Why Fundraising Videos Work (and What the Data Actually Says)

The fundraising problem isn’t your idea, it’s attention

Fundraising is basically a speed-run of trust. You’re asking someone to believe three things fast:

1. your problem matters, 2) your solution is real, 3) your team can execute.

But here’s the catch: investors and stakeholders don’t “read” like they used to — they skim. Dropbox DocSend has reported average investor time spent on a pitch deck around ~2 minutes and 42 seconds (and trending downward).

So the “Why now?” for pitch/launch videos is simple: you have to communicate faster than the scroll.

What the stats show: video correlates with higher fundraising outcomes

No hype — just the clearest numbers founders can point to.

1) Crowdfunding: video is a measurable advantage

Kickstarter has shared a blunt stat founders repeat for a reason: projects with videos are funded at higher rates — about 50% with video vs. 30% without.
That’s a +20 percentage-point lift (and roughly ~67% higher success rate relative to “no video”).

Kickstarter also notes that 75% of successful campaigns feature a video — meaning video shows up disproportionately among winners.

Takeaway: In markets where people decide quickly (crowdfunding is the purest example), video isn’t decoration — it’s a conversion tool.

2) Investor-facing pitches: delivery statistically moves funding probability

A major academic study analyzing full pitch videos (“Persuading Investors: A Video-Based Study”) finds that more positive/passionate delivery increases funding probability. Specifically, a one-standard-deviation increase in “pitch positivity” is associated with a 3 percentage-point increase in the probability of receiving funding (a 35.2% increase vs baseline).

Important nuance (and this is why this paper is so useful): the authors also find that conditional on being funded, higher “pitch positivity” can be associated with underperformance — basically, delivery can sway decisions even when it doesn’t reflect fundamentals.

Takeaway: Video doesn’t just transmit facts — it transmits belief. That can help you get the meeting, get accepted, or get funded… but your fundamentals still have to hold up.

3) Crowdinvesting / “retail investor” markets: video can increase dollars raised

In blockchain-based crowdfunding (token offerings / ICO-style campaigns), research published in the Journal of Economics and Business finds:

• Publishing a video pitch increases the funding amount

• Ventures with video pitches can double their valuations

• It’s the informational content that matters most (not just vibes/music).

Takeaway: “Good-looking video” isn’t the point. Information density + clarity is what moves money.

Why video works in fundraising (the human reasons behind the numbers)

Video compresses clarity

People can absorb a clear demo + voiceover + visuals faster than they can decode a dense slide. And the investor “skim” behavior is real.

Video carries trust signals

Faces, tone, confidence, and speed-to-understanding matter in persuasion settings — exactly what the pitch-video research is measuring.

Video builds momentum outside the investor room

Senior decision-makers don’t just watch — they act. In a Forbes Insights survey of senior executives:

• 65% said they visited a vendor’s website after watching a work-related video

• 59% said if text and video are on the same page, they prefer to watch the video

Even though that’s “buyer behavior” data (not strictly VC), the point translates: video is a click-forward medium. It moves people down the decision path.

Storytelling is not fluff — it’s the mechanism

This is where founders feel it, and investors admit it.

Ben Horowitz has a line that founders quote because it’s painfully true: “You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company into motion… [and] gets people to invest.”
And Sequoia’s Don Valentine famously ties it directly to capital allocation: “The money flows as a function of the stories.”

Translation: your story isn’t the “nice-to-have.” It’s how investors understand why this wins.

What a fundraising video should actually be (so it helps, not hurts)

The goal: earn the next step

A pitch video is usually trying to do one of these:

• get the reply

• get the meeting

• get the partner meeting

• get the term sheet conversation

• get customers/traction fast enough that investors chase you

A simple structure that works (60–120 seconds)

• Hook (0–5s): what are you changing?

• Problem: what’s broken right now

• Solution: what you built, in plain language

• Demo / proof: show it working, show results if you have them

• Why you: unfair advantage / founder credibility

• Why now: timing tailwinds

• The ask: “We’re raising X for Y,” or “We’re looking for Z intros / pilots”

This aligns with the evidence from crowdfunding + pitch research: clarity + informative content beats fluff.

The 2025–2026 reality: founders are going video-first

Even outside formal investor meetings, founders are increasingly using video to cut through noise. Fast Company covered the rise of startups shifting funding announcements toward viral short-form video formats to stand out online.

This doesn’t mean “go viral or die.” It means the default media format for attention is already changing — and fundraising lives downstream of attention.

Bottom line

A great video won’t rescue a weak business. But the data supports something founders already suspect:

Video can materially improve fundraising outcomes by increasing comprehension, trust, and follow-through — especially when it’s information-dense and built to earn the next step.