Niclas Schlopsna’s Post

𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 . One of the biggest fundraising mistakes founders make is this: They spend more time looking for investors…than building something investors naturally want to pay attention to. So the cycle becomes: • Send pitch deck • Follow up repeatedly • Get ignored • Repeat But here’s the truth: Fundraising becomes much easier when you stop operating from desperation and start operating from leverage. What does leverage actually look like? 1. Clear traction You don’t need millions in revenue. But you need signs that the market is responding: • User growth • Retention • Engagement • Partnerships • Revenue momentum Traction changes conversations. 2. Strong positioning If people instantly understand: What you do Who it’s for Why it matters You reduce friction immediately. Confused investors don’t invest. 3. Market demand The strongest fundraising signals happen when people already want what you’re building. Demand creates confidence. 4. Visibility & credibility Founders underestimate this. The more consistently you communicate your vision, insights, and progress… The more trust you build over time. Investors notice momentum before meetings happen. 5. Relationship-building before the ask The best fundraising conversations rarely start with: “Can you invest?” They usually start much earlier: Shared insights Progress updates Consistent visibility Here’s the shift most founders need: Instead of asking: “How do I convince investors?” Ask: “How do I make this opportunity difficult to ignore?” Because when leverage increases: Responses improve Conversations become warmer Negotiating power changes Investors don’t just invest in ideas. They invest in momentum, clarity, and confidence in execution. And momentum is built long before the pitch deck is opened. What do you think creates the strongest leverage for founders today: traction, storytelling, or distribution?

USE THE RIGTH CAPITAL RAISING ADVISORS AND GET THEM ON BOARD EARLY   Founders often bring in a capital raising advisor too late. In a fundraising process, that can be costly.   A good capital raising advisor does much more than “find investors”. The right advisor helps prepare the company, the founder team and the process before investors are approached. It cannot be underestimated how much clarity means for success of a capital raising round.   The right advisor will help sharpen the narrative, challenge the financial model, test the valuation logic, prepare the data room, structure the investor materials and ensure that the founder team is ready for difficult questions. This is a structured approach to capital raising and includes identifying the right investors, creating competitive tension, managing timelines, coordinating due diligence and keeping momentum until signing and closing. Just as importantly, the advisor knows which other advisors to involve and when.   The right legal counsel, tax advisors and specialist advisors can make a significant difference, but they need to be brought in at the right time and managed properly. A good advisor will have the network to connect the company with the right lawyers and the experience to coordinate them effectively. Investors quickly sense whether a process is prepared or improvised. Founders who are well prepared will appear more professional in the negotiation. They will answer with more precision, understand the dynamics of investor interest and make better decisions under pressure.   In a seed or growth round, the difference between a well-run process and an unstructured process can be substantial.   It can affect valuation and dilution and other substantial terms and it can ultimately affect your control.   And over time, it can make a difference of millions of Euros.   Founders should not think of a capital raising advisor as someone to call when the round is already underway. They should think of the advisor as part of the preparation. Because in fundraising, the process often shapes the outcome.   //Søren

