The hidden tax of fundraising

Dear Founder,

You're fundraising. Networking, pitching, following up. It all feels urgent and critical. 

But don't ignore the hidden tax it levies on your company.

It's not just your time. It's the collective focus drain. Every hour managing an investor is an hour lost on speaking to your customers, building your product, or unblocking your team.

I learned this the hard way. During my last seed raise, I spent months iterating pitch decks, creating endless financial models and building numerous “strategy documents”. And the investors I was pitching to loved them all. It felt great and important!

But I missed critical marketing campaigns, causing our revenue to plateau. We still closed the round, but the investor and board questions that came afterwards about that stagnant revenue were endless and distracting.

Founders don’t say this enough: fundraising is a distraction. It’s a process that is constantly glamorised in the media, but it isn’t sound business. Sound business is building your customer base, your revenue and ultimately your profitability.

Now, I treat fundraising like any other high-cost, high-impact project. Here’s my approach:

• Single owner: Make sure only one person runs the process. If you're the CEO, that's you. Shield the rest of the team from the investor “requests”

• Time-box it: Allocate a set period (e.g. 6 months to raise £500k) and stick to it. If you can't hit the goal in that timeframe, figure out other ways

• Align the team: Inform your core team that you'll be focusing on fundraising for the allocated period. Clearly communicate that they will need to take the lead on protecting and running the core engine of the business

• Delegate ruthlessly: That critical marketing campaign needed to drive revenue? Delegate it to a trusted team member. Have them report progress to you in a concise, weekly one-hour meeting. Don’t try to be a hero and do it all yourself

Fundraising is crucial, don't get me wrong. But never let its pursuit starve the core revenue engine of your business.

Keep building.

Ishan