TBC: Time-Saving Fundraising Strategies

TBC136: Time-Saving Fundraising Strategies

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[00:00:04] Jason Yeh: everyone. Welcome to anotherepisode of the Back Channel. In today's episode, I wanna clarify one of thethings that I think actually kills fundraisers, and then tell you a little bitabout the strategies or approaches that you might employ in order to combatthis real killer of fundraisers. Now, a lot of people think rejection is thekiller of fundraisers.

[00:00:25] Getting people tosay no to you is, is the killer of fundraisers. This is not the the killer offundraisers. In fact, you have to go through tons of rejection to get to youryes. So it's really just a part of real fundraising. The real killer of fundraisersis time. Time kills fundraisers. Now, time kills fundraisers in a variety ofways.

[00:00:45] If you dragsomething out too long, if it takes too much time to raise capital, you mightrun out of money. And when you run out of money that kills your fundraiser,obviously that kills the company because that kills the fundraise. The otherthing about time [00:01:00] is that when youpull things apart and spend too much time on a fundraise, you dissipate, you,you, unbundle, you sort of release, you create a release valve for the pressurethat is necessary for a great fundraise.

[00:01:15] A lot of people haveheard me talk about the idea of calendar density, combining all of yourmeetings and jamming them into a more dense area on your calendar so that timegets compressed, pressure gets compressed, and people feel, uh, feel thepressure of getting something done, feel the pressure of doing a deal beforethey lose it to somebody else.

[00:01:36] A lot of times when.Time is the killer of your fundraise. What could have helped is if you employedstrategies to make sure that you save time, you don't, you don't stretch time,and you actually get some stuff done. So I wanna talk a little bit more aboutsome of those strategies to really combat the idea of time killing yourfundraise.

[00:01:58] The first one is [00:02:00] to prep as much ahead of time before youraise capital. Prepping ahead of time is. Essentially doing everything that canbe done before you actually start having conversations. A lot of people willstart lightly prepping and then be like, I'm kind of ready, and then be rushed,go to start pitching investors and then realize, okay, I'm pitching theinvestor.

[00:02:23] As I'm pitching theinvestor. I need to like really work on my deck. Because my first bit offeedback, which was the first bit of feedback I ever got. Told me I need to goin a different direction. So that wasn't a great pitch. Now I need to update mydeck. Now I need to go talk to people before my deck is updated.

[00:02:36] So you're, you'rewasting time, you're wasting cycles. You're, you're pushing off next meetings.'cause, 'cause materials aren't prepared. Or you pitch your first 10 people,you don't get a term sheet. And so then you're like, ah, now I need to go back tothe, well try to find investors that I can pitch introductions and newinvestors.

[00:02:54] Try to add more tothe top of the funnel to create my pro, to keep my process going. Now [00:03:00] those things like iterations on your deck,getting feedback, getting a better version of your story, as well as makingsure you have a big top of funnel, you have a good list to go after. Those arethings that should be done in advance of actually kicking off your fundraise.

[00:03:19] I'd highly recommendyou go. Prep as many of these things as you can ahead of time. Keep it in yourmind that this is something that is on the horizon for you. If you're a venturebacked company, your next round is on the horizon. So know that you're gonnahave to do some stuff ahead of time in order to make sure that fundraise isless painful and takes less, less time.

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[00:03:39] Jason Yeh: One thing I learned running my lastventure-backed startup is your lawyers really matter. Some founders like toglaze over this decision, but don't do that. It's really important. Last time Iused Gunderson Detmer and I definitely do it again.

[00:03:53] They weren't justtransactional. They really felt like they were a part of a team. There's alegal perspective on almost everything you're doing at a startup, [00:04:00] so they're involved in everything fromfundraising.

[00:04:02] I. To equity comp,to hiring, to commercial contracts, really everything. And Gundersen is reallybuilt for the early stage. They work with more startups and VC firms thananyone else, over 3,500 companies, 500 funds, and they've been ranked the topVC law firm for over a decade. So if you'reraising so if you're raising, scaling, or just try not to mess up your firstsafes as you go out to fundraise. Gunder Endeavor can help you navigate all ofit, so you can focus on what really matters, which is building a greatbusiness, growing that great business, and following your dreams. So if you'dlike to learn more, check out gunder.com.

[00:04:21] All right, back to the show. I.

[00:04:21] So if you'reraising, scaling, or just try not to mess up that first safe when you go out.Fundraising, Gundersen Detmer can help you navigate it all so you can focus onwhat really matters, which is building a great business, growing that greatbusiness.

[00:04:33] So if you'd like tolearn more about Gunderson Detmer, check out gunder.com.

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[00:04:38] Jason Yeh: So there are a couple things thatI'd say. One is that some of the best prep doesn't always feel like extra work.Right. So remember that some relationships that you build can be done whiledoing business development. They can be done while recruiting for new talent.So you can reach out to investors, make touchpoints that are more aroundbuilding the company [00:05:00] today, butactually helps you generate a relationship that could help in the future foryour, for your next raise, as you're building decks and materials to go selland building a sales narrative.

[00:05:13] Realize that some ofthat stuff can be translated over to your deck. So working on a really tightsales narrative can be the starting point for your next, your next deck, yournext fundraise pitch. And as you're recruiting people realize that those, thoseconnections, as I said before, could also be intros to investors in the future.

[00:05:35] You can ask thosetypes of people for intros. The next thing I would say is time boxing yourprep. So a strategy to help make sure that fundraise prep doesn't feel likeit's taking over your life before you raise capital is you can define areas,boxes of time on your calendar that you've set aside just for fundraising.

[00:05:56] So let's say youjust closed a round, you're not gonna be raising for [00:06:00]another 12, 18, whatever months. But it can be helpful to say, you know what?In afternoon, a month, I wanna spend a little bit of time working on mappingthe venture capital industry. What, VCs I want to go after, who are somerelationships that I can work on?

[00:06:18] What are some thingsthat will help me? But instead of being like I'm prepping a fundraise 18 monthsout, no, that, that'll eat into the actual execution of your business. Put iton your calendar a couple hours. Defend that time. Take warmup meetings. Takerelationship meetings, work on some of the tactical things that you need to do,and only set it to that amount of time for the first, call it 12 months whenit's not that important.

[00:06:41] That'll help you getsome stuff done without bleeding into the core of your work. Okay. And thenlastly, get help. Get help is one of those time saving shortcuts, that I thinka lot of people don't realize is an opportunity for them. You can ask for help.You can ask [00:07:00] connections and friendsand acquaintances and employees to help you with the work that needs to be doneto prepare for a fundraise.

[00:07:08] You can hire peopleto support you. You can do a lot of different things that help save your timeand improve the opportunity and possibility that your fundraise in the futurewill be successful. Okay, so. Prep before you raise time, box your prep and gethelp. These are three strategies that I wouldextremely or that I would highly recommend you employ as you getready to make your fundraise better, and then make sure that time doesn't killyour fundraise.

[00:07:36] Alright, hopefullythis was helpful. I will see you guys on another episode of the back channel.

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