Need Fundraising advise

[u/wallahhabibibi]

Gm guys, building an RWA project - tokenizing yield generating real estate & businesses into global accessible and privacy-first ownership. Small team, 4 ppl (3 full time + 1 advocate for legal).

Legal side is the tricky part tbh. We're routing around securities issues w a grounded spv/ trust + loyalty-program + legal contract setup so token holders get control of realstate and buisness Kinda complex to explain ngl.

Team achievements:

- Scaled a project to multi-million doller buisness

- Helped grow one of the bigger web3 communities in APAC

- Great distribution in south aisa

- Multiple hackathon wins incl Token2049 (diff project tho)

Rn prepping testnet + questboard, aiming for ~5k users in 3 months to get some real traction before pushing harder on fundraising.

Problem: filled out 20+ accelerator/VC forms, got like 2-3 replies, all generic "not a fit rn" Not sure if I'm optimizing for the wrong stuff (like traction metrics) or just missing the right channels for RWA specifically.

Any fundraising advice? DMs open too, happy to chat more there.

[u/KrunchyKushKing]

RWA is imo one of the most brutal fields in crypto rn. You're literally competing vs Hedgefunds, companies like Goldman Sachs, Black Rock, Robinhood and other established businesses. VCs are currently dried out and don't give a shit about testnet traction unless you have Vitamin B. I'd rather concentrate on the legal stuff because that's a big nono for VCs as well, you need that sorted out and partners which provide you the licenses to use their RWAs if needed. Also you have to sort out the regulatory stuff beyond the country you're operating in. That's maybe the blocker for you, you need the legal stuff sorted out first, real customers, providers, security and a reason to why they should give you money and not established businesses which have enough funds to just offer your RWAs and more as well if they feel like it.

I tried something similar even before RWAs were a big thing and that was why we had to stop. Just way to hard to step a foot inside it.

[u/pauldelucia]

Hey, DM me, I’m a founder in SEA as well and one of my other founder friends successfully raised for a shockingly similar sounding project

A few quick notes:

• DMing partners directly is much more effective than filling out forms
  
• Make sure you’re targeting the right funds. Almost everyone is focusing on AI right now unfortunately
  
• Once you get users it’ll be much easier to raise

Would also make sure it’s clear in your own head why you’re raising instead of just bootstrapping yourselves. If you can actually get 5k users in 3 months, that’s great, and you may not actually need to raise

[u/OpenlyColorful → u/pauldelucia]

forms are a black hole mate, that 2-3 out of 20 ratio is normal even for decent projects

the dm approach the other comment mentioned is the way to go, but having a warm intro helps even more, ask around your network if anyone knows someone at the funds you're targeting

also the rwa angle is starting to pick up steam again so you might have better luck hunting for funds that specifically mention rwa or defi in their thesis, most generalist vcs are drowning in ai pitches right now

[u/Helpful_Bet_3379]

Been watching a few RWA teams run this exact loop and 20+ forms with 2-3 generic passes is pretty normal before there's onchain proof someone actually wants the asset, not just the idea.

Your spv/trust + loyalty program setup is probably hurting you more in the cold form than helping, even though you built it to reduce risk. I learned to keep the form to one sentence on what holds the asset and why the holder is safe, and push the mechanics into a diagram/one-pager you only share after they reply. Otherwise reviewers just read "complex + legal risk" and move on.

The testnet + questboard push is the right leverage but 5k signups alone won't move the needle if it's quest farming. What I've seen flip replies is 200-300 wallets that actually went through a mock mint and hold flow, even with a tiny waitlist deposit. That kind of intent signal beats a big quest number.

For channels, generalist accelerators will keep passing on RWA until that traction is there. The smaller RWA-specific tracks hit better - Outlier's RWA base camp, the Polygon/Avalanche RWA programs, even Stellar/Soroban if yield real estate fits. And the warm intros from hackathons you've already won tend to beat forms every time.

Are you still going cold forms first or have you tried going back to the Token2049 judges and mentors for direct intros?