Raising my First $2 Million Without Being a Pushy Salesperson | Ep. 8

Ever felt that raising capital seems like an impossible mountain to climb without aggressive sales tactics? What if the secret isn't in perfecting your pitch deck but in mastering something far more human?

Devin Robinson pulls back the curtain on how he raised $2 million in just six months for his first investment fund without coming from Wall Street, having family office connections, or maintaining a massive email list. The surprising catalyst wasn't sophisticated marketing funnels or perfect presentation skills—it was genuine curiosity.

With refreshing candor, Devin walks through his methodical approach of connecting with 200 people across his social networks, from high school classmates to church friends, without immediately pitching them. He reveals his three-step framework: start with genuine interest in them, ask for their advice or perspective, and then let natural curiosity about his work emerge organically. This human-centered strategy not only made conversations feel authentic but led to remarkable results when 80% of similar funds struggle to raise even $500,000.

Practical examples bring this approach to life as Devin shares specific scripts he used to initiate conversations that eventually turned into investment opportunities. From congratulating someone on LinkedIn about a recent promotion to asking casual questions about a vacation spotted on Instagram, these seemingly simple interactions laid the groundwork for deeper investment discussions without uncomfortable sales pressure.

Ready to transform your capital raising journey? Try Devin's curiosity-based approach—you might discover that the best fundraisers aren't the best pitchers but rather the best connectors who listen more than they speak. Send Devin a direct message with the word "scripts" on Instagram @devinrobinson1 to receive his free investor outreach templates and start building your own relationship-first fundraising strategy today.

Get the Free Capital Raising Course
Get Fund Flow Os
Join the Free Capital Raising Community
Apply to the Founder's Circle

Follow me on instagram
Connect with me on Linkedin

Transcript

Welcome to Funds on Fire

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Funds on Fire, the podcast that ignites the passion of investment funds and capital raising. Here we turn the complexities of fund management into clear, actionable steps that drive results. I've invested into diverse real estate across the United States and managed thriving funds, and I'm committed to transforming lives through the vehicle of investment funds and helping others to do the same. Join me as we document the journey of scaling businesses, raising capital and impacting tens of thousands of people around the world. My name is Devin Robinson and welcome to Funds on Fire. All right, what's up? Welcome back to Funds on Fire.

The Single Biggest Reason for Success

Speaker 1 0:33

Today we're going to do a little bit different. Today we're going to go with a solo episode and I'm excited to talk today because I've been talking. I've actually tried to put down a massive amount of content just helping people to understand a little bit more about the fund game, talking a little bit more about it, helping to dissect it and just letting it know. People know how accessible it is, and then also just talking about raising capital. There's a lot more raising capital, partially because I did start and this is not a plug for it, I mean, I guess it could be Fund founders we started a community called the Raise Room where we actually help people to raise capital for anything If you're going to raise capital for your fix and flips, if you're raising capital for private equity, if you're raising capital for your fund or whatever. It is a group solely dedicated towards raising capital. Now it is like a paid community and everything like that, but we're putting everything we can to help you to raise for your next big launch, and it's going to be significantly cheaper than going somewhere else to learn about it, especially some of these bigger courses. So we thought we'd do something specifically for raising capital and that's what the raise room is, so pretty excited about that. But today I want to break down the single biggest reason why I was able to, in my first fund, raise $2 million in the first six months of launching my first fund ever and really trying to capital raise without ads, without a big list and without feeling like a pushy salesperson because I think that's also a big part of it too.

Speaker 1 1:53

And it wasn't a perfect pitch deck, it wasn't a secret hack. It was something way more human, just curiosity. So if you've ever felt like raising capital feels awkward or scary or you just don't know what to say to get people interested, this episode is for you, because curiosity isn't just a personality trait, it's a capital raising superpower. And I have a business partner who has been a really good friend of mine for a while and he actually is currently writing a book called, I think, the Next Best Question or One More Question or something amazing like that. He's in the process of writing it, but it's all about curiosity. He has a company called Curiosity Coach, and so he's always been helping me to dive deeper into this idea of curiosity, like how can we be more curious? How is this superpower, how can interested people be more interesting? And we'll talk about that a little bit later. And so he really pushes me to think that way. And then also, as I was raising capital, he helped me to push the curiosity, the sense of curiosity, as I was doing that for other people.

My First Fund Raising Strategy

Speaker 1 2:55

So let me go back, let me take you back. I'm launching my first fund. I don't come from Wall Street, I didn't have a big family office connection or a 50,000 person email list, but the one thing I did have was a laptop, some hustle and a mindset shift. That changed everything for me. For two days straight, what I did was I sat down with my phone and my laptop. I remember pulling up Facebook. I remember pulling up my LinkedIn. I remember pulling up my Instagram and I went through every single person I'd connected with on social media friends, professionals, business owners, people I knew from church, sports, real estate, even old classmates and I'd built a list of about 200 people.

