I've been steering a load of clients away from raising capital this quarter. Straight up, if you are *kicking off* a process soon, it's too late. There are six weeks until Thanksgiving weeks and there aren't a whole lot of term sheets offered between November 24th and January 20th.
(Yes, there are exceptions. Traction trumps everything, even holidays.)
The thinking is simply this:
1) You functionally cannot make meaningful progress in your business while raising capital. Ask any founder who's been through it -- fundraising is all consuming.
2) If the odds are that you won't raise in Q4, you can try anyway, and then spend Q1 raising as well. THAT'S SIX MONTHS OF NOT GROWING YOUR BUSINESS!
3) Better to spend Q4 learning, building, and *connecting* to VCs, so that you can kick off a formal fundraising process on Jan 12th.
I was delighted this morning to receive this text from my client Justin Snair:
"Hey hey. Spent some time thinking about our chat yesterday.
I think the best use of my time over the next 3 months is ideal customer aquisition (vs crafting a compelling pitch deck to institutional investors). Revenue and traction is the best evidence. If I can improve revenue and pipeline this quarter, I can craft and share a compelling deck."
This is the way. Spend as much time as possible building. Fundraise surgically.