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Ask HN: What tools do you use for fundraising?

16 points by anotherfounder ↗ HN
I am curious to learn what tools do other founders use for managing the fundraising process - finding connections (via LinkedIn & AngelList), tracking pitches, finding other investors in the space.

I haven't found anything online which seemed to fit the bill and it seems like a problem that has probably been solved.

So how did/do you manage the fundraising process?

9 comments

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slovette
We didn't. Though, I'd suspect most would use any kind of a project tool already used for everything else they're doing (for us this was Trello).

As to where to find investors, we just dug into our current relationships and cold called people in similar verticals until we found people that wanted to hear us out.

Maybe it's different culture in the bigger tech hubs, but early investment is really personal for us (not something you find on angellist or LinkedIn). It was important that it came from someone we at least partially knew already or was familiar with what we are doing through the grape vine.

After that it was just relentless persistence until we landed a decent angel. Lots and lots of drive time and hand shaking, but no smart app or toolset.

contingencies
Just keep a list of interested potential investors.

As a founder you should be explaining the business to everyone and listening to their reactions. That means everyone - including other-sector people, non-tech people, your family, your friends, your neighbors, random shopkeepers, people in the lift, people in the carpark, people on the plane. If they are bored or zone out, you are doing it wrong. Improve.

For ideas with strong potential and decent capital requirements, once you've got the pitch down write a decent investment prospectus document aimed at larger scale institutional investors. Find some and test their reactions. Don't spend too much of your time on the small fries.

For ideas with minimal capital requirements, don't waste time raising just execute and beg/borrow/steal until you get cashflow positive.

choxi
I've raised a $2M Seed and $6M Series A, used Google Sheets for prospect tracking both times. The process was pretty simple: we'd add investors to the list, stack rank them in order of preference, contact them, and then use color coding and a status column to keep track of where they are in the process (BLUE="need intro", YELLOW=contacted, RED=declined, GREEN="term sheet", etc.)
berlinftw
Hey I have a question for you. I would like help writing an extensive business plan, since VC's have asked for one.

I've found a qualified consultant who already did work for me and would be willing to do this on a deferred basis. Can I include this expense in your opinion? It's under 6k usd but would have to be paid out of the budget. The person said that someone they asked said VC's don't like to pay for any past expenses.

thanks for an opinion.

anotherfounder
Thanks for the response, we were leaning towards doing something similar. Did you just use LinkedIn & AngelList manually to find investors and connections in your network? Or was there another tool that helps with that as well?

On a separate note, would you have that template for the Google Sheet available by any chance?