Summary

What are investors looking for during fundraising due diligence?
What one critical fact do most founders miss when thinking about what drives their investors’ funding decision?
What is the single biggest mental pivot you need to make as a founder to successfully fundraise?

In this episode, Lisa Frusztajer, Investor in Residence at the Capital Network, talks about what founders should prepare for pre-investment, what factors external to your startup could play an outsize role in the funding decision, the one fundraising skill non-financial founders MUST master, and much more.

Episode Highlights

1. How investors vet startups doing fundraising
2. How investor-side issues can impact your startup's funding chances
3. What investors look for in your financial model and how to nail the process
4. How institutional investors differ from angel investors and why that matters to founders
5. How to make your startup instantly more attractive to investors, with one simple change
6. How to get up the financial learning curve quickly as a non-financial founder
7. Common mistakes founders make during fundraising and how to avoid them
8. Two ways your financial model can go wrong and how you can tackle them, even in the face of uncertainty
9. How to level the power balance with your investors
10. The sure-fire way to increase your self-confidence on the hard things
11. How to design the right capital stack for your startup
12. How to balance gives and takes when negotiating a funding deal
13. How one funder achieved a response rate over 90% with a fundraising cold email
14. How to build strong investor relationships for the long term