A while ago I was told by one of my mentors that they key to any successful fundraising is finding, marketing to and closing ‘the lead’. It’s good advice. Just look at the maths. Leaders probably account for less than 1% of the population. That means the other 99% are followers. And followers follow a lead. So, there is little point in marketing hard to ‘followers’ before you’ve found your lead. Beware of fake leaders that are really trussed up followers and be careful not to get yourself into the situation where you need more than one lead!

The process should go something like this. Identify your lead investor and make sure that they are a strong one since they are the ‘early adopter’ for your round. Strong leaders are visionary, have firm convictions and make decisions alone. So, if they like you and your idea, they will not need a bunch of other investors around them to persuade them to go ahead. And they can be closed first. Do a rolling close, or a two stage close. Close the lead first and then the others.

If the lead investor is a respected person in your industry all the better – ‘cos the rest is about reeling in the ‘followers’. So give them something good to follow. And try to have more followers than you need, that way you will close your round on time. Followers by their nature are more likely to dither – the one thing that gets them moving is feeling like they might miss out on a good thing.