Will you introduce me to investors?

I will tell you which investors to approach, who inside the firm to reach, and what to send them. Warm introductions happen where I have the relationship and the fit is right, but they are not the product and they are never priced as one. An advisor who sells access is selling you the part of the process you can do yourself.

How early is too early?

The test is whether there is an inflection to raise against. If the next eighteen months of spending will produce a result that changes what the company is worth, the round is fundable and the work is to size and sell it. If they will not, you have a data problem, not a capital problem, and I will say so on the first call.

We already have a deck. Can you just fix it?

Sometimes, and that is a fixed-fee brief. More often the deck is fine and the problem sits upstream of it, in the size of the ask or the inflection it is pointed at. I will read the deck first and tell you which of the two you have.

Do you work on the terms as well as the raise?

Yes. Term-sheet judgment is where the money is made or lost, and it is the part founders doing their first round have least practice at. I model what each term costs across the next two financings, so the comparison is between numbers rather than adjectives.

You have to raise capital, and the money is harder than last time.

Most rounds are lost before the first meeting, in the sizing and the story. I build the round with you, then help you run it.

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Whether this is you

A round is rarely failing for the reason the deck says it is. Four versions of this call come in.

The last round was priced in a different market, and the number you set then is now the thing you have to explain.
You have thirty investor names and no way to rank them, so you are pitching in the order people reply.
The lead keeps asking for the model and you keep sending the deck.
Two term sheets arrived and nobody in the room can say which one is cheaper.

What the work is

I build the round: how much, from whom, and the story that gets you there. Valuation work, the investor list, the deck, the data room, and the insider or structured options if the outside round does not come.

Underneath the mechanics sits one question that decides the rest: what the next eighteen months are supposed to prove. Size the round against that and the burn, the milestones and the valuation all follow from it. Size it against the burn you happen to have and every conversation afterwards becomes a negotiation about a number nobody can defend. I sit on the investor side of this as head of research and investments at BioPalace, so I read your materials the way the person across the table will.

How it runs

How much, and against what: The raise gets sized against the next value inflection, not against the burn you happen to have. That means naming the readout, the filing or the deal that changes what the company is worth, then working backwards to the money and the months it takes to reach it. Most disagreement in a board meeting about the size of a round is really a disagreement about which inflection counts.
Who: The investor list, split by who can lead, who follows, and who is actually writing checks at your stage this quarter, not in the fund's marketing materials. Each name carries the partner who would own it, the thesis they have already published, and the reason they would say no. You pitch in that order.
The story: Valuation work, and the narrative that has to hold it up. That includes what your regulatory path is worth to the person buying shares, which is usually a different number from what it is worth to you. A story that does not survive a comparables screen will not survive the second meeting either.
The materials: Deck, model and data room, built so the diligence questions are answered before they are asked. The deck and the model have to agree, in the same numbers, or the first analyst who reconciles them will make it your problem.
If the round does not come: Insider rounds, bridges and structured terms, priced honestly, so the board knows what each one costs at the next raise. A participating preference or a ratchet is not free money with a complicated name. I price it and put the number in front of you before you sign.

What you end up with

A raise sized to a named inflection, with the burn that reaches it. A ranked investor list separating who can lead from who will follow, carrying the partner who owns the check and not the firm. A deck and a model that answer the same questions in the same numbers. A data room indexed against the diligence list and populated before the first meeting instead of during it. And a written view of what an insider round or a structured term costs you at the next raise, with the number attached.

Scope and fee

Most raise work starts with the two-week diagnostic, which is enough time to size the round, test the story against comparables, and tell you whether the market you are about to walk into will fund it. From there the usual shape is a retainer running from the start of the process through the close, three to six months for a Series A or B, longer if the round breaks and has to be rebuilt. A fixed fee suits the narrower brief, where the materials alone are the job. I quote after the first call and I do not work hourly.

When not to call me

If you want someone to make introductions and take a percentage of what closes, that is a placement agent, and I am not one. If the data package is not there, no narrative repairs it, and the money is better spent on the experiment. And if the board has already hired a bank to run the process, I am the wrong second seat. The useful version of me arrives before that, or alongside a board that wants a read the bank is not paid to give.

Questions founders ask

Will you introduce me to investors?: I will tell you which investors to approach, who inside the firm to reach, and what to send them. Warm introductions happen where I have the relationship and the fit is right, but they are not the product and they are never priced as one. An advisor who sells access is selling you the part of the process you can do yourself.
How early is too early?: The test is whether there is an inflection to raise against. If the next eighteen months of spending will produce a result that changes what the company is worth, the round is fundable and the work is to size and sell it. If they will not, you have a data problem, not a capital problem, and I will say so on the first call.
We already have a deck. Can you just fix it?: Sometimes, and that is a fixed-fee brief. More often the deck is fine and the problem sits upstream of it, in the size of the ask or the inflection it is pointed at. I will read the deck first and tell you which of the two you have.
Do you work on the terms as well as the raise?: Yes. Term-sheet judgment is where the money is made or lost, and it is the part founders doing their first round have least practice at. I model what each term costs across the next two financings, so the comparison is between numbers rather than adjectives.