How To Create A Lightweight “Data Room” for Raising Capital

I love it when our users come up with new and innovative ways of using our platform. This happened awhile back when a customer figured out how to use our Investor Update tool to host her Pitch Deck, and more recently a couple users have “invented” a way to use Foundersuite to create a data room / investor document repository.

The goal is to be able to post your deal documents online and then share them with interested investors while fundraising — all the while tracking who has access. Here’s how.

Step One: Decide On A Workflow

The first step is to decide what documents you want to share with potential investors and in what order.

For example, a logical progression might be:

1 — Intro Docs: Executive Summary, 3 page “teaser” pitch deck

2 — Post-Meeting Docs: full pitch deck, business plan, financials, metrics / KPIs

3 — Negotiation Docs: term sheet / offer sheet, pro-forma cap table, due diligence package

4 — Closing Docs: stock purchase agreement, investor rights agreement, voting agreement, bank wiring info (hooray!)

Step Two: Upload Docs For Each Step Of the Workflow

Using the Investor Update tool in Foundersuite, create a new page for each collection of docs listed above.

For example, start by creating a page called “Intro Docs” and on that page, add a text block with a brief Welcome / Introduction, and then attach or upload your relevant files.

Next, create additional pages to send later to the investors who pass the first screen and are ready to see our financials, cap table, etc.

TIPS: You can edit the text elements (e.g. Company Summary) and remove elements you don’t need. Be sure to click the toggle called “Make private and track views” so you can see who is accessing your page.

Step Three: Publish, Send, and Track Views

When you Publish a page. it generates a unique URL you can send to investors using your own email program (e.g. Gmail or Apple Mail). Upon receipt, they can access and review the docs. Each page will look something like this:

Come back later and see who accessed your pages. This is a good way to gauge who is really interested and who is progressing through the steps of your funding process.

That’s it — a simple, fast way to create a series of document portals to expedite your fundraise.

Got any tips or suggestions? Please email us! We’d love to hear from you.