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- ♞ Going Public When Raising
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♞ Going Public When Raising
One question I’ve received quite often over the past few weeks is whether you should publically announce that you are starting the fundraising process and publish how much you are looking for, your valuation, etc.
This is a multilayered question, so I’m going to approach it from two scenarios:
When you have a lead investor
When you don’t have a lead investor
Let’s dive in…
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When you have a lead investor
If you already have funds commited by someone leading a round, then I 100% believe that you should be yelling from the roof that you are fundraising. In this situation, you already have a valuation agreed upon and money commited, so being open about your fundraising can help to create FOMO. It can also attract investors that you might not have thought about reaching out to. If someone sees your social media post they might invest or know someone interested in investing, it can quickly snowball into a closed round.
The key here is not to do this in a way that interferes with your “process.” Make sure to announce this early in the game and to set a deadline for when you are booking meetings in your post. Let people know what you are raising, that you have money commited from a lead and that you are open to meeting investors until X date.
When you don’t have a lead investor
In this scenario, I wouldn’t go public. You have no momentum, no set valuation and risk significantly derailing your fundraising if you don’t get the expected reaction and support from the public. It is much better to focus on direct fundraising efforts and once you have some momentum you can reconsider casting your net wider.
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