I just about finished building the MVP for a product i have been working on a for a while. (Self-taught) technical founder here. I have users I have been talking to and building the product around. It looks and feels great and it feels 'new' and easy to use as far as user experience is concerned.

The issue is I have only one VC connection, he is the head of one of the top 3 VC funds in the US. We had a call once and he told me at the end of the call to reach out to him if I ever needed money or was raising money. [ He called me after I cold-emailed him with unrelated comments about his fund. ]

The problem is I really do need money but not a ton and I am not quite ready to raise a full round. However I don't have wealthy 'friends and family' to reach out to and I don't want to dilute so early through angel investors and pro-rata preferences. This fund has a big scout program. Which would be ideal for me. I just need a small amount to carry over to the next step. Given that I have never worked at a tech company and have no connections, this is the only person I can reach out to. I am also going to apply to YC but that is up in the air.

My question is how do I phrase this ... I want to say hi anyway in case there are beginnings of product market fit in which case I would actually really need them.