How long will it take to raise your first angel round?
So, you’ve decided angel investment is right for you. How long will it take from start to money-in-the-bank?
The length of your raise will depend on:
how big your network is
how much prep work you have already done
how exciting your investment opportunity is
the current state of the market and your industry
and most importantly, how good you are at selling and pitching
Some people raise funding within a few months of pitching to investors, whilst for others, it can take a year. It’s also worth noting that most businesses raise multiple rounds of funding, and the faster you’re growing the sooner you’ll be raising your next round - so essentially you may be raising all the time.
Regardless of how long the raise will take you, it’s going to take up a lot of your time day-to-day. When you’re in the full swing of raising, it can feel like a full-time job. As CEO it’s your job to ensure that you have the funding required for the continuous growth of your startup, so make sure you absolutely need funding and that you have the capacity to both run the business and raise finance.
Know what you’re looking for
Think about what kind of investor you're trying to find, who would be the ideal individual to add to your board? This can help you significantly in narrowing down your search and provide you with a better opener than simply asking them for money.
Create a timeline
Draw out a timeline of your objectives for raising funds with strict deadlines - this will be essential to your success. You will likely end up flexing the timeline according to how things are going, but having deadlines will help you stay accountable, as well as give a clear-cut deadline for investors to make a decision.
Set targets
When setting your targets, focus on processes over goals. There are so many variables in the world of fundraising, it will be difficult, and you probably will feel like you're getting nowhere more than once on your journey. A good way to combat this is to focus on what you can control. For example, instead of saying 'we will raise 150k in 3 months', you should say 'we will reach out to 100 investors in the next 3 months'.
Finally, (and this is an important one) make sure you stay open-minded, take on feedback, and keep learning as you go through the process. You will hear a lot of people say 'no' but if you take these as opportunities to improve your business, change how you pitch, or perhaps realise you're pitching to the wrong investors, then they all end up being steps towards a 'yes'.
