Free founder handbook
Run your raise likean enterprise sale.
The Founder's Guide to Raising Capital is 60+ pages on earning the right to raise, sizing the round, qualifying investors and closing on the terms that actually matter. Built from every seat at the table, including the ones that failed.
- $300M+ in revenue closed
- Seed to PE-backed
- National debate champion, 6x champion coach
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Inside the guide
19 chapters. 8 appendices.Zero fluff.
Worked math you can check, templates you can send today, and the mistakes I watched cost founders their companies.
Decide
- Earn the right to raise before you ask
- What investors are really underwriting
- Build a bench with scars
Plan
- The three dates that govern your runway
- Size the raise to the milestones
- A model investors can interrogate
Run the process
- MEDDICC for investors
- The commitment ladder: interest is not cash
- Diagnose a raise that is stalling
Terms and close
- How to set a SAFE cap
- Dilution, pools and preferences, modeled
- 83(b), QSBS and securities law basics
After the raise
- The first 90 days after the wire
- Adapting the playbook to your model
- Raising outside the coasts
Tools you can use
- 90-day raise schedule
- Outreach templates and investor questions
- Terms worksheet and a worked raise
What you'll walk away with
A process, not a pitch.
Most founders run their raise like a pitch competition. The ones who close run it like a sales process.
- The three dates that govern your runway, and why the action date is earlier than you think.
- A test for when to stop bootstrapping and start raising, so you ask only after you've earned it.
- MEDDICC for investors: how to qualify funds the way a CRO qualifies enterprise deals.
- The commitment ladder that keeps founders from spending money that hasn't landed.
- A formula for setting your SAFE cap and a model of how stacked SAFEs really dilute you.
- The handful of terms that change your outcome, and how to close before the window shuts.
- Outreach templates for first contact, follow-ups, updates and closing the loop.
- A readiness scorecard to know whether you're ready to launch a process today.
Why I wrote it
Two raises taught me morethan every win combined.
The term sheet we negotiated away
We had a Series A term sheet in hand. We got greedy, asked for a number we did not need and stuck to it. By the time we agreed internally to back down, the market had turned and the investor walked.
A good term sheet you sign beats a perfect one you lose.
The simple idea that needed proof
Our closed beta proved the platform worked. It could not prove the broader market would adopt our model of investing, and that was the traction investors wanted. I spent nine months hearing "not right now."
Your urgency is not their urgency.
About the author
Seller. CRO. CEO. Founder.I've sat in every seat.
I've carried the bag and closed more than $300 million in revenue, helped raise over $30 million from VC and PE, and carried the full P&L.
I've also watched a Series A term sheet walk out the door, and spent nine months hearing "not right now" for a product everyone said they loved. Most fundraising advice comes from people who only remember the wins. This guide is built from both.
That's why I started Krafted Revenue. Investors fund proof, and proof comes from revenue, so I help founders build the revenue engine and the investor story at the same time.
Get the guide
Earn the right to raise.Then close it.
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