How social networks and virality are changing venture deals

Nurdaulet Bazybekov, venture investor and founder of Eurasian Hub

In recent years, it has become clear: the startup scene is being changed not only by technology but also by social media. Currently, any announcement about a funding round can be promoted on Instagram, TikTok, or posted as a video on X — and the reach is no longer limited to the press. For a startup, ignoring such channels is like launching a product in a vacuum.

Why startups need social media

Social media help founders build a brand, gather an audience, and even attract investment. They replace part of marketing and PR. For example, by publishing engaging videos and talking about their developments, founders can instantly "get noticed" by potential customers and investors. This provides several practical benefits:

1. Viral marketing. Short videos and memes are easier to get views — TikTok or YouTube algorithms "promote" content, not ordinary text posts.
2. Direct contact with investors and media. Investors themselves are happy to watch social media, comment on trends, and share analytics. Activity on X/LinkedIn allows a founder to directly get on the radar of the right fund or angel — without formal emails.
3. Gathering feedback and building a community. Through online platforms, a founder can quickly test an idea, for example, through polls or publishing an MVP in stories, and get support from the first users. Comments and likes can become the first signs of interest and demand for the product.

To summarize, digital platforms are becoming for startups not just an advertising channel, but part of the product itself. As noted in Andreessen Horowitz, it is increasingly common to see teams not just promoting their products through online platforms, but building virality as an integral part of the product.

How investors view social media

For venture funds, digital platforms are both a source of insights and a tool for selecting startups. Many investors themselves actively maintain social media, share opinions, and educate their followers. They follow startup stories in real time — who achieved what, who is gaining popularity.

Moreover, investors increasingly conduct a "check" there — a kind of due diligence. They look at how the team communicates with the audience, whether they respond to criticism, and whether they can clearly present the product. A live presence on online platforms helps funds better understand the founder as a personal brand — see their style, values, and competencies.

Overall, the trend is twofold:

1. On the one hand, some investors have become more cautious about "media" startups — remembering the wave of meme stocks and the crypto boom.

2. On the other hand, those looking for new stories of rapid growth are increasingly turning to digital platforms. As an a16z analyst noted, young people are shaping the future of online communication — and their interaction in the media environment determines how we will communicate on the internet in the coming years.

Cases: Cluely and Series

A bright example is Cluely. This startup released a short "rom-com" about itself and its bots in the spring of 2025, spending about $140,000 on production. As it turned out, one-time costs for shooting a video pay off because millions of people learn about you. The video got 13 million views on X and instantly spread to other social networks — so much so that the service could not handle the influx of users, and its "servers crashed."

The founder Roy Lee wrote about this: “More companies are being created today than ever before, and the only way to break through is to make bold bets, like our announcement video.”

Thanks to such virality, the Cluely team quickly found investors: in the same spring of 2025, they attracted their first $5 million in investments, and a couple of months later — in the summer of 2025 — an additional $15 million in venture funding from a16z was announced. The fund was interested, among other things, in how Cluely "hooked" the audience through social media.

“Cluely broke the boundaries, turning distribution into design: by launching viral short videos, creating resonant product releases, and building an online presence with the speed and effect of a show,” — shared one of the a16z partners.

This approach has already proven its effectiveness: customers come through recommendations from the feed, and investors see an active team with an effective sales channel behind the project.

Another case is the startup Series. Two students from Yale University posted a teaser of their AI social network on LinkedIn. 14 days after the video was published, they were invited to a meeting by Anne Lee Skates from Parable — and soon the team received $3 million in Pre-Seed investments. In other words, releasing a video on LinkedIn became the strongest "entrepreneurial resume" that led to money.

There are more and more such examples. Social media allow not just to announce "we raised a round," but to really sell the idea — through stories and visual content. Traditional text posts are giving way to short video announcements: from monologic speeches by founders to clips with visual effects. The main thing is to stand out and hold attention in crowded feeds.

Conclusion: what social media teach us

Social media have seriously penetrated the venture world. For founders, this is another growth channel: with the right approach, they allow you to accelerate recognition, gather an early audience of users, and even adapt the product to the community's requests. For investors — this is an opportunity to catch trends "on the fly": spot promising founders by their online activity and, perhaps, understand what the market is saying even before the official release.

The dynamics are obvious: new startups become media-savvy right from launch. Funds like a16z are learning to make marketing part of the product. If it used to be enough to have official press releases, now creativity and speed are important. As a result, both startups and investors are learning anew: some are polishing TikTok videos and LinkedIn posts, while others are looking for future market leaders in this.