Watch: What are the biggest mistakes founders make when fundraising?

Ben Armstrong, Managing Partner, Archangel
I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make in the fundraising journey is they either like treat it like a machine and they’ve got like a list that they’re working through and they’re just trying to trying to get to the end of it cuz they think that as they if they go through like a 100 leads they’ll get like one investment and I think investors feel that. What you want to be doing is iterating through the process. So you have a conversation with someone, you learn, you change and you need to understand that every audience member is different and you need to pitch it to your audience, not to some unknown or generic person. It’s to a specific person to try to meet their needs.

Thea Ngo, Investment Analyst, Archangel Ventures
Not doing due diligence on your investor. An investor founder relationship is one of the longest relationship you can have. And if you have the wrong partners by your side, you will collapse. You want to understand what do the investors bring to the table and how it can help you to go from 1 to 10.

Kate Coffey, Investment Manager, AirTree
I think a common mistake is targeting the wrong investor. Not every business is venture scalable but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great business and that you can’t have great outcomes as a founder.

Nicole Kleid Small, Partner, The Planet Fund
If that’s a path that you’re going down raising capital particularly from VCs it is a big part of the day job.

Noel Paul, Director, Investments, Breakthrough Victoria
Investors are looking for different things. their mandates will change, their focuses will change with the duration of the fund or the the vintage of the fund. So you need to engage early to understand what each investor is looking for and then change your story to understand or or to fit into their perspective of and bring forward the things that the those investors are looking for. If you’re pitching to Breakthrough Victoria, we’d love to learn a lot more about the Victorian impact that you’re creating.

Paul Naphtali, Cofounder & Managing Partner, Rampersand
Founders who try to come across as perfect can be really difficult to invest in and get rapport. People who are I’ve got all the answers rather than I’ve got the right questions and I’m going to continue to run hypotheses on the answers. Being open and being curious and having a growth mindset is really really important.

Rachel Yang, Partner, Giant Leap
One of the biggest mistakes founders make in their fundraising journey is not being strategic about who they’re talking to and when they’re talking to them. So really understanding an investor’s mandate so that you don’t waste your time talking to the wrong investor. And then really understanding what stage they’re investing, what stage they want to meet you, and really whether it might be the right fit for you.