Three moments, and the one you are in
You spend the year running the business. Then a moment arrives that has nothing to do with running it, and you have had no practice at it, because nobody gets practice at these. Pick the one that sounds like you.
You need capital and have never had to ask for it like this.
Money is available. What decides the terms is whether the business can be understood quickly, and whether the person asking knows what they are agreeing to.
Most owners negotiate the valuation and skim the terms. The valuation sets the headline; the terms set what you keep, what you control, and what happens if the plan slips a year. Liquidation preference, board composition and consent rights decide more about your outcome than the number on the front page.
Capital strategy
How much, for what, and what it has to achieve before the next round.
Venture debt or equity
Debt, equity, or something in between, and what each one asks of you.
The model behind the ask
Built from your accounts, not borrowed from a business that looks a bit like yours.
The story, built from the business
What you are actually selling to an investor, in words they can price.
Where you are on the clock: Raise
Questions owners ask about raise
Borrow when the cash has a predictable return and the business can service it. Raise when the money buys something that will not pay back on a lender's timetable, like a new market or a team ahead of revenue. Equity is the most expensive money you will ever take, and the only kind that does not need to be repaid.
How this usually starts
A conversation with no decision attached to it. Someone wants to know whether the idea they keep coming back to is worth doing something about, and what that would involve.
Start a conversation