Seed
Odys Aviation Uses Metal to tap Portfolio Founders
“Metal provides powerful functionalities to identify potential warm intros to target investors within my network. The platform ingests my network data from Gmail and LinkedIn, and then shows high-context intro pathways.”
James Dorris
Founder/CEO
Odys is a sustainable aviation company building vertical take-off and landing aircraft to cut travel time in half on the world’s busiest routes. With $15m+ in prior financing, the team has built a strong network with a concentration of top-tier VCs on the cap table.
The Challenge
What founders struggle with before Metal
Given the disruptive potential of the company’s value proposition, Odys receives significant inbound from investors during and in-between rounds. For Odys, the central challenge was to identify portfolio founders of target investors in their network (to learn about the investor's process and to get a warm introduction).
While Odys had already established relationships with leading venture firms, understanding which portfolio founders could provide meaningful introductions required significant manual effort. Without a structured way to identify these founders, valuable opportunities often remained hidden within the firm's broader network.
Portfolio Founders via Metal
How Metal surfaces the right investors
With Metal, James (Founder, Odys) is able to plug in his connections data via Gmail and LinkedIn integrations. Subsequently, he can search for a given investor, and immediately see all of their portfolio founders, in the following categories:
Connected (Green)
Accessible (Orange)
The above categorization helps the Odys team identify meaningful mutual connections with a given investor. These individuals have raised capital from the investor, and are able to share insights on the process and the overall experience.
Additionally, the Odys team is also able to filter portfolio founders for a given investor based on sector or geography. This allows them to identify a given investor’s portfolio founders that are most relevant to their specific purpose.
Impact on the Fundraising Process
How targeting the right investors changes outcomes
For a given investor, Odys has found immense efficiency with the ability to identify the most relevant portfolio founders that they are connected with.
This has turned a previously opaque, inefficient and research-intensive process into one that is quick, efficient and seamless.
By turning portfolio data into actionable fundraising intelligence, Metal enables Odys to approach investor outreach with greater confidence and a clear strategy. As fundraising efforts scale, this workflow remains repeatable and continues to uncover new opportunities across their existing network.
Executive Summary
Key takeaways from Odys's use of Metal
Odys used Metal to identify portfolio founders most relevant to its target investors, transforming existing investor networks into actionable introduction opportunities.
01
Tapping relevant founders is immensely useful during or in-between rounds
02
Identifying relevant portfolio founders for a given investor can unlock key learnings
03
Portfolio founders for a given investor often serve as a conduit for introductions
