Fundraise Readiness
Get the numbers, the narrative and the data room to the standard an institutional investor expects — before the process starts and a partner finds the holes for you.
You are probably here because of one of these.
None of these is the problem. Each is a symptom, and the diagnostic exists to find out which underlying constraint is producing it — because the obvious answer and the correct one are frequently different.
- Two systems produce two different ARR figures and both get quoted externally.
- The equity story is a product roadmap with a funding number attached.
- Cohort retention has never been built, or was built once and not since.
- You cannot answer “what does a customer cost and how long until they pay it back” without a week of work.
- The last process stalled in diligence and the feedback was vague.
- The board wants a raise in two quarters and nobody has audited what an investor will actually see.
What you actually receive
Artefacts, not impressions. Everything below is yours to keep, rerun and hand to a board.
Metric integrity audit
Every headline number traced to source. Definitional inconsistencies, restatements and things that will not survive a diligence question, listed.
Cohort and unit economics pack
Retention curves by cohort and segment, CAC by channel, payback, LTV/CAC, net and gross revenue retention — built the way investors compute them.
Equity story
The argument for why this company compounds, answer first, with the evidence sequenced behind it.
Diligence pre-mortem
The twenty questions a partner will ask that you cannot currently answer well, with the work required to answer each.
Data room architecture
Structure, contents and the gaps that need filling before it opens.
Model review
The operating model stress-tested for internal consistency, driver logic and defensibility of assumptions.
The shape of the engagement
The 4D Method →Diagnose
Metric reconciliation across systems, cohort reconstruction, model review. Output: the gap register.
Decide
Which gaps are fatal, which are explainable, which are genuinely findings about the business. Positioning choices made.
Design
Equity story built, diligence pre-mortem run, data room structured and populated.
Drive
Rehearsal against the hardest questions, remediation plan for anything unresolved.
Fixed fee, agreed before work starts. Scope boundaries, assumptions, change control, IP ownership and the AI-use clause are written into every SOW. The fee is quoted after the complimentary audit, because the audit is what establishes which of these problems you actually have.
When this works, and when it does not
This engagement fits when
- You are 3–9 months from starting a process
- You will accept an unflattering read on your own metrics
- Finance and RevOps will grant access to source systems
- There is a real business underneath the deck
Look elsewhere if
- The raise is in three weeks
- You want the numbers presented more favourably rather than more accurately
- The underlying metrics are not fixable within the timeline
- You need an introduction to investors — this is preparation, not placement
The right-hand column is not modesty. A poorly matched engagement costs you a fee and costs this practice the only asset it has, which is a record of work that landed.
Fundraise Readiness
Is this the same as building a pitch deck?
No, and the difference is the point. A deck is the surface. This engagement works on what sits underneath it: whether the numbers reconcile, whether the cohorts support the retention claim, whether the model’s drivers survive a partner pulling on them. Companies rarely lose a process on deck design. They lose it in week three of diligence.
What if the audit finds the metrics do not support a raise?
You get told that, plainly, and early — which is materially cheaper than learning it from an investor after a failed process has been signalled to the market. In several situations the right recommendation is to spend two quarters fixing retention or unit economics and raise from a stronger position.
Do you help with the process itself — introductions, term sheets?
No. This practice does not place capital or broker introductions. The scope is readiness: metric integrity, narrative, model and data room. That boundary is deliberate and it is written into the SOW.
Related
Thirty minutes on your version of this problem.
A working session, not a sales call. If the honest answer is that you do not need an advisor, that is what you will hear.