Raising investment without a strategy is like looking for an ATM in a City you don’t know (without any tech to help you).
Raising investment isn’t just a financial process - it’s a performance challenge. It asks you to think clearly under pressure, communicate with conviction, and lead yourself and others through uncertainty. I share writing on investment strategy to support high performance. To demystify the process, share learning from experience, and help founders approach fundraising as a challenge to grow into (not a threat to endure).
Imagine this.
You’re in a city you don’t know. It’s late at night. Your phone battery is dead. No Google Maps. No familiar landmarks. You know you need cash but beyond that, you’re just walking. Turning corners. Guessing. Hoping.
That’s what raising investment without a strategy can feel like.
Isolating. Overwhelming. Even scary.
Most founders know they need certain things before they raise:
a pitch deck
a financial forecast
legal documents
And once these boxes are ticked, they ‘go out and find investment’.
Emailing, pitching, posting, networking, often without a clear sense of where they’re heading, who they’re looking for, or what success actually looks like beyond someone saying yes.
What do we actually mean by “Investment Strategy”?
Strategy can sound like one of those words that means everything and nothing.
But at its simplest, strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve an overall aim.
In the context of raising investment, that aim isn’t:
“get in front of as many investors as possible”
or “send the deck to everyone on LinkedIn”
It’s closing an investment round with investors you actually want on your cap table - a distinction that really matters.
Why bother creating an Investment Strategy?
1. It’s more efficient
Show me a founder who isn’t time-poor and I’ll show you a Faithful who can guess exactly who all 3 Traitors are.
A strategy helps you stop wasting time on:
the wrong investors
the wrong conversations
the wrong timing
It creates focus. And focus saves time.
2. It’s more effective
Raising investment isn’t just about raising money. It’s about raising the right money, from people who:
understand your business
align with your ambition
ideally add value beyond capital
A strategy increases the likelihood that you not only close your round but that you don’t regret who’s on your cap table six months later.
3. It can even make raising investment enjoyable!
There’s no doubt (even with a strategy) raising investment comes with pressure.
But when you’re clear on your direction, conversations with potential investors can be:
energising
insightful
genuinely useful
They become two-way discussions that add real value.
5 elements of an effective Investment Strategy
From working with founders in the thick of it, here are five elements that consistently make the difference.
1. A clear “why now”
Why are you raising at this point in time?
This goes beyond how the capital will be allocated and into:
what this capital unlocks
what changes as a result
why waiting would be a mistake
Investors care about timing - not only when is it the right time for them personally to deploy capital but whether it’s the right time to deploy capital into the stage your business is at.
2. The right investor profile (not just a cheque)
Not all investors are equal for your business.
An effective strategy defines:
what experience or insight would be genuinely helpful (to unlock the growth milestones I mentioned above
what sectors, stages, or behaviours you value
what you don’t want on your cap table
This turns “investors” into humans, not a faceless, homogenised group who just happen to have cash to deploy.
3. A focused narrative
A strong investment narrative isn’t about saying everything, it’s about saying the right things.
Strategy helps you decide:
what to lead with
what to leave out
how to stay consistent across conversations
Confidence in your narrative builds confidence for your audience.
4. A realistic route to conversations
Warm introductions, stakeholder relationships, early signals - these don’t happen by accident.
A strategy maps:
who can help you get to the right people
what needs to happen before you pitch
how you build momentum throughout your raise
5. A plan that works for a real human
Founders aren’t machines.
A good investment strategy:
has milestones and a target end date
acknowledges that alongside leading an investment round, you’re also building a business
creates some space to rest and reflect so that you maintain your energy and captures learnings along the way
Your strategy should ask you to be fiercely and passionately human - not superhuman!
Strategy is the map
Going back to the city-at-night analogy.
A strategy doesn’t guarantee you’ll find investment immediately. But it does give you:
direction
landmarks
a sense of progress
And that changes (for the better) how it feels to move through the process and the experience of raising investment.
Want support building your Investment Strategy?
If you’re curious to get practical, experience-led guidance on building your investment strategy (without needing prior fundraising experience) I’m delivering the Investment Strategy learning programme as part of Momentum Valley’s Female Founders Live programme.
It’s designed to help founders:
build clarity and confidence
focus their time and energy
approach raising investment strategically, not reactively
If this resonates, I’d encourage you to apply to join the programme - details here.
You can also get in touch with me directly here to discuss 121 Investment Strategy Coaching.