Tawheed Kader Founder & CEO, ToutApp @Tawheed

1. FUNDRAISING
AS A SALES PROCESS
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2. ABOUT ME
• Founder at ToutApp, we build software to
empower sales people
• Raised Advisory, Seed, and Venture Capital
• Fell in love with the art of selling
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3. GOAL
Share what I’ve learned about Fundraising so that you can go
from being a seed-level company to a solid venture backed
company.
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4. KEY CONCEPTS
1. Why you should think about fundraising as a sales process
2. What to do before you fundraise
3. How to actually run your fundraising like a sales process
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5. HOW YOU THINK ABOUT FUNDRAISING
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“We’re getting ready to
raise our Series A. We’ve
got great traction.
Revenues are growing.
Our customers love us.
We’re looking to raise
$3m to $5m.”

6. HOW INVESTORS THINK ABOUT YOU
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• As a VC, I can only fill X
board seats
• With my $Y fund, each deal
I make needs to have a
likelihood of returning > $Y
• There are only about 15 to
20 seriously important
companies every year
• Should I buy what you’re
selling?

7. WHAT’RE YOU SELLING?
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25%
25%25%
25%
Founders Series A Series B Pool

8. #1 RULE OF SELLING
Why You?
Why Now?
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9. PRINCIPLES OF SELLING
1. Who is the right buyer for what you’re selling?
2. Understand your buyer, what do they care about?
3. Why should they choose you? What makes you unique?
4. How do you articulate and pitch them on Why You? Why
Now?
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10. HOW YOU THINK THOUGHT ABOUT FUNDRAISING
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“We’re getting ready to
raise our Series A. We’ve
got great traction.
Revenues are growing.
Our customers love us.
We’re looking to raise
$3m $5m.”

11. A CLEARERWAY TO PITCH YOUR DEAL
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“We believe X is going to
happen. Our seed round
allowed us to prove Y. We
think with another $Z in the
bank we’ll be able to tackle
this problem and get to the
next stage. And when we do
that, we’re going to make a
lot of money in a market
that is worth $AA.”

12. IT TAKES MONTHS TO PREPARE
IT SHOULD TAKE WEEKS TO DO A DEAL
Identify
Potential
Buyers
Build
Relationships
& Understand
Develop Pitch Fundraise
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You are NOT Raising You ARE Raising
(months) (weeks)

13. PREP #1 – HAVE A PLAN
1. How much runway do you have?
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14. PREP #1 – HAVE A PLAN
1. How much runway do you have?
2. Plan to kick off fundraising when you have 6 months of
runway left
3. Based on your financial model, figure out how much money
you actually need to raise
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15. PREP #2 – IDENTIFY POTENTIAL BUYERS
1. There are hundreds of VC firms
2. There are more ways to raise money than just VC
3. There are VCs and Investors that care about stage, category,
business model, and even about the type of founder you are
4. Don’t just aim for Sequoia to write you a $20m check
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16. PREP #2B – RESEARCH BUYERS
1. Identify your ideal buyer by
doing your research on the
firms
2. Crunchbase, LinkedIn,
TheFunded and funding
announcements
3. Don’t just look at firms, focus
on actual partners; you’re
getting married
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17. OUR SERIES A WITH SIGMA WEST
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18. PREP #2B – RESEARCH BUYERS
1. Find investors that have invested in your broader space and
category in the past; ideally with successful exits
2. For clues, look at the types of investors that have placed bets
on your competitors
3. Look at their fund size. There are lots of cues to pick up here
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19. PREP #4 – BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
1. You’re not raising
2. You’re mapping out the people you want to target
3. You’re figuring out how to get introductions
4. You’re looking to build a longer term relationship
5. You’re looking to get advice
6. You’re asking a lot of questions
7. There is no deck
8. BTW. You’re not raising
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20. PREP #4A – RELATIONSHIP HACK
1. Talk to Portfolio company CEOs
2. Ask them the type of investors they are, ask them how they
add value, ask them for advice
3. SELL them. The more portfolio companies you have as
customers the easier it’ll be for you to sell down the line
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21. PREP #5 – DEVELOP YOUR PITCH DECK
1. Don’t leave this for the last minute or for “after” you get your
meetings
2. Treat this with respect. It requires you to have a very deep
understanding of your business, your numbers
3. A huge part of this is for you to develop your unique vision
for what you want out of your company
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22. PREP #6 – DEVELOP YOUR SUPPORT STRUCTURE
1. Have strong customer references you can call upon at a
moment’s notice
2. Have one spreadsheet with tabs outlining the core metrics
around your business
3. Have a clean set of financials
4. Have a shared Dropbox folder ready to go with everything
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23. GET READY
You’re going to meet some of
the smartest and most
successful people on Planet
Earth. Enjoy it.
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24. THE SALES PROCESS
Initial
Pitch
Deeper
Pitch
Partner
Meeting
Initial Due
Diligence
Term
Sheet
Due
Diligence
Close
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2 to 8 Weeks 4 Weeks MAX

25. MUST DON’TS OF THE PROCESS
1. Don’t spent too much time with Associates or Principles
2. Don’t spend too much time if you haven’t gotten to meeting
with the partnership after the 2nd or 3rd meeting
3. Don’t be shy. You’re raising. OWN IT
4. Don’t do your favorite firm first. First 6 pitches are for
practice
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26. PREPARE FOR BATTLE
1. You need to maintain your positivity,
you need to be assertive, you need
to drive forward with conviction
2. You need to make the entire process
dead simple easy for the investor to
say “Yes”
3. You need to consistently be asking
the tough question, are you
interested in “buying”? What are
next steps?
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27. CONSIDER THE STATS
1. 0.5% of people attempting to raise money end up raising
2. 20% of startup founders who raise end up with something
that is worth something
3. 0.1% chance you’ll make money from your venture after you
raise
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28. BE THE UNICORN
1. Solo Founder
2. No Prior CEO Experience
3. No Network
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29. HAVEA PLAN B
SO YOU FEEL CONFIDENT
1. What part of your business can you re-focus to start
generating cash?
2. How can you cut expenses? Reduce burn? Extend runway?
1. Are there alternative exit scenarios?
2. Take a long hard look. Is it time to move to the next idea?
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30. IF YOU DO RAISE
1. Pause and Reflect
2. Think carefully about what you’re going to do with the
money
1. If possible, create a rough pitch deck for your next
fundraising
2. Buckle up
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31. TRUST IN THE PROCESS
Identify
Potential
Buyers
Build
Relationships
& Understand
Develop Pitch Fundraise
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You WILL Raise

32. ABOUT ME
• Twitter: @tawheed
• I blog, a lot: tawheedkader.com
• Email: tawheed@gmail.com
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