Templates by Gian Seehra

I see it every single day:

Fundraising founders drowning.

Stuck with a failed fundraise lasting months.

All the while never actually building your business.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, you know.

If you have the right systems?

You can do both.

All it takes is building out your own fundraising operating system.

That way you can fundraise more effectively.

And spend more time actually building the business of your dreams.

You can see more about how to do that in the comments below.

♻️ Repost to help other founders with this.

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P.S. Building these systems is not a quick-fix. It takes time.

But these can be used for every single fundraise you do after, so its always worth it.

97% of founders fail to convince investors.

All because you are unbalanced in your persuasion.

👇🏾 Here’s how to change that 👇🏾

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P.S. My name is Gian Seehra.

I help founders raise Pre-seed to Series B money by helping them build their own fundraising operating systems.

If you enjoyed this post I write every day here. Click on my profile to follow me :)

#entrepreneurship #startups #venturecapital

You suck at fundraising.

Because you don't understand WHY investors invest into companies.

That's why you should read VC investment memos on the companies they invested into.

Luckily I've made this resource for you.

200+ Investment Memos from Tier-1 VCs like:

- Sequoia

- Bessemer

- A16Z

- Atomico

- Octopus (even my own 😅)

As well as others.

--

To get it, do 3 things:

1. Like this post

2. Comment "Memos"

3. Connect with me

And I can send it over to you.

2 reasons why founders raise $$$millions with 0 traction.

And you can't even raise a penny.

That requires time, practice and experience.

1️⃣ Network

When I started my first business I didn’t even meet a single investor.

I had zero ways to find and get into a meeting with them.

Instead I tried everything:

→ Cold emailing

→ Direct on their website

→ Stalking them on the streets (I joke…maybe…)

Without a functioning network you’ll never actually get the chance to show why you are great.

And you can’t do this via linkedin, or cold, or via an investor’s website.

You have to be structured in how you build your network.

Through 3 main ways:

1. A CRM of all the potential connectors you have

2. A system of how you make people around you LOVE you

3. A structured, mapped out network who want to connect you to investors

Without these 3 you’ll never get to the main goal of your investor network:

At least 100+ warm connections into different investors by the time you launch.

With at least 60+ of those turning into actual meetings.

If you don’t do this, you fail before you even start!

2️⃣ Narrative

So you’ve solved your network and can meet at least 60 investors when you launch…

Now what?

This is where I see founders fail purely because you aren’t being systemised of HOW you build your narrative.

This isn’t your pitch deck.

This isn’t your data room.

This.

Isn’t.

Your.

Docs.

Your narrative is the subjective way in which you influence and convince an investor to invest into you.

To do this you have to prepare how you tell your story in the right way.

That is clear, concise and exciting.

You have to build your 4 stories:

→ Company Origin Story

→ Founder Origin Story

→ Customer Stories

→ Vision Story

Because without this you’ll never make investors want to invest into you.

After this you need to work on HOW you communicate with investors.

Then put in a system in place to make sure you have ample time to:

→ Practice

→ Change

→ Hone

How you speak about you and your business.

You can’t just ‘wing’ it and expect investors to fall into you lap.

Now I know…

This looks like a lot of hard work.

And it is.

(Truly).

But this is how fundraising founders successfully raise money for their start-ups.

And you are sitting here reading this wondering why no investor wants to invest into you.

—

Now it’s time for me to sell

You have 2 options here

1 - Read this post, get a dopamine hit, move on with your life on LinkedIn and fail to fundraise.

2 - Decide you want to stop fluffing around on here and actually fundraise for your startup.

If you selected Option 2 - DM me “RAISE” and I’ll share the details on how I can help you.

PS - The minimum price is £2,000. Wanna be upfront about it.

#entrepreneurship #startups #venturecapital

I've worked with founders of billion-dollar businesses.

I’ve also met 100s of founders who haven’t.

Here’s 4 things the most successful ones had:

1️⃣ They don’t know until they test: data has to be at the forefront of the business.

The best founders I met always thought in data.

They tested everything.

2️⃣ Ideas are cheap. Hard work and execution is what will make them succeed.

The successful founders knew their idea wasn’t new.

And that they would be successful solely because of that idea.

They were betting on their ability to execute above all else.

3️⃣ A deep understanding of their vision.

Both in terms of how they want the company to change the world.

But also in terms of their deeper ‘why’.

That makes them be able to carry on when it gets tough.

The best founders were passionate about the problem and market they were in.

4️⃣ Communication is a super power.

The best founders knew how to communicate.

To their:

- Employees

- Customers

- Investors

Whoever.

They were powerful communicators.

Using storytelling and data both in unison to get their point across.

What is your favourite one out of the 4?

What other traits would you add?

#entrepreneurship #venturecapital #startups

Present founders:

- Randomly decides to fundraise

- Cold emailing 90% of the investors

- Zero process on how they launch and execute their fundraise

Future founders:

- Creates PR around them as a domain expert

- Builds a functioning network of connectors and investors

- 90% of the investors they speak to are from warm connections

- Prepares a proper timeline and strategy of how they will fundraise

Don't be the present founders.

Be the future ones.

This is how you successfully fundraise.

P.S. This all comes down to being accountable of doing the boring, tedious work. That's what fundraising is really about.

#entrepreneurship #startups #venturecapital

In 2019, I led a £9m Seed Round.

It was the largest Seed Round in the UK that year.

Now...

You would expect the usual reasons why we invested so much:

1. A clear story

2. Special founders

3. A large opportunity

But there was also something else that was a big reason for why we invested.

What was it?

The founders were able to hire in some of the best people we had seen.

They had already built exactly what this company needed to.

They had extreme amounts of success doing it.

And now were willing to risk everything to join this tiny little start-up.

Funnily enough one of those exceptional hires ended up being the CEO! That’s how good their hiring was.

At the end of the day, investors invest into teams.

And those teams are the people who are going to be the difference between a successful company or not.

So as a founder you have to show investors that you can, will and have hired the best of the best.

Because second-rate hires will never cut it.

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P.S.

What do you think about team-building and its importance?

♻️ Repost to help a founder in your network

How I've helped founders raise $200m+.

All through managing their raise properly:

If you want to know the real secret for fundraising.

It's doing the necessary work to be successful.

It's as simple as that.

You aren't doing enough work.

Or the ACTUAL work that moves the needle.

It's not the market.

It's not investors being bad.

For most of you, you aren't focusing on the right things.

And managing how you do this properly for when you:

→ Prepare

→ Launch

→ Complete

Your raise.

That's why you have to manage your raise in the proper way.

And we work through how you do this properly.

1 way I help founders do this is by using a round management tool to make sure you are preparing your raise in the right manner.

Check out the video to see a more detailed description of what this looks like.

This is a core tool we use to help you fundraise properly.

If you want this tool (FOR FREE).

→ Like this post

→ Comment with "Raise"

→ Connect with me so I can send it over

This is the way.

Only the CEO should attend investor intro meetings.

No matter if you think your co-founder should be there.

Why is that?

Because if 2+ people are in the intro meeting it does 3 things:

1. Makes it harder to build a connection

2. Confuses the investor on who is the real leader

3. Takes away everyone’s time from building the business

If you truly think your co-founder is a better speak then maybe they should be the CEO instead 😬

Fundraising is the CEO’s job.

It always will be.

So let the others focus on their job instead of helping you with yours.

Now.. are there some examples where it may be beneficial?

Sure.

But they are rare.

So rare that I can say with confidence that you should make sure that only the CEO is doing investor intro call.

You’ll thank me later.