Keeping Yourself Happy During a Fundraise

This week's tip: How to keep yourself happy and energetic during your fundraise.

Fundraising is mentally brutal. There are so many ups and downs during your journey to succeed:

1. All of the rejections
2. One step away from a term sheet
3. Feeling like the fundraise will ever end

Believe me when I say this: every founder I’ve worked with has felt this way during the fundraising process. Fundraising is rarely simple and fun.

Most founders try to pretend when they are not well, or that the fundraise is not going well. They try to pretend that they can “just get through this right now and deal with it later”. However, this way of thinking can be detrimental to your success, as investors can sense when something is off.

It's important to prioritize your happiness and energy during the fundraising process to avoid a less successful outcome. Remember, neglecting your well-being may result in more rejections than if you had taken care of yourself.

Here’s 6 ways to help you

1. Rate your happiness at the end of each day

Awareness is the foundation of seeing where you are mentally. 

By rating your happiness every evening, you will become self-aware and be able to track your progress over time. Moodscope is a good tool that I use.

You can also see what is making you unhappy with the fundraise, and set goals to make sure it's solved.

2. Gratitude journaling

This technique has single-handedly helped me through my depressive episodes. I've found that writing down three things I'm grateful for at the end of each day, along with the reasons why, can be super helpful. I recommend dividing these gratitudes into two separate categories: one for your company (to see how amazing it's doing!) and one personal (to appreciate your own life outside of work and to separate yourself from your business).

3. Learn some basic cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

I'm still personally working on this, and I see this time and time again with founders: we are all so negative towards ourselves. However, this negativity is the kernel of truth within positive thinking: much unhappiness is caused by unhelpful beliefs, and it's possible to change them.

CBT has developed many techniques for doing exactly this. One simple exercise is the ABCD method, which you can do at the end of each day to reflect on anything that happened during it. You can learn more about the ABCD method at this website.

4. Practice mindfulness

I do this through meditation. Even 5 minutes a day helps me relieve stress and be able to tackle the day after. To get started, I recommend Headspace and the book Mindfulness by Penman and Williams.

5. Adopt a growth mindset

Entrepreneurship comes with a constant: you will make mistakes and fail. It's important to believe that you can improve your abilities, become more resilient to failure, and work harder.

Not only will investors appreciate this attitude, but it will also help you learn from your mistakes and avoid repeating them. A great resource on this topic is Carol Dweck's Mindset, which reviews relevant research and explains how you can learn to adopt this mindset.

6. Build a support network

An ever-increasing part of my work with founders involves coaching them on the mental side of fundraising.

You should be getting this support from:

• Advisors
• Colleagues
• Family and friends

Additionally, speaking to your customers on a weekly basis and seeing how much your product is helping them can really ignite your passion and confirm that you are on the right track!

You can see a more detail blog on building your support network here.

If you adopt these 6 points I promise you will be much happier and productive during your fundraise. Your mental health comes first, so make sure you aren't destroying it.