Most founders think a "no" from an investor starts with a rejection email. It doesn't. It starts when they open your deck, spend 2–3 minutes scanning it, and close the tab without ever replying. No meeting. No feedback. Just silence. And you'll never know why. You'll assume you need warmer intros. A better network. But the real problem is usually sitting on your slides. Here are the reasons investors actually pass, the ones nobody says out loud, and what your deck needed to show differently: ↳ "They don't believe your market size" You dropped a $40B TAM from a Statista report and moved on. No bottoms-up logic. No math showing how customers become revenue for YOU. They needed your capture logic, the chain from user to revenue to scale. Without it, the big number works against you. ↳ "Your market felt crowded, and you didn't sound different" You had a 2x2 competitive matrix. You were in the top-right corner. Every founder is. What was missing? A positioning narrative that explains WHY you exist now. Not "we're better than X" but "the market shifted, nobody adapted, and we're built for what comes next." ↳ "The numbers were fine, the story wasn't" Your deck had traction, a team slide, a product screenshot. All the right pieces. But it read like a Wikipedia page, not a case for why this becomes a massive outcome. Your deck needs a single narrative thread connecting the problem, the timing, your unfair advantage, and the inevitability of your growth. ↳ "They couldn't picture a fund-returning exit" You showed a solid business. But the investor's mental math didn't work. Could this return the fund? Your deck didn't answer that because nothing on those slides made the big outcome feel inevitable. ↳ "Someone in their portfolio is quietly building the same thing" This one hurts because there's nothing you could've done. But a strong deck makes the investor think "this team might win even against what we already have." If your deck is generic enough to describe three companies, it won't survive a portfolio conflict. ↳ "Your round was too small to matter, or too big to lead" The ask slide matters more than founders realize. If your round doesn't match your traction, stage, and the fund's check size, it's an instant filter. Frame the raise in context: where you are, what this capital unlocks, why this amount right now. Here's what most founders miss: The deck isn't a formality you send before the real pitch. It IS the pitch. Before the meeting. Before anyone hears your voice. Your deck is doing the talking and in most cases, it's saying the wrong things. ♻️ Repost this if you think more founders need to hear it. -- Credit: Nick Katz -- P.S. Raising soon but not sure your deck is ready? I build pitch decks for pre-seed to Series A founders 👉 deckstudio.co

I think the proxy for quality of a fund/investor is tracking how many companies stay in touch after they get a rejection. It's the most important thing I have started to track for all the conversations I am part of. No from an investor and Rainmatter by Zerodha specifically, is rarely the end of the story. We've passed on opportunities where we didn't have enough conviction at the time, maybe the market felt early, the model wasn't clear yet, or we simply couldn't see what the founder saw. But most Founders stay in touch. They share updates, not to pitch, just to keep us in the loop. They treat us like partners even when we haven't written a cheque. And sometimes slowly, conviction builds. And we end up investing. We've learned a lot from these relationships. Sometimes we've spent lots of time learning the basics and figuring ways to partner even without an investment. And as they say, no is a snapshot of where we are, not a verdict on the company forever. If we've passed on any opportunity before, please keep us in the loop. We're paying attention. And we'll try to help with all things possible, until we have the conviction to invest. ♥️

80% of an allocation decision hinges on 2 things we all "know" but we don't know how to do it. (I wish more fund managers knew these 3 simple-not-easy tips. ) The 2 keys to a buying decision? Trust and connection The 1 way we're going to get there? Confidence Here's what I mean: Fund managers, you’re rockstars when it comes to analyzing data, managing risk, and making investments. But when it comes to sales for your fund or marketing your firm? Let’s just say, many of you would rather be anywhere else. Because meetings are awkward and marketing can be terrifying (introverts unite - I know this too) You’re not alone. It’s natural to feel awkward in social settings, nervous about being vulnerable, or scared to let your human side shine. But here’s the thing Raising capital isn’t just about the numbers It's about the people behind them Here are 3 tips from our StorySales playbook for capital raising: 🎯 1/ Make a friend, not just a sale Capital raising is a relationship business. People invest with people they like. When we meet someone new, stop thinking about closing the deal. Start thinking about connection. Ask about their interests. Share ours. Find common ground. 🎯 2/ Let our human side lead We don’t have to impress anyone by being perfect. Investors want to know they’re working with someone who gets them. So, ditch the jargon. 86 the extra polished persona. Be relatable. Be real. 🎯 3/ Experiment with new story-first sales strategies Telling your story doesn’t just mean standing on a stage. Think outside the box in how we can build and engage our audience: ➜ Share our insights in a LinkedIn post or podcast interview. ➜ Host a small, informal gathering with prospects & clients where you talk about more than just the portfolio. (Micro events are mighty!) ➜ Send a personalized video message instead of another templated deck. Raising capital is personal. It’s about creating connections, building trust, and showing that your expertise is grounded in passion and purpose. 📣 What’s 1 piece of advice for fellow introverts to build confidence? Your message needs to be as powerful as your investments. Confidence leads to capital. = 📌 The old playbook for fund sales is broken. We wrote the new one. 📌 It starts with story.

