How to become ‘investment ready’

Written by our CEO, Peter Rabey.

As a business raising capital, it can be a challenge knowing exactly what investors are looking for and what you should devote your time to. How do you know when you’re investment ready? Do you have the right team around you? What is the risk vs reward? How do you find investors?

I’ve had the opportunity to speak to many leaders that have previously led or are currently leading companies through investment and each have their own pieces of advice to those starting out on the journey. My top picks this week are from Lukas Wagner, CFO at Pipe, Yoav Vilner ✔, CEO at Walnut and Louisa Murray, SVP, Global Head of Enterprise Customers and Channel Partners at Railsr.

As CFO at Pipe, Lukas has been part of the team that led the company from start-up to unicorn in just three years. Valued at over $2 billion, Lukas shares some of his best investment advice from Pipe’s journey!

There are two sides to fundraising:

1. The ability to tell the compelling story of your company, your vision, and your world-building outlook. This normally comes from the CEO.
2. There are the numbers that underlay your story. Numbers that normally come from the CFO and showcase your momentum, growth trajectory or geo expansion.

Each element plugs into where the other falls short, so ensure there is a strong relationship and trust between the two.

Don’t put all your efforts and time into one potential fund. If you wait for each individual fund’s answer before moving onto the next, you’ll be wasting precious time.

Although it may be tempting to blast the inbox of every Venture Capitalist you come across, this can be another time-consuming process often with little reward. Before you reach out to a potential VC, view their portfolio, and utilise your network as you may know someone that can connect you directly to that fund.

How do you succeed in investment? Do what you say your company is going to do.

Look forward – Ensure you have a strong proposition. Make people believe in your company’s vision and future.

Build results – Create a product that people want to buy, but above this, build an ethos people will understand.

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