Do not rely on outside sources for funding
sometimes in my role As a consultant, I’ve been approached by companies planning for fundraising that doesn’t involve a CEO or founding team member running a point in the fundraising process. I understand. From the outside, VC fundraising looks a lot like sales. If you have great sales people, why not let them do their best work?
The problem is that salespeople are good at sales, but the VC fundraising process is very different from the customer acquisition process. You are trying to find alignment between your company and a long-term partner who will make a significant contribution to the future of your startup. If there is (sales teams have a long-term view of what success looks like, which can lead to conflicts), the whole deal can fall apart.
In the early stages of fundraising, there are some really good reasons why the founding team should go through the fundraising process. In this article, I’ll break it down and explain why it’s a terrible idea to let someone other than the CEO raise the money.