If you’re a first-time founder in life sciences, here’s a hard truth that’s easy to underestimate: You don’t start building investor relationships when you need money. You start months—often years—before that moment. In biotech and life sciences especially, investors aren’t just backing data. They’re backing: • Your judgment under uncertainty • Your ability to navigate long timelines • Your credibility with scientific and clinical stakeholders That kind of trust doesn’t come from a single pitch meeting. It comes from consistent, thoughtful engagement over time. What that actually looks like: – Sharing progress updates before you’re fundraising – Asking for perspective, not just capital – Demonstrating how you think, not just what you’ve built – Following up and closing the loop on advice you’ve received This isn’t about “networking” in the transactional sense. It’s about building a track record of how you operate. Because when you finally do ask for money, investors shouldn’t feel like they’re meeting you for the first time. They should feel like they’ve been watching you execute. And ideally, they’ve already decided they want to be part of the journey. On a related note, here is a quick read and suggestions on how to strategically build relationships with VCs: https://lnkd.in/ebfBdUF4 #LifeSciencesFoundersBuildRelationshipsWithInvestors #VerveGroupConsultingSupportsFounders

Are you intending to raise capital for your project? If so, you might want to take a very, very close look at Uzair's post below...

Founders beware! Planning, preparation, positioning  and the quality of the introduction. Most founders don’t fail to close a family office because of the product. They fail on everything around it. The founder , and Team matter as much as the business. Family offices back people over long timeframes. They’re asking: Who am I sitting across from for the next 3–5 years? A polished deck with a thin founder story goes nowhere. A credible founder and a strong  team  with an imperfect deck will earn a second meeting. It is not the deck it’s the people! Capital discipline is non-negotiable. How you spent your seed round tells them exactly how you’ll spend theirs. If you can’t explain burn, runway, and unit economics in plain language, you lose the room quickly. Your story has to hold under scrutiny. Not just sound good in a pitch. It needs to survive a conversation with their investment committee, their lawyer, and their accountant , three very different audiences. Most decks only speak to one. Warm introductions outperform cold outreach every time. Family offices receive hundreds of decks. Cold emails get filed away. Trusted introductions get read the same day. This isn’t a small edge; it’s often the deciding factor. Be diligence-ready before the first conversation. Data room. Clean cap table. Management accounts (at minimum). Sensible legal structure. Turning up without these signals one thing: you’re not ready, regardless of the opportunity. The gap between a fundable business and a funded one is rarely the idea. It’s planning, preparation, positioning and the quality of the introduction. If you’re raising £1M–£40M and want to understand what “diligence-ready” looks like before going to market as well as a route to funding ,lets get talking! #PrivateCapital #FamilyOffice #SeriesA #GrowthStage #Fundraising #FounderAdvice #AlternativeInvestments #Investor #Team

Investors aren't funding ideas anymore. They're funding moats. An idea without structural protection isn't a business. It's a head start. And head starts evaporate the moment a well-funded competitor decides your market is worth entering. The founders raising right now aren't just the ones with the best products. They're the ones who built their companies to be hard to replicate – and can prove it. Before your next pitch, ask yourself one question: if a well-capitalized competitor decided to copy exactly what you built tomorrow, what slows them down? If the answer lives only in your deck and not in your data room, you have work to do.

⚡ 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 (𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻) 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲? No it isn't because of bad ideas. It is because of how they build. They build like operators, not like institutions. Everything runs through the founder. Decisions are instinct-driven. Financials are unclear. The business works, but only because the founder is holding it together. To an investor, that is not a company. That is a dependency. Institutional capital does not invest in hustle. It invests in structure, governance, predictability, and scale without the founder being the bottleneck. That is why so many founders stay stuck. Not rejected, just never taken seriously. The solution is not a better pitch or more meetings. It is rebuilding the company to function like an institution. Once that happens, capital does not need convincing. It moves.