I was recently spending some time with a VC friend talking about fundraising.

He was talking about how he builds relationships with potential founders he wants to invest into.

And how much time it took for him during his busy days.

During our talk we both came to the same conclusion:

Timing is a funny thing when it comes to fundraising.

You see…

If you spend a lot of time with an investor when you are just about to fundraise.

They are most likely not going to invest.

They’ve spent too much time with you.

And had too much exposure to your inherent risks.

However, if you spend 9+ months with an investor.

And build a proper relationship with them.

Your trust and connection is much higher.

You can show you are an executor without having to worry about them spending time on your risks (like they would in a live deal).

Now…

Most investments are done in two majors ways.

1. The investor has known the founder over the long-term
2. An ‘exceptional’ founder suddenly popped up in the short-term

So, to successfully fundraise you have to do either of this.

Here’s the 2 main strategies to get to one of these.

1. You are 9+ months away from fundraising

This is where you should be building relationships with investors directly.

The goal here is to show 4 things:

• You care about the investor and their story
• You can execute at lightning pace
• You are a great communicator
• You are coachable

This is very much a long-term game.

And where I focus a lot with my founders.

This will take some time away from building your business.

But will do wonders for you in every stage of your company.

You can use coffee chats, events, investor update lists and dinners to build this expertise.

You want to get an investor sold on your vision.

And show them snippets of what it would be like if you joined you on your adventure.

So when it comes to your fundraise…

They are already sold.

• On you
• On your vision
• On your company

2. You are 2-9 months away from fundraising

This is where I see most founders sitting.

You are starting to prepare for your fundraise and don’t know where or how to look for the right people.

Now this might sound counter-intuitive…

But one of the worst things you can do is reach out to investors and try and build relationships now.

This is where an investor can see you are preparing to fundraise in the near future.

So they will do two things…

1. ‘Kick the can down the road’: i.e. spend less of a focus on you
2. Look more into your risks because they have the time to

Once they do both of these, your chances of fundraising plummets.

So how do we solve this?

Well…

Your goal here is not to necessarily build relationships directly with investors.

But focus on the people AROUND them.

You want to have an ability to have as many warm leads as possible for when you do fundraise.

Whether that is:

• Founders on the investor’s portfolio
• Super connectors
• Industry experts
• Angels

You should be building a super network to get you to the investors you need to.

So that when you do fundraise.

You have 50-100 investors all within a warm connection.

And hopefully each investor has 2-3 people sending them your opportunity.

This is where you can come across as an exception founder who has completely changed that VC’s day/week.

Who they didn’t know before, but now has to spend all their time with you to get your investor over the line.

—

A small caveat on the above:

You should be doing number 2 even if you are 9+ months away from a fundraise!

So then you have long-term trust with a small section of investors.

Whilst also having the ability to ‘pop’ out of nowhere as this ‘amazing’ founder for the other investors you don’t know.

This is what fundraising founders do.