The First Four Mistakes That Startup CEOs Make When Fundraising

The most common pitfalls I’ve seen among founders seeking investors for their companies, plus some advice on how to avoid them

I recently did a webinar helping two dozen CEOs with the wide range of challenges facing them as they grow their business, and about half the questions that came in beforehand were about just one topic: fundraising. At first sight, that may seem bizarre. Are these guys obsessed with money? What about their product? Their team? Their customers? Or the half-dozen other areas on the agenda, where startup founders can improve their chances if they up their game?

Reflecting further, I realised that if you think of a startup as a machine, then all these things are important engineering issues to make the machine run faster or more smoothly. But fundraising is different: money is fuel. And we all know that drivers fill up the tank much more often than they take their car in for a service. So it’s not surprising how much fundraising looms in the minds of startup CEOs.

Fundraising is different: money is fuel

I’ve seen startup fundraising from different perspectives. As a founder, raising five private rounds from angels, VCs and growth investors before an IPO. As an investor, writing over fifty cheques between $25m (when…