How to Make Your VC Firm Visible to Startups That Fit Your Investment Criteria
shipshape.vc was founded to support the venture capital ecosystem by connecting high-tech founders with relevant investors efficiently, transparently and on your terms.
Why Transparency in Investor Data Matters
The venture capital ecosystem thrives on connections. Yet too often, information about investors is scattered, outdated or difficult to access. This lack of transparency creates inefficiencies, making it harder for startups to find the right investors and for investors to connect with the most relevant opportunities.
At shipshape.vc, we believe that better visibility leads to better investments. By ensuring investor data is structured, accessible and up to date, we help VCs appear in the right searches so that founders can find the investors who truly match their needs.
Visibility matters on shipshape.vc. That’s why we’ve created this guide: to help investors optimise their presence on the platform and, in doing so, unlock stronger investment opportunities and build more successful portfolios.
What is shipshape.vc?
shipshape.vc is a free investment search engine built to help startup founders find the right investors efficiently, transparently and based on real, structured data.
Unlike traditional databases or search tools, shipshape.vc is designed specifically for the venture capital ecosystem. It indexes information about investors directly from their websites—using publicly available, structured data—to help founders discover investors whose thesis, focus, and track record align with their needs.
“shipshape.vc helps make your cold outreach warm! It's my go-to platform for investor outreach targeting for capital raising. It makes it super easy to find investors interested in the relevant keywords that your startup is operating across.”
Eva Dobrzanska
Investment and Dealflow Manager
Why Should Investors Optimise Their Presence?
The most relevant startups won’t reach out if they can’t find you.
Founders today move fast. When searching for investors, they rely on efficient tools and clear signals to identify the best fit. If your firm’s information is buried, scattered, or hard to interpret, you’re missing out on connections that could drive your next standout investment.
Just as ranking well on search engines improves discoverability, being visible on shipshape.vc increases your chances of being matched with startups that align with your investment focus.
This isn’t about vanity. It’s about visibility where it matters most.
By structuring your website effectively, you give founders the clarity they need to discover and trust your firm. You don’t just get found — you get found by the right ones.
Do's: Best Practices for Structuring Your Website
To ensure shipshape.vc correctly indexes your firm’s information, follow these practical (yet powerful) guidelines:
Quick Tips for Better Visibility
These are the fast wins: easy to check and critical to get right.
- Use clear URLs and separate pages for your team and portfolio
- Link to individual profiles from overview pages
- Keep your data in the HTML—avoid hidden or dynamically loaded content
- Use consistent formatting and naming conventions
- Name image files descriptively (e.g., headshot_john_doe.jpg)
- Avoid placing team and portfolio info on the same page
- Avoid modals or JavaScript-rendered content for critical data
- Don’t use vague or generic URLs (e.g., /member-1 or /john-doe)
Detailed Guidelines from the Ship Shape Team
1. Use Separate Overview Pages
Create one dedicated page for your portfolio (e.g., company.com/portfolio) and another for your team (company.com/team).
Avoid combining these on your homepage or any single catch-all page.
2. Link to Profile Pages
From each overview page, link to a separate profile page that contains detailed information about the portfolio company or team member.
This is especially helpful for surfacing additional data not shown in the overview.
3. Use Clear, Descriptive URLs
Name URLs to clearly indicate what the page is about. For example:
company.com/team/john-doe ✅
Not: company.com/member-1 ❌
This helps both our indexing system—and humans—understand your structure.
4. Keep Your HTML Structure Consistent
Use the exact same HTML template for all entries in your team or portfolio lists.
Each team member or portfolio company should, at a minimum, include their name.
5. Use a Nested HTML Layout on Overview Pages
Ideally, wrap each team/portfolio entry in a single HTML containe, and tag different pieces of data consistently. We don’t rely heavily on links like websites or socials—they’re usually unique anyway—but for names, titles and roles, consistency matters.<br>
6. Optimise Your File Naming
Even invisible elements matter.
Use descriptive filenames for images (e.g., ../headshot_john_doe.jpg) instead of generic names (../img_3241.jpg).
Don'ts: Common Mistakes to Avoid
1. Combining team and portfolio on the same page.
Keep them separate to avoid misclassification.
2. Using modals or JavaScript to display key information.
If it’s not in the static HTML, we can’t index it.
3.Generic or ambiguous URLs.
company.com/john-doe → Who is this? A team member or a portfolio company?
Use structured URLs like company.com/team/john-doe or company.com/portfolio/startup-name.
4. Inconsistent detail levels.
If you show job titles for some team members but not others, our system may incorrectly assign info to the wrong people.
