Inspired by Vanessa Lau's content strategy — adapted for the Venture Europe show.
Content pillars
Use reusable frameworks and templates. Every piece of content should fall into one of these 3 × 3 pillars:
1. Educational — build authority
- Calling out mistakes — "3 fundraising mistakes that kill your Series A"
- Myths & misconceptions — "No, European VCs are not risk-averse"
- Tips, tricks & how-tos — "How to cold-email investors and get replies"
2. Inspirational — build connection
- Facts & stories about your journey — personal brand content
- Shifting beliefs & confidence — "Why Europe is THE place to build right now"
- Guest founder stories — social proof through others
3. Promotional — drive customers
- Address objections — "Is coaching worth it for early-stage founders?"
- Social proof & testimonials — share listener wins
- Direct promo — upcoming events, partnerships, Dealroom collabs
Content matrix
Cross your 3×3 pillars with your core topics to generate 100+ content ideas:
Fundraising | Scaling in Europe | Pitchdecks | Coaching | eu/acc | |
Mistakes | 5 pitch mistakes | Scaling errors | Deck red flags | Coaching fails | Policy blunders |
Myths | VC myths EU | Market myths | Deck myths | ROI myths | EU vs US myths |
Tips | Cold email tips | Go-to-market tips | Slide design tips | Founder mindset | Regulation tips |
Stories | Your raise story | Guest founder | Before/after deck | Client win | EU success story |
Beliefs | "You can raise in EU" | "EU > US for X" | "1 deck is enough" | "Invest in yourself" | "EU is accelerating" |
Proof | Listener raise | Growth metrics | Deck makeover | Testimonial | Dealroom data |
Objections | "VCs won't fund me" | "EU market too small" | "My deck is fine" | "Too expensive" | "Too much red tape" |
Social proof | Guest investor | Portfolio wins | Case study | Community win | Ecosystem data |
Direct promo | Fundraise guide | Newsletter CTA | Deck review offer | Coaching CTA | Dealroom partner |
Workflow
- Rich content → YouTube episode + Newsletter = 1 + 1 per week
- Threads / microcontent → Break episode into ~20 social posts
- Carousels, shorts & reels → ~50 derivative pieces per month
Production process
- Take screenshots of Twitter/X posts → add them in Canva for carousels
- Schedule carousels from Meta Business Suite
- Shorts: sit down and record 20-30 clips in one sitting from thread scripts → edit in CapCut
- Quote reels: take a strong quote → add to Canva → add video background (e.g. Pexels) → 5-sec reel
Evaluating your content
Weekly scorecard — track these numbers every Friday:
Metric | Target | Actual | Delta |
YouTube views | 5,000 | — | — |
Podcast downloads | 3,500 | — | — |
Newsletter subscribers | +100 | — | — |
Newsletter open rate | 40% | — | — |
Social engagement rate | 5% | — | — |
Inbound leads | 3 | — | — |
Ask yourself:
- How aligned is your reach with your bottom line?
- How well is your media strategy working?
- Which content pillar drove the most engagement this week?
Key learnings from Vanessa Lau
Vanessa went from 0 to €8M in 3 years, then burned out. Key takeaway: build reusable systems and templates so content creation is sustainable.
- Have as many templates and frameworks as possible that you can reuse
- Use the content matrix to never run out of ideas
- Batch-produce derivative content (shorts, carousels, quotes) in one sitting
- Track your scorecard weekly to stay aligned with business goals
- Consider building a community / academy (like BossGram Academy) where you charge ~€2K