What We Feel: Raising money takes so much time and effort, and it seems like we are scrambling for every meeting and follow-up. Every investor seems to want something different and more than the previous investor.

Your Change in Perspective: Raising capital in the midst of running a business is challenging. Often it is the most important thing that you do and the one for which you are the least equipped. In the beginning, you may also lack third party brokers, finders or investment bankers helping you with the process. Both the substance and the process can be challenging. For many new ventures, the investment process is a constant scramble to put together new PowerPoint presentations, documents and financial information for every investor meeting that comes your way. It may seem as though each investor is asking for something unique or different than the last one, but preparing one-off packages and reinventing the wheel for every new meeting is incredibly time consuming and inefficient.

While the process may differ slightly investor to investor, in actuality, the process is generally the same each time:
• Initial contact.
• Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement.
• Request for basic materials (Executive Summary, Financial Model, Presentations).
• Follow-up questions.
• Follow-up calls or meetings for deeper dives.
• Meeting key team members.

The order of this process may vary, but the process and necessary materials are the same. If you are a smaller business, you will not need all of these components but can select the ones that make sense for you. The goal is to develop a process and a set of materials that you build
once and use over and over regardless of the investor.

While it will take some time up front, once complete, you will be able to spend your time on the substance of the meeting instead of rushing to deliver new material after every investor meeting. The advance preparation is well worth it.

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