Fundraising Strategy

Overview

Fundraising is selling a piece of your company. The mistake: treating it like a financing event instead of a sales process. You are selling equity in exchange for capital, and like any sale, it has a funnel, close rate, and negotiation. This skill covers the full fundraising motion — deciding whether to raise, building pipeline, running the process, evaluating terms, and closing.

Authoritative Foundations

• Jason Lemkin (SaaStr). 3x YoY at seed; burn multiple gates at A/B; VP Sales hiring ~$2M ARR.
• Christoph Janz (Point Nine). ARR napkin — stage-appropriate growth expectations.
• David Skok. Unit economics before scale — LTV:CAC, payback.
• Rob Walling (TinySeed). Bootstrap-first path; raise from strength at $1–2M ARR.
• Brad Feld — Venture Deals. Term sheet mechanics (not valuation advice).