before), it pays to know who you’re talking to. Don’t show up with a rehearsed speech. Show up dressed for the occasion, with something worth listening to, and the humility to ask what matters to them. (It worked for me—I’m still married, eight years later.)

Because in the end, fundraising isn’t about dazzling. It’s about understanding. And that—unlike innovation slogans—is very hard to fake.