Speaker 1 3:31

I mean, I'm talking people back from high school that I haven't talked to in forever and, honestly, the last thing you want to do is engage them with. Oh hey, I've got this really interesting investment opportunity. Would you like to invest in it? That's not what I did. I didn't pitch any of them. Instead, I approached every interaction with genuine interest hey, how's the family doing? I saw you just got back from Disney. I've been thinking about taking my kids. What do you recommend? No sales breath, no weird pitch energy, just human to human curiosity.

Speaker 1 4:00

And I asked for advice. If it's something on LinkedIn. Ah, I saw that you just accomplished this in your company. I'm really trying to get there with what I'm doing right here. Tell me how you did it, give me some goals, give me some advice. What did you do? And people love talking about their accomplishments, and so that's what I did. As Carl says interested people are interesting, and that was the play. When I become really massively interested in what they're doing and I'm genuinely interested in it, I want to know those things they then become interested in me. I'm now interesting to them, and so that's how the conversations led that way. So how do they lead to capital? So the framework I used it was simple, repeatable and, most importantly, it was authentic.

The Curiosity Framework That Works

Speaker 1 4:44

Step one I started with them. I never opened with hey, I've got this fund, I want to talk to you about it. Instead, I'd reference something personal from their social media, a shared memory or a relevant compliment that I could do, or even something that they did, that they met some sort of huge accomplishment that they would want to talk about. And then I asked for their advice or perspective. People love being helpful. I'd say things like all right, you've done some amazing things with your business. I've been thinking about launching something similar and would love to hear how you navigated this. Or you just got back from Costa Rica, right? My wife and I have been thinking about taking a trip. What do you recommend? Tell me about the travel, tell me about the beaches you went to. Tell me about all those things that small ask made people feel valuable. And then, once they were, they engaged. They were, they engaged.

Speaker 1 5:28

And then step three was I let them become curious about me. They'd ask so what are you working on? And that's when the elevator pitch came in and I would say you know something like oh, I help busy professionals build wealth passively by investing in real estate without having to manage properties. Or you know, I'm currently helping people passively invest into deeply discounted real estate while getting double digit returns. And they're like whoa what, tell me a little about that. And so that's when they leaned in Wait, tell me more, tell me more, tell me a little bit about that. And from there, if the interest was real, I'd dive a little bit deeper. But this is where I can kind of separate people. Some people would go, oh, that's cool, that's nice. And then keep going. And then some people would be like, okay, that's, tell me a little bit more. And that's how I gauge interest.

Speaker 1 6:11

With my elevator pitch, I no longer told people oh, I wholesale properties, oh, I do fix and flips, oh, I do this, I get them with that one little thing that if they're my people, it would attract them, it would make them lean in. It would make them interested. And a lot of times they would go oh man, I've been thinking about getting into real estate. Oh, I've been wanting to do something like that. Ah, I've been. I know real estate is such a good thing to invest in, but I just never thought about jumping in. And so then people would dive in. They would want to. From there, then we can go. Okay, you know what, let me set up a call. I'd love to chat with you a little bit more about it. Or like, hey, let's get together and grab coffee, things, that relationship.

Speaker 1 6:49

And in a lot of cases they circled back months later to be like hey, I've been thinking about what you talked about. I've been thinking about this thing that you're. It's been going on in my head over and over since the last time we talked. And so I do that with everything. When I go to conferences or something, people are like hey, what do you do? And I say one of the things is, oh, I diversify Wall Street. Go, oh, I diversify Wall Street. And they're like what, what does that mean? And then I'll tell them a little bit more about what that means. Or I go oh, I help people to raise capital on autopilot and then launch and scale investment funds. And then people are like, oh, that's really cool. Or people are like, oh my gosh, no way I've been thinking about launching a fund. Tell me this, this and that. And so it's been really you how this curiosity paid off.

Speaker 1 7:34

In those six months I raised over $2 million using nothing but that strategy and consistent outreach no paid ads, no giant webinar funnel, just real conversations. I had one guy I hadn't spoken to in three years hit me up and he's like Devin, I've been watching what you've been building, I've got 100K, I'm looking to play somewhere. He invested into my deals after that and then consistently helped me on other deals as well. That came from curiosity. First, dms and a simple follow-up message that just said hey, hey, you came across my mind this morning during my quiet time or during my journal or whatever. Would love to catch up, let me know when you're free. That message has opened a ton of doors for me, and way more than any other cold email ever could, because people are like, oh my gosh, okay, they feel like I've been thinking about them and they feel valued, they feel heard, they feel seen, they respect that and they love that actually.

