How to Manage Your Fundraising Timeline
Raising capital is a crucial step for many early-stage startups, but fundraising itself is a distraction for founders — every day you spend fundraising is a day that you’re not focused on your business. That’s why the best founders use high-velocity fundraising to run a tight, effective fundraising process.
But how do you maintain control of your process and manage your fundraising timeline once you hit go?
Here are 5 tips for starting your fundraising process on the right foot and signalling to investors that you’re in control of the timeline:
1. Dictate the Timeline in Your Intro Email
An effective introductory email (whether via a warm introduction or a cold outreach) telegraphs a tight fundraising timeline.
In the very first interaction, you’re signalling to a potential investor that the fundraising train is moving and you’re in control of the process. For example,
“I’m scheduling initial meetings for the first 2 weeks of June. Please let me know if you’d like to schedule a time to talk.”
If your first email to a potential investor doesn’t include a timeline, it’s a subtle signal that you might not be running a high-velocity fundraising process. (And if you’re not packing investor meetings back-to-back, then that raises questions about how competitive the round is, whether or not you know how to fundraise, etc.)
The most effective introductory emails not only signal a tight timeline to potential investors, but provide enough of a window for them to reasonably fit you into their busy schedules (unless you’re a repeat founder with an epic pedigree, they’re not going to clear their calendar to meet with you tomorrow).
My recommendation is to send out introductory emails on a Tuesday (since most VC firms block off Mondays for internal meetings) and signal a 2-week window that opens the following Monday. For example:
“I’m scheduling initial meetings starting next Monday, June 3 through Friday, June 14th. Please let me know if you’d like to schedule a time to talk.”
Note: If you’re breaking up your funnel into multiple waves of investors (e.g. angels first, VCs second), send the second wave of introductory emails the following Tuesday and signal a 2-week window that opens the Monday after that.
2. Don’t Share a Wide-Open Calendar Link
If you decide to send a potential investor a Calendly or Vimcal link to schedule your initial meeting, make sure to block off a whole lot of it. You want to leave the impression that your days are packed with investor meetings.
The minute I see a wide-open calendar, I assume that this isn’t a fast-moving deal (or that you’ve already spoken to a bunch of investors and they all said no).
In my experience, you’re far better off letting investors send you their calendar links and controlling the timing of each-and-every meeting. That allows you to make sure the “practice” meetings with investors you don’t really care about come first, you leave enough space between meetings for breaks, and so on.
3. Control the Meeting Agenda
A typical initial investor meeting takes 20-30 minutes. The best founders control the time down to the minute.
Be like Robert McCall
That doesn’t mean you can’t allow the investor to drive some of the conversation, but you need to control the timing. Here’s an effective schedule for initial calls:
00:00 - 05:00: Pleasantries, introductions and elevator pitch
05:00 - 20:00: Core conversation
20:00 - 25:00: Founder questions
This seems short, but it’s enough time to whet the whistle of a potential investor while sussing out whether or not they’re interested and learning about their process.
There are two crucial aspects of this agenda:
You must leave at least 5 minutes for you to ask questions (so don’t ramble on for 25 minutes)
You should stop the meeting promptly at the 25-minute mark
The next two tips explain why:
4. End the Meeting on Time
You’re on the first call with an investor. The meeting’s going well and the VC asks, “Can we go longer?”
It might seem like an innocent question — particularly if you’re feeling a connection to the investor — but hidden beneath the surface is a second one: “Do you have another call after this..?”
Even if you feel like the meeting is going well, resist the urge to keep going and politely cut the meeting off.
“This has been a great call but I’m going to need to get ready for my next one.”
You can schedule a follow-up meeting as soon as the next day (and, by all means, make that one longer), but the signal you provide by keeping the initial meeting to its scheduled time is unmistakeable: this is a competitive process and I’m in control.
Ending the meeting at the 25-minute mark subtly implies that (a) you have another meeting starting immediately after this one, (b) you prioritize promptness (and are ensuring that you don’t start the next meeting late), and (c) are enforcing a few minutes between meetings to take notes and reset. All characteristics of a strong CEO.
A second, lower pressure option, is to allow the call to extend for 10-15 minutes:
“My next call starts at 9:45 and I’d like to ensure enough time to prepare, but I can go another 10-15 minutes.”
To be clear: I’m generally not a fan of playing games. Ultimately, you’re trying to develop a genuine relationship with potential investors in order to not only successfully raise funding, but also to make sure you choose the best long-term partners. That said, it’s in your best interest to start that relationship off with a bit of competitive fire so that potential investors make you and your fundraising process a priority 😉
5. Agree on the Next Steps
Too many founders leave investor meetings without knowing with certainty what the next step is.
Towards the end of an initial meeting, every investor will ask, “Do you have any questions for me?” Many first-time founders make the mistake of treating this like a job interview and ask questions that are designed to make them sound smart. But that’s not what you should do.
The best founders use the final minutes of an initial meeting to strategically gather data that will help them manage their timeline:
Ask questions to understand how the investor makes decisions:
How does the fund make investment decisions?
What is the exact process?
What information do you typically ask for in your diligence process?
How fast can you reach conviction / what is your typical timeline?
Ask questions to understand the investor’s initial impressions of you and your company:
Based on what we’ve talked about so far, is this a company you could envision investing in?
What are the key doubts you have at this point?
Do you think our objectives for the next 12-18 months are the right ones?
Ask questions to reinforce that this is a competitive process (by making the investor sell themself):
What are the key value-adds that you provide to your portfolio companies?
Based on what I’ve shared, how can you help us achieve our objectives over the next 12-18 months so that we can be in the best possible position to raise our next round?
What would your portfolio founders say are the biggest strengths of the fund / ways that you and the fund add value?
And, most importantly, ask questions to understand what the exact next step is (and who owns it)
The point of these five tips is to ensure that you’re in control of your fundraising process while subtly signalling to potential investors that they’re going to face competition (so if they’re genuinely interested, they should prioritize your process).
But keep in mind, while subtle signals can help move your fundraising process along, whatever you do stop with the fake FOMO.