Tell YOUR story when fundraising
When raising your next round, get in the driver's seat.
Telling investors your company's story is arguably a founder/CEO’s most important job.
It’s the difference between running a competitive funding process and falling flat.
It’s the difference between raising nothing and raising what you want.
But how do you tell it?
There’s a subtle framing I’ve found that’s helped me.
I’ve shared it with a few founders, and they’ve also found it helpful.
So, I’ll share it today since it’s fundraising season.
This post isn’t about the process of raising money. In other words, it’s not about how to reach out to investors, or how to run a process, or how to make the deck(s). We’ll cover those in upcoming posts.
This post is about how to craft the story you tell to investors.
It’s the most important first step in any fundraising strategy.
And it should start well before you even think about raising.
Let’s start with the wrong way. The way many founders often approach investors.
Starting from a place of, “What do investors want to see and hear?”
Or, in other words, “What in an investor's eyes will make my business fundable?”
The question isn’t completely off-base. It makes complete sense.
But it creates a few behaviors that don’t work for you as a founder.
First, it puts the investor in the driver’s seat. It makes them right about your business.
It puts you on the back foot as you search for answers and ways to think about your business outside your business.
You’re letting the investor, in your mind, dictate whether or not your business is fundable. And so you’re giving away your power and your confidence.
Here’s how this starts to manifest:
You spend a lot of time looking for templates when putting your pitch deck together. For example, start with the problem slide, then the TAM slide, then the team slide, etc…
You spend a lot of time talking to other founders, trying to get intel on what investors think and how they think your business.
You conform to using a set of metrics you don’t even use to run your company,
Sound familiar? You’re probably operating extrinsically, thinking about how a prospective investor will see the business and letting that dictate your actions.
Here’s a different strategy and what I believe works in your favor when fundraising.
Start with what you most believe about your business.
Ask, “Why do I believe my business is massively fundable?”
Do the hard work to answer those questions for yourself. Truthfully.
Internalize that story for yourself.
And run the company that way.
That’s the hard part.
I think of this strategy as the “intrinsic method.”
It puts you and the company first. It puts you in the driver’s seat.
You’re simply telling the story of your company to investors. Because you’re the expert on your company, you know it better than anyone else.
Here’s how you’ll know you’re on this path;
Putting your pitch deck together is easy. It all flows naturally from the story you know about your company.
Problem statements, customer anecdotes, and other sections of the deck are story-based, not exercises in regurgitating numbers or facts. The story builds like a crescendo.
You can assemble a first draft of materials for investors based on existing dashboards you use to run your company.
Finally, preparing for fundraising is a lot about mindset. And for that, I’ll leave you one final comment:
Remember that this is your company. You’re the founder. You’re the one putting your life into building the company.
You’re selling a piece of your hard work!
Even if it doesn’t feel this way throughout the process (it can be hard amidst rejection), keep reminding yourself that you’re not trying to convince someone else that you’re fundable. You’re seeing who’s going to be lucky enough to invest.