Investor Lists & Platforms. Anyone Actually Found Them Useful?

Hey founders,

I’ve recently stumbled upon a few "investor lists" floating around online — you know the type: Google Sheets with 500+ angel investors, VC directories, and even some paid platforms that promise access to thousands of investors.

At first, I thought, “Great! This will save a ton of time.” But the more I looked, the more skeptical I became. Some of these lists are outdated, others are just names with no context.

That said, I haven’t tested them properly yet. So I wanted to ask this group:

Has anyone here actually had success using these investor lists or platforms?

Maybe landed a meeting? Got useful feedback?

I’m not necessarily looking for cold emails to instantly turn into warm checks (though that’d be nice). I’m more curious if they helped in building real connections or even refining your outreach approach.

I’m happy to share the few lists I’ve found if anyone’s interested — just drop a comment or DM. But before I invest more time into customizing outreach based on these, I’d love to hear how others navigated this.

Did it help with getting intros? Waste of time? Any strategies you tried that worked better?