Comprehensive Fundraising Guide for Startups: A Checklist
As you begin to consider your first (or next!) round of fundraising, it can feel like there’s so many moving parts. Don’t worry—we’re here to help! Take a look through our complete comprehensive checklist.
Here you’ll find:
Preliminary questions to organize your thoughts and pinpoint your motive
The metrics you’ll need to tell the right story to investors
What information to include in your pitch and dataroom
The data, considerations, and answers investors will want to see
The context to explain why each element is important
Follow and check off below, or download the complete guide to save to your device, take notes, and monitor your progress.
Your Comprehensive Guide to Fundraising: A Checklist
Questions to Ask Before Your Next Funding Round
Make sure you're able to answer the following questions to be prepared for investor conversations, align your priorities, eliminate back-and-forth, and identify a clear strategy:
Why do I want to raise?
The big question. Of course everybody would always like more capital. Really ask yourself how this funding round will be used to grow your business. As you raise, you don't want to keep doing more of the same—how will you use your capital to enter new markets, expand your offering, and accelerate your ability to serve your customers?
Exactly how will I use the money?
In addition to why you want to raise (above), how exactly will this round of funding be used? For example, how would you use the funds to build a product or scale your Sales & Marketing team?
What is my sales & marketing strategy?
How are you acquiring leads and customers, and how efficiently are you doing so? How are you interacting with the market, and is it scalable?
How much do I want to raise?
What types of investments do my potential investors make:
Size
Stage
Geography
ARR range
Industry
How do I find investors?
Psst...The KPI Sense Investor Portal connects you directly hand-picked matches from our pool of 50+ institutional investors!
Am I looking for expertise or connections from my investors, or just the funds?
What kind of equity am I willing to give up?
How much are you willing to give over to investors of your company? (15%? 25% share? When they're more "invested", they really are more invested—both in financial ownership and decision making.
Have I considered all financing options (e.g., debt vs. equity)?
Dataroom Considerations for Funding Round
Once you've answered the questions above, you're ready to begin compiling your data and story. Make sure to include the following:
Dataroom Portal Information
Pitch Deck
Unique selling proposition
Executive/founder bios
Sources and uses documentation— make sure you are able to speak to how you’re going to use the money
💡 Learn more about what to include in your fundraising pitch deck here.
KPIs (last 36 months)
Churn—include your reasons! Acquisition, out of business, etc.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
Other important SAAS metrics (not sure what to include? Someone from our team can help you.)
User Metrics
Number of users
Time within platform
Average user tenure
Customer Satisfaction Metrics— you might not have enough data for this yet. No worries! Include any data you may have on customer satisfaction so far.
MRR by Customer
Functional Profit and Loss (P&L) (last 36 months)
Balance Sheet (last 36 months)
CashFlow Statement (last 36 months)
3-5 Year Integrated (interactive) Forecast
Total Addressable Market Calculation
Current penetration and targets
Current verticals
Industry reports, including competitors
Sales Process/Cycle Documentation
Lead Gen to Cash Metrics—How long it takes to outbound, close the sale, and perform the sale
Typical Sales Cycle
Annual Contract Value, by Segment
AR/AP Agings
Your Accounts Receivables/Accounts Paid information shows who owes you and how long it's been outstanding. Investors like to see this has it can show risk and cash collection issues.
Pipeline data (e.g., Hubspot, etc.)
Capitalization Table—Who owns how much of your company
Organization Chart
Incorporation Documentation
Customer Contracts
Customer References
List of strategic vendors and significant contracts (if applicable)
Meeting Items
Shareholder Meeting Minutes
Board Meeting Minutes
Board Meeting Materials Distributed
All existing and/or applied for patents, trademarks, copyrights, and domain names
Findings from Previous Professional Services Engagements
Accounting Report
Market Analysis
Product demo
Tax Returns for 3 Most Recent Years
Operational Considerations for Funding Round
Depending on your type of business, you may need to adhere to certain regulations and guidelines.
Legal Structure Implications
Current Legal Structure
Don’t Go It Alone
We’d love to help. We’ve assisted 100+ companies raise over $500 million dollars, so we’re familiar with the process of calculating and aggregating the necessary metrics to prove value to investors. Our team is always here to help guide you along and prepare, analyze, forecast, and connect to investors all within our platform.
Set up a time to ask questions or chat with our team below, no strings attached.