Stage
Understand the company’s present evidence and constraints.
FUNDRAISING & CAPITAL STRATEGY
Are you actually ready to raise?
Fundraising readiness is not a polished deck. It is whether the company has enough evidence, traction, a clear milestone, credible capital needs, and an investment case that can withstand scrutiny.
Readiness · Traction · Capital · Dilution · Pitching · Investor fit
FUNDRAISING PLANNER
Work out what the next milestone may actually require.
Assess the case, estimate the capital requirement, model a simple priced-round scenario, and see what needs work before starting a fundraising process.
About 4 minutes · No account required · Nothing is sent or stored
CAPITAL STRATEGY
Start with the milestone.
Do not begin with "How much can we raise?" Begin with "What must the company prove next?"
Milestone
Define the outcome the next commitment must unlock.
Activities
Identify the work required to reach that outcome.
Capital
Cost the work, timing and uncertainty.
Runway
Protect enough time to execute and respond.
Next proof
State what should be demonstrably true afterwards.
TRACTION
What counts as traction at your stage?
Traction is credible market response appropriate to the company’s stage. It does not always mean revenue.
Early signals
- Design partners
- Pilots
- LOIs
- Qualified waitlist
- Beta usage
- Commitments
Emerging traction
- Activation
- Repeat usage
- Customers
- Conversion
- Early revenue
- Retention
Stronger traction
- Revenue growth
- Customer expansion
- Repeatable acquisition
- Sales velocity
- Retention
- Improving economics where relevant
What matters is whether the evidence is credible for the company's stage and the amount of capital being requested.
CAPITAL OPTIONS
Do you actually need to raise equity?
Equity is one financing option. Compare the ownership cost with the practical constraints of other sources.
Customer revenue / prepayment
BenefitPreserves ownership
Trade-offCreates delivery expectations
Founder capital
BenefitPreserves flexibility
Trade-offConcentrates personal exposure
Grants & incentives
BenefitCan be non-dilutive
Trade-offEligibility and timing constrain the plan
Debt
BenefitPreserves equity
Trade-offCreates repayment and cash-flow obligations
Strategic capital
BenefitMay add commercial value
Trade-offCan create strategic constraints
Equity / staged finance
BenefitCan finance uncertainty and growth
Trade-offChanges ownership and potentially governance
READINESS
What needs to withstand investor scrutiny?
A startup is ready to raise when the milestone, evidence, company foundations, capital requirement and process are coherent enough for external scrutiny.
Company
Ownership, incorporation, IP, governance and the team’s ability to execute.
Evidence
Support for the problem, customer, product, market and business-model assumptions.
Traction
Stage-appropriate signs that the market is responding and momentum can continue.
Capital
A costed milestone, credible use of funds, runway logic and visible assumptions.
Investor case
A consistent reason this company, milestone, round and timing belong together.
Ownership
An informed view of dilution, control, governance and future financing consequences.
INVESTOR FIT
Investor fit is more than a cheque.
Investor fit means the investor’s stage, cheque size, thesis, sector, geography and governance expectations align with the company and round.
- Stage and cheque size
- Thesis, sector and geography
- Portfolio conflicts
- Lead or follow behaviour
- Follow-on capacity
- Ownership expectations
- Governance and board expectations
- Founder references
Verify current activity and decision processes. This advisory work does not promise investor introductions.
MATERIALS
Give every fundraising material a job.
Materials should make the same investment case at different levels of detail.
One-pager
Earn the first conversation.
Pitch deck
Make the investment case easy to understand.
Diligence material
Support deeper evaluation.
Data room
Make verification organised and efficient.
PITCHING
Pitching is more than having a deck.
Pitching communicates the case. It does not create investability when the evidence, traction, strategy or capital logic is weak.
Evidence+Traction+Strategy→Investor narrative
- Pitch strategy
- Script and deck
- Investor narrative
- Product demo
- Traction framing
- Q&A preparation
PROCESS
Manage a process, not a list of introductions.
A disciplined fundraising process protects time, creates comparable investor conversations and keeps diligence moving.
Prepare
Readiness, materials, criteria and data room.
Target
Investor universe, prioritisation and sequencing.
Engage
Outreach, pitch, meetings and follow-up.
Diligence
Questions, references, financials and company information.
Close
Term sheet, final diligence, documents, conditions and funds received.
OWNERSHIP & TERMS
Understand the deal before you sign it.
Dilution is an ownership consequence of financing, but control, preferences and future rights also shape the deal.
Ownership & dilution
- Pre-money / post-money
- Dilution
- Option pools
- Pro-rata rights
- Future rounds
Control & governance
- Board composition
- Voting / reserved matters
- Drag and tag
- Founder vesting
- Closing conditions
Terms & instruments
- Priced rounds
- Convertibles
- Valuation caps
- Discounts
- Liquidation preference
- Anti-dilution
Strategic guidance does not replace qualified legal, tax, investment, or cap-table advice.
THE NEXT PROOF
Raise for the milestone, not because raising feels like progress.
Start with what the company needs to prove next. Then decide whether outside capital is the right way to get there.