Fundraising demands your whole team's time for months of calls and meetings. Pick investors who share your vision, not just anyone writing checks. Set clear milestones to show progress and keep momentum alive during negotiations.
Chapters
Raising capital is a huge time commitment. I know for me, I probably spent, you know, so much time. It was hard to also run the company. It wasn't just my time on the capital raise. It was my team's time because typically each call that I would have with a potential investor group was followed by requests for follow-on information, a deeper dive. Can I talk with you know, um, your sales manager in region X, Y, or Z, or your marketing person. So it really does pull in a large team if you're getting a lot of meetings, uh, with investors, which is exactly what you want. Um, you know, and I think being flexible when it comes down to someone starting to talk about terms, whether it's valuation or, um, you know, if you're raising a priced round, if it's a convertible note, what kind of terms come along with that convertible note, how and when does it convert, what kind of discount is associated with it. And then I think certainly it matters who you accept capital from. I mean, sometimes we don't have the luxury of picking and choosing, but, you know, when you do, I think finding someone who shares the company's vision that you really can relate to, because clearly this investor is going to be in your life for a really long time. And, you know, investors say the same thing, you know, when we talk to them at US Capital. They say, we're really looking at team members that we can relate to because we're going to be side by side with them. And then, you know, your, your, um, interaction with a lead investor is likely going to unfold over weeks and months. You wish it could be faster, but I think one thing to keep in mind since you're going to be, you know, speaking with them over several meetings is to establish some milestones that will generate some positive momentum. You know, the investor, it might, they might be small, but the investor will see, oh yeah, they met that milestone that they had ahead of them that they thought they were going to meet, you know, last month they met it, check the box, it gives them confidence.
