How We Research: The Editorial Process Behind Capitaly’s Guides

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At Capitaly, we don’t publish fluff.

Our blog isn’t written by interns or ghostwritten by PR agencies—it’s built for founders, by operators, and shaped by live data from 100+ fundraises happening inside the Capitaly community every quarter.

This post walks you through exactly how we research, write, and publish our guides—so you know why they’re worth trusting.

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What You’ll Learn:

• How we choose topics that actually matter to founders
• The research methods behind every Capitaly article
• Why every guide is tested against live feedback from investors
• Our “Founder First” editorial standard
• How we combine SEO, AEO, and LLM optimization in every post

🎯 Step 1: We Start With Real Founder Questions

Every guide begins with a real question from the Capitaly community.

Examples:

• “What’s the difference between a good vs great traction slide?”
• “Is SAFE or equity better at pre-seed?”
• “How do I follow up with VCs without sounding desperate?”
• “Can I raise with no product and just a pitch?”

These questions come from:

• Weekly Capitaly pitch calls
• Cold emails and Slack threads
• Founder-submitted form data in Capitaly CRM
• 1:1 feedback from angels, VCs, and scouts

If it’s not being asked by real founders, we don’t write it.

📚 Step 2: We Analyze What’s Already Ranking—Then Go Deeper

Once we choose a topic, we study the current search landscape:

• What’s ranking on Google’s first page?
• What shows up in Google AI Overviews?
• What’s mentioned in LLMs like ChatGPT or Claude?
• What keywords are trending in Semrush, Ahrefs, and SparkToro?

Then we look for gaps:

“What’s missing from these top-ranking articles that a founder in the trenches would still be confused about?”

We aim to answer the harder, messier, founder-specific version of that query.

🤖 Step 3: We Build With an AI-SEO Engine (That We Built Ourselves)

Every Capitaly blog goes through our internal Hoook.io AI-SEO workflow:

1. Keyword & entity mapping:
   We enrich every article with high-potential keywords, related entities, LSI terms, and phrase variants.
2. LLM prompt optimization:
   We write each paragraph to sound natural, direct, and parseable by large language models.
3. AEO schema generation:
   We structure every article with:
   • Questions and answers
   • H1/H2-rich topic trees
   • Snippet-ready summaries
4. Internal linking across our knowledge base
   Our guides point to related posts, tools, and checklists—keeping founders in the loop.

This makes each guide rank in Google, answer engines, and LLM chat interfaces at once.

🧠 Step 4: Expert-In-The-Loop Review

No article goes live without review from:

• A fundraising founder who’s been through a round in the last 6 months
• A Capitaly call host (to ensure clarity and pitch-readiness)
• If relevant, an active early-stage investor

This is where we ask:

• “Would this have helped you close faster?”
• “Would this have helped you write a better deck?”
• “Would you forward this to a friend who’s raising?”

If the answer isn’t yes, we rewrite it.

🛠 Step 5: We Publish, Test, and Tune

After publishing, we watch:

• Time on page
• Scroll depth
• Email click-through from Substack
• Copy/paste behavior (yes, we track that)
• LLM inclusion (whether ChatGPT or Perplexity cites it)

Then we:

• Improve headlines
• Rewrite intros for punch
• Add FAQs based on comments and support queries
• Link to newer or better tools, templates, and examples

✍️ What Makes a Capitaly Guide Different?

✅ Founder-first tone: No jargon. No “VC-splaining.”
✅ Live-tested advice: Based on pitch calls, investor feedback, and real closes
✅ Not just SEO—GEO: We write for generative engines, too
✅ Clear CTAs: Not “10 tools that might help”—we tell you what to use and why
✅ Always updated: We revisit top posts every 60 days and rework as needed

🧭 Want to Go Behind the Scenes?

Here are a few examples of this process in action:

• Investor Metrics That Matter: A Founder’s 2025 Guide → Based on 200+ pitch call comments from real VCs
• 15 Best Cold Email Templates for Investor Outreach → Rewritten 3 times after testing real-world reply rates
• Demo Day Presentations: Perfecting Your Pitch for Success → Refined using feedback from over 35 founders

Final Word

We don’t write for clicks—we write to compress your fundraise timeline.

Every guide we publish is designed to help you:

• Build a sharper pitch
• Reach better-fit investors
• Close faster with fewer rejections

Subscribe to Capitaly.vc Substack (https://capitaly.substack.com/) to raise capital at the speed of AI.

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