Investor activity slows through December and returns in late January. For this year, raise season closes at the end of November.
For a founder who plans to raise in 2027, that is a window. Most founders spend it on the holidays.
A raise takes longer than it looks. A handshake early in the season turns into legal issues a couple of months later and a close a couple of months after that, if you are lucky. Everything takes twice as long as planned and costs twice as much.
I know the other side of this. In a company I founded, I watched the market shift for months. The questions our clients asked had changed. I noted it and told myself I would deal with it next quarter. Next quarter brought its own next quarter. What I deferred cost far more by the time I acted.
Preparation works the same way. The cost of getting your records in order rises with every week you wait, and an investor will find the gaps whether you have fixed them or not.
Three things to do before the year ends:
1. Reconcile your cap table against your share register and every issue of shares.
2. List every document an investor would ask for and mark what is missing.
3. Check your board records back to the start of the company.
Over the next few weeks I will take each part of investor readiness in turn, starting with the data room.
I wrote about the cost of deferring in Calibrate, an e-book on Amazon: amazon.com/dp/B0H57Q825N
If you want somewhere to hold the work as you do it, CatenaHQ has a free plan with no card and no time limit.
General information only. Not legal, financial, tax or investment advice.