  The process of matching startup founders with venture capital investors is a
necessary first step for many modern technology companies, yet there have been
few attempts to study the characteristics of the two parties and their
interactions. Surprisingly little has been shown quantitatively about the
process, and many of the common assumptions are based on anecdotal evidence. In
this thesis, we aim to learn more about the matching component of the startup
fundraising process. We begin with a tool (VCWiz), created from the current set
of best-practices to help inexperienced founders navigate the founder-investor
matching process. The goal of this tool is to increase efficiency and
equitability, while collecting data to inform further studies. We use this
data, combined with public data on venture investments in the USA, to draw
conclusions about the characteristics of venture financing rounds. Finally, we
explore the communication data contributed to the tool by founders who are
actively fundraising, and use it to learn which social attributes are most
beneficial for individuals to possess when soliciting investments.
