Jeff Wenzel says set fundraising goals you can actually hit. A $5 million target with 100 signups looks like failure when you miss it. Start with $150,000, crush it, then use that win to pitch bigger investors.
You know, as a company, you want as many wins as possible. Okay, so what does that mean? It means when you're out fundraising, I never recommend putting up some massive goal. Hey, we want to raise $5 million. We have 100 email signups and no ad budget. Like, the chances of you hitting that are slim to none. What you should be doing is I want to raise $150,000 with 100 signups and no ad budget because that's going to show, hey, there's some traction here, right, that this is not ridiculous, that it's not a fantasy, fantasy or a fairy tale. Right? It's showing that like, nope, we set a goal and we hit that goal. Because that's what all businesses are. We're hitting, setting a goal and hitting that goal. So if you put this crazy number out there, crazy valuation, you look insane. You just do. So be realistic about where you truly are in your fundraising journey or as a company itself, you know what's really behind you and then have realistic goals and hit those. Because then when you go and you pitch big boys and you say, hey, 2025, we did this. 2026, we did that. 2028, we did this. We hit our goals, you're going to show people your word has value, okay? What you don't want is a whole bunch of losses. Because if I go and I Google your campaign or I go and I try to find you, you had a five million dollar goal and you only raised $150,000. You look like a failure immediately, when in actuality, you actually probably were successful with what your actual data behind the scenes were. Okay? Think about that. Have wins in your back pocket. It. It's going to matter in the long run. Hey, I'm Jeff. Fuzzy Lenzo. If you've stuck around this long, go to pre ipohype.com book a call with me. Love to connect later.
