Let’s talk about treating your fundraise like a sales process.
At its core, selling and fundraising are very similar. In both cases you are asking an individual or a company to give you money in exchange for something of value. In both cases you are competing for a limited pool of capital from people with limited time that have a wide selection of choices.
Treating your fundraise like a sales process doesn’t mean you need to be a salesperson. It means that you should be organized because that organization gives you focus. You should have a system that you use to track potential investors—it could be as simple as a spreadsheet or as involved as a fundraising-specific CRM.
Having an organized approach will make it easier to focus your energy. For example, if you have a stage called “Targets” filled with investors that you are targeting, then you can ask for referrals to specific investors. You can also track who you’ve pitched, when you pitched them, and what their interest level is. Even just the visual representation of seeing how many investors are in different stages can help direct your next set of emails and meeting requests.
Organization brings focus. And Focus turns soft-circled VCs into committed capital.
Listen to the whole episode here:
Startup of the Year Podcast Episode #0040 – 2020 Startup of the Year Summit Recap and Winners
On this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, we included a recap of highlights from the 2020 Startup of the Year Summit.