Pre-meeting prep sheet
One page to fill in before a first meeting, covering the questions that reliably come up.
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Investor meetings · Copyable template
Reference check questions
What to ask a fund's existing founders, phrased so you get an answer rather than a testimonial.
A fundraising meeting runs in both directions. The investor is evaluating the company; you are evaluating how this fund actually behaves — under pressure, when a plan changes, and when you need something they promised.
“How do you help founders?” invites a brochure answer they have given a hundred times. Every question below asks instead for something that already happened, because past behaviour is the only part of this that can be checked.
Talk to current and former portfolio founders, and do not rely only on the references the investor hands you. Compare across several conversations rather than treating any one person's experience as the whole picture — sector, stage, and which partner was involved all change what the relationship looks like.
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What is in it
- Who you are talking to, and how you found them
- When things were going well
- When the plan had to change
- Follow-through
- Runway, follow-on, and the harder conversations
- Boundaries and communication
- What to check with the fund directly
- What this changed
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The template is ready. Add your email to open it, and you will also get The Raise Memo — a note for founders raising capital.
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Notes
Do not run a performative interrogation when the round is not yet clearly defined or the investor is obviously outside your stage. And weigh the result properly in both directions: do not dismiss a genuinely strong fit because the name is not famous, and do not accept a poor relationship because the terms on paper look attractive. Waiting, raising less, or taking a different financing path all beat the wrong partner.
Where this comes from
The thinking behind it
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“No” follow-up template
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From the publication
Read The Raise Memo
A note for founders raising capital—what investors notice, how conviction gets built, and what to do next.
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