Author: Jan Hendrik Ansink

Website: http://www.ansink.capital

Credits: If my plan is of help for you, I'd be glad if you invite me to your funding round (LinkedIn) or, in other cases, make a donation towards a great cause at The Ocean Cleanup.

Introduction

Raising money is a full-time job, on top of the daily hustle of building a company. It's not something you can do on the side – it needs at least 80% of your capacity. Either you or someone from the founder team must fully dedicate to the process. If you follow the process, you will be able to raise a round within a short timeframe of less than 90 days. If you do not focus, the process can drag on for ages and will ultimately fail or end up with subprime investors, which makes it harder to raise the next round.

The process is divided in three phases:

1. Preparation
2. Outreach
3. Closing

Good preparation in phase 1 makes the second and third phase much easier. Once you start the official outreach, you can not go back to preparation and significantly change your pitch. You will lose trust among potential investors.

Outreach and closing are time-critical phases. In outreach, you need to build up a dynamic in collecting commitments so that investors feel the urge, and want to be part of the round. During outreach, we will contact many investors at the same time. We want to push as many investors to the next stage as possible, and at best, gather commitments simultaneously. We do not waste time on investors that will not be investing in this round.

Every time an investor agrees to invest, it will help convince others. In the early phases of your business, investors often look to the decisions of their peers. The more people agree to invest, the faster you can finish raising money. In closing phase, you need to keep momentum and drag people over the finish line. Very simple 🙂

Winner’s attributes

Investors in Pre-seed to Series B rounds are looking for the following signals of a thriving investment:

• … first and foremost, a dedicated, persistent, and competent management team, which is highly motivated about executing the mission. You must convince investors that you are 100% convinced of the vision and that you will be the one executing and fulfilling the mission. This a 100% given, no matter how difficult it will be.
• … your service or product is targeting an attractive market with either existing large (evolution) or extensively growing volume (disruption).
• … a compelling strategy and product vision to capture a significant market share. Describe why your product is superior to existing solutions.
• … as well as traction measured in user research, usage, retention, or revenue. In other words, any operational indicators that they are investing in the right team and case.