You’ve been having lots of convos but no bites. Not even a nibble.

What is going on??? Does everyone know but you??

Here’s 5 common reasons why your fundraise might be (verrrrrrrry) slow — and steps to take to speed things up!

1. Valuation is too high.

I know you read about a company in Techcrunch who raised $100M with no revenue and now you’re fired up to do the same.

(P.S. It’s probably not true.)

Every founder wants a lot of money and high valuation. But there’s also downsides!

Including that investors will pass because the valuation is too high.

Even when they like you and your business.

They don’t want to damage the relationship (or their reputation) with an offer that’s too low.

But, Kathryn, I didn’t even say a valuation!

Reminder: valuation and amount your raising are directly connected.

THE FIX: Raise a smaller amount of money/lower the valuation. Get more investors interested. Let them compete the price up. Here’s how investors think about valuations!

2. Not enough traction.

tl;dr: you’re asking for too much money given your revenue or customer count.

Founder: But I’m pre-seed??? I don’t have revenue or customers.
O’Daily: You do need to have a lot of data and compelling talking points.

Founder: But I need to raise money to build the thing to get customers!
O’Daily: You can almost always get customers to pay for something. Even if it’s small, manual, or consulting services.

Founder: Fundraising is a full time job. I haven’t had time to get more customers.
O’Daily: Truth! So what if you spent this time on getting customers instead??? More revenue now, easier to fundraise later.

THE FIX: Get out there and get more (paying!!!!) customers! If they won’t pay, it’s not valuable. Many creative ways to pre-sell before a product exists: consulting services, tech front end with a manual backend, vibe coding, and more!

3. Market is too small.

Another way to say this is that your idea may not be “venture-scale.”

Venture-scale means that you could generate $100M in annual revenue within 10 years with good margins.

THERE ARE LOTS OF GREAT BUSINESSES THAT ARE NOT VENTURE-SCALE!!!!!!

Look at all the small-business-owner millionaires! (That you’ve actually never heard of because they’re not announcing on tech news that they’re rich 😉)

Agencies, brick-and-mortar stores, consulting, home services, highly niche tech are all examples of businesses that are rarely a fit for venture funding (but can make the owners lots of money)!

Yes, there are exceptions and often these businesses will have an exit, but they grow through customer growth not venture investment.

THE FIX: Take a hard look at your goals. Do you want to build something venture-scale? If so, iterate to a larger market or idea. Are you passionate about the current idea? Grow the business through customer revenue or bank funding.

4. Pitch deck is a hot mess.

It used to be that slides could look messy and disorganized. AI solved that.

(If they don’t, um, AI skillz?!? Ya, you need those.)

But your deck could be scaring off investors if the narrative, data, vision, and through line is verbose, disjointed, or underwhelming.

Or you forgot to —GASP! —talk about the money!!!!!

Here’s what can happen if your pitch deck is confusing:

“Hmmm, I don’t understand what this company does.” ➡️
“Why do they need so many slides to explain their business?” ➡️
“Is this how the founder always communicates?” ➡️
“Maybe they don’t know their own vision?” ➡️
“Customers and potential employees will be confused.” ➡️
“This is a red flag.” 😬😬😬

THE FIX: Focus on tightening your elevator pitch. Can’t do it in 4 words? You have more work to do. Avoid these 3 red flags, get help from experts, and practice, practice, practice!

5. You’re not inspiring confidence.

In the early stages, investors are mostly betting on founders.

Be someone they want to bet on!

If you’re wishy-washy, thinking small, not following through, uninspiring, don’t know your business, or can’t get people interested, that’s a big concern.

Highlight your strengths like:

• Vision-casting

• Competence

• Energy

• Determination

• Attitude

• Ambition

• Sales and stortytelling

You don’t have to have all of them. But you should have a lot of them. 😉

There’s also a fine line between confidence and arrogance. You want a founder to be confident enough to lead, sell, and take action, but still being open to learning and advice.

So bring the energy, ambition, determination, positivity, and belief!

And if you have it, but it’s not coming across, we’ve got tips to help you.

THE FIX: Use these strategies to better project confidence and build credibility. Remember: imposter syndrome is totally normal for founders. Here’s 4 ways top CEOs overcome it!

What helped you fundraise? If things were going slow, what did you adjust to get fundraising momentum? Any other reasons you’ve seen for a fundraise to not be going well?