She Raised $1M Pre-Seed in Berlin – How Jessica Liew Did It

🚀 Episode 1 of Deal Makers (& Fakers) — with Jessica Liew (Berlin-based founder of Intriq), the AI platform helping consultants move faster by automating up to 87% of manual consulting work.In this episode, we go deep on what it really takes to raise a pre-seed round (Jessica raised >$1M), how to approach investor outreach without burning your network, and the real differences between fundraising in the US vs. Europe.If you’re tired of slow data requests, endless spreadsheets, and “can you send me that by EOD?” chaos—Intriq’s vision is simple: get answers on demand so you can spend your time on strategy, impact, and results.What you’ll learn How Jessica approached investor outreach and built momentum for a pre-seed round US vs Europe: what changes in investor expectations, speed, and storytelling What it’s like fundraising as a female founder (and what should change) What Intriq actually does: from document analysis to report drafting—without the grunt workAbout Jessica + IntriqJessica Liew is the CEO & Founder of Intriq, an AI startup transforming how advisory teams and consultants work with complex data.Intriq positions itself as an “AI-powered toolkit” for corporate finance advisors and consultants—built to speed up research, data collection, insight extraction, and report drafting.About the podcast: Deal Makers (& Fakers)Deal Makers (& Fakers) is a spectup podcast where founders and operators share what actually works in fundraising, investor outreach, and building companies—plus the “fakers” moments nobody posts about on LinkedIn.Who we arespectup is a capital advisory firm helping founders and growth-stage teams raise capital through investor readiness, outreach systems, and a global investor network. We run structured fundraising processes designed to create real investor conversations—not just “nice intros.”Links Learn more about spectup: https://www.spectup.com Check out Intriq: https://intriq.aiSubscribe + connectIf this helped, subscribe for weekly episodes on fundraising, outreach, and building real companies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit niclasschlopsna.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dealmakersandfakers.substack.com