Fundraising: It’s a Marathon not a Sprint

Grit & Growth

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s retrospective on a topic that’s on every entrepreneur’s mind: money! Hear from startup and early stage investors in Africa and South Asia about what investors are really looking for, how to vet potential backers, pitching advice, and more. These experts provide practical guidance and strategies on how to secure funding for your venture.

Money, money, money. Entrepreneurs can’t stop thinking about it. Which explains why fundraising is such a critical — and ongoing — aspect of their job description.We turned to five experts for their wisdom on all things related to funding:

Andreata Muforo, partner at Nairobi-based venture capital firm TLCom Capital

Ido Sum, partner at TLCom Capital

Zach George, managing partner at Launch Africa Ventures

Sandeep Singhal, managing director of Nexus Venture Partners in India

Pranav Pai, founding partner of 3One4 Capital in India

Top Seven Masterclass Takeaways

1. Fundraising should be active, not passive. Andreata Muforo says “It’s something an entrepreneur does, not something that happens to them—which means you can get better with practice.”
2. Cast a wide net when looking for investors. Zach George has a great strategy for getting valuable facetime with busy VCs: “ask for advice and you may get some money, ask for money and you may get some advice.”
3. Early on, it’s less about the numbers, more about the people. According to Sandeep Singh, Seed and Series A funders invest just as much in founders as they do in ideas. “There are many people that want to solve problems, but these are people who are saying, I want to solve a problem at scale. I want to solve a problem with a group of people. I want to have people around me that are equally passionate about building things.”
4. Don’t get too attached to your ideas. Be willing to listen and adapt. Singh looks for founders who are passionate and flexible “if you don't listen, then you are stubborn. And the risk of being stubborn is you can hit your head on the wall and never be able to get across it.”
5. Scale can’t be achieved alone. Pranav Pai advocates for the importance of team. “If the human capital side doesn't keep up, you're almost always going to fail to meet expectations.”
6. Due diligence goes both ways. Ido Sum urges entrepreneurs to do their homework on potential investors. “If you know what we're, after what we're investing in, how could you be relevant to what we have already invested in or to spaces we have looked at, this is extremely beneficial for us to see that you spent this time.”
7. Know how you plan to grow. Be specific. Zach George wants the founder to have the details. “If you give me the, let me talk to my CFO, you've lost me. Like immediately, I've switched off, good founders will say, this is how I get to a hundred million dollars.”

Listen to these funding experts and gain valuable insights, advice, and strategies for how to navigate the fundraising journey and establish successful relationships along the way.

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