A lot of people on LinkedIn call themselves investors or VCs. Many of them aren’t lying exactly, but they also don’t write checks, don’t help founders in a meaningful way, and their incentives don’t always align with yours. The result is always the same: wasted time.

I’ve spent a little over two decades in early-stage venture on both sides of the cap table. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that founders who don’t learn how to screen investors early pay for it later; usually resulting in months of misdirection or a broken cap table.

Here are three categories of people founders should get better at filtering out:

1. The Window Shoppers

These are people who aren’t actually evaluating you. They’re doing market or competitive research for something they already own or want to own, and you’re the free data source.

They ask a lot of “curious” questions. They rarely talk about their own portfolio. They almost never talk about writing a check.

The risk isn’t just wasted time. It’s information leakage. If you’re in a competitive space, assume anything you share may get back to someone else.

How I screen for this quickly:

In the first meeting, I ask the investor to walk me through their portfolio. Specifically:

• What were the last couple of investments you made?
• When did you make them?
• What gave you conviction at the time?
• Do you have a real thesis in our space?

A serious investor can answer those questions in a few minutes without sounding rehearsed. If they can’t, or if they dodge, you’re probably not talking to someone who plans to engage deeply.

I’ve ended meetings early when it was obvious someone showed up to browse, not commit. Founders don’t have surplus time. Treat it accordingly.

2. The Pay-to-Talk Crowd

This one’s blunt: if someone markets themselves to founders and charges by the hour for “investor advice,” you should not confuse them with an investor.

That doesn’t make them evil. It does mean their incentives are different from yours.

Real investors monetize their time through ownership and outcomes. They make money when companies succeed, not when calendars fill up. That alignment matters more than most founders realize.

I’m not saying paid advisors never add value. Some do. I am saying you should be very clear about what you’re buying. Advice is not capital. Access is not conviction.

As a general rule, the best investors and angels I know are willing to help early because they’re building a relationship and underwriting you. If someone needs $500 an hour from founders to make their model work, ask yourself why.

3. The Brand-First Investors

Some investors are very online. That’s not inherently bad. What matters is what the brand is built around.

If someone’s public presence is mostly about how smart they are, how many followers they have, or how many conferences they’re at, pay attention. That usually means their primary customer is the internet, not founders (or their LPs for that matter). Serious early-stage investing is unglamorous. It’s long, messy, and often invisible. The investors who do it well tend to spend more time helping portfolio companies than talking about themselves.

A simple tell: when they post, who’s the hero? Themselves, or the founders?

The investors worth having on your cap table use their platform to amplify their companies, recruit talent, and open doors. Their credibility comes from outcomes, not aesthetics.

As a founder, building your cap table is an incredibly important thing to think through. You’re not just taking checks opportunistically; you’re assembling a team of people who are committed to your success. They should bring advocacy, mentorship, and accountability for you. And they should focus on outcomes over optics. The right investors can make a company, and the wrong investors can certainly break one, so remember that you will have to build and maintain strong relationships with your investors and be wary of those who view their relationship with you as transactional or a photo-op.