- Refining VC
- Posts
- The Future of VC Marketing is Interactive
The Future of VC Marketing is Interactive
The biggest gap in the next frontier of VC marketing – moving beyond passive content consumption to active tools
Laurie Owen
May 06, 2025
Today = why interactive tools are the future of VC marketing, examples of this in the wild and how your fund can build simple, high-impact tools that founders actually use, share, and trust.
Advice scales linearly, but tools scale exponentially.
You know this. It is why funds invest more readily in software than services.
But vibe-coding/no-code has democratised tool creation to the point where anyone with patience and a vision can build something useful.
Ironically, the VC firms investing in these accessible technologies are failing to leverage them for their own marketing.
Instead of publishing the 247th version of "How to Create a Pitch Deck" even more innovative funds (but not many) are building interactive tools that not only provide more value but spread organically through founder networks.
This approach represents a huge gap in the next frontier of VC marketing – moving beyond passive content consumption to active tools that founders actually use in their day-to-day operations.
Why Tools Outperform Content
Traditional content – blog posts, newsletters, social media – faces fundamental limitations:
Consumption is passive. Founders read your insights, maybe bookmark them, but rarely implement them systematically.
Distribution requires constant effort. Each piece needs promotion to find an audience.
Engagement is shallow. A founder might spend 3-5 minutes with your article before moving on.
Tools, on the other hand, create fundamentally different dynamics…
Usage is active. Founders incorporate your tool into their workflow, coming back repeatedly.
Distribution happens naturally. Valuable tools get shared between founders, creating organic growth, as well as allowing funds to ‘own’ their audience by collecting emails.
Engagement is deep. Founders might spend hours using your tool to solve real problems.
Most importantly, tools position your fund as genuinely helpful rather than just opinionated. You're not just telling founders what you do/think – you're helping them live it.