Real-World Scripts for Investor Outreach

Speaker 1 8:23

So now some of you are thinking, oh, that sounds good, but what exactly do I say? So here's a couple of script examples that you can start using today and, by the way, these are all downloadable in a free investor outreach script pack inside of our fund founders community. But also, if you want to, you could DM me the word scripts and I'll send that to you on Instagram devinrobinson1. So, devinrobinson1 on Instagram, just DM me the word script and I'll send you these scripts for sure. And so I'd say, hey, congrats on your recent promotion. Saw that, I saw the update and wanted to celebrate with you.

Speaker 1 8:56

I'm working on something really similar and I think you'd have some really great insight on it. Mind, if I run this quick idea past you and so people would be like, oh sure, I'd love to help you with it, and so then I would engage them on something real estate related, but not pitch a raising capital, right? If this was on LinkedIn, it would be very like, oh, I'm thinking of doing this in real estate, or I'm thinking of doing this. And if they are in real estate, then I'd say, oh, I'm thinking of leading doing this, but I'm having trouble with my team leading this way. I really want to be a good leader this, this or that. So I'd really contextualize it to what they're doing and then help them to and then, like people love to be able to help. Unless they're really big and really busy, then they're constantly bombarded by this. But if they're regular people that just have capital to spend or something, then they're really ready to do this.

Speaker 1 9:38

Now, something on like Instagram or Facebook, I'd say yo, I saw this picture of you guys in Costa Rica. Y'all look like you had a blast. We're thinking of going to. You got any tips for us? Then, once they ask about what we're working on, we drop the elevator pitch, would love to hop on a call and walk you through what we're building. It's something I'm really excited about and thinks it aligns with what you may be into as well. If we get to the point where they're interested in that. So that's where it's super important. So that's what I would say for you guys. I would challenge you that Pick 10 to 15 people this week from your contacts on social media and reach out using any of these curiosity-based scripts. Don't pitch them, don't force it, just connect. Let the conversation lead to some sort of capital conversation and that's how I would engage with people on social media.

Speaker 1 10:24

So this is specifically when I went and raised capital. I organized it all, I put them on a spreadsheet and then I consistently followed up with them and so many of them came later on down the road. So many of them came early on and I actually had our SEC attorney be like, wow, you have no idea how rare this is. I think the statistic was 80% of blind funds like ours don't make it past $500,000, period in their whole entire raise. And then also, I think it's like I think it's also like 90 percent of blind funds like those don't us, don't fill their non-accredited spaces. In the first six months we filled all of our non-accredited and raised two million dollars, and so this really worked.

Speaker 1 11:06

I was just consistent and then I had a really good elevator pitch that drew people in. I knew when to move on and then when to continue the conversation and then continue to follow up, continue to be genuinely interested in them, continue to have really good conversations with curiosity. And then, from then, I didn't just say, oh, that's great If they were interested, or even if they weren't interested at the time of investing, I would always, always, always ask if they knew somebody else that would be interested, and people know other people. I've definitely had referral partners refer us other people that would invest with us, and so they were super helpful and super awesome, and so I'm thankful for them for doing that.

The Best Raisers Are Connectors

Speaker 1 11:46

Now, if this is helpful for you guys, go ahead, dm me on Instagram devandoutrobinson1, and I will make sure I send you these scripts over, because I want them to be as helpful for you as possible. It's going to come with the DM scripts, text scripts, some email scripts, all of that stuff, just for you. Now, remember, the best capital raisers aren't the best pitchers, they're the best connectors. They ask better questions, they listen deeper, they care more. My mom always said God gave you one mouth and two ears for a reason Listen more than you speak, so lead with curiosity. It just might raise you your first $2 million too.

Speaker 1 12:22

If this episode was helpful for you, drop a review and share it with someone who's thinking about launching a fund. If you want to go deeper, join our Raise room community, where we coach you weekly on how to attract and close investors at scale. And until next time, great success and greater impact. Peace, wow, I hope you enjoyed that. I have a quick favor. If you've been enjoying the show, there's one simple way you can support us, and it's by hitting that follow button or that subscribe button on the app you're listening to. I want to level this podcast up in every single way possible, bringing you more value, incredible content and guests and new strategies. Following the show and leaving a quick review goes a really long way in helping us to grow and continue to deliver top-tier content. It's the only free thing I'll ever ask you to do and it makes a bigger impact than I can possibly put into words. So thank you for being a part of this journey and I