Fixed fee
A single fixed fee for the two-week diagnostic, credited in full against the work fee if we go on to run the raise. It ends with a written verdict either way.
Thesis
A raise is a process, and processes can be run properly.
Everything below is borrowed from the sell-side, where a company only goes to market once and nobody is willing to improvise. The mechanics translate almost unchanged to a private round. Most founders have simply never seen them.
01 The engagement
Five phases, twelve to twenty weeks.
Timings assume a company that already has something real to sell. They are the shape of a mandate, not a promise.
00
Diagnostic
Before anyone commits to a raise we establish whether you are fundable right now, at roughly what number, and by whom. We read the technology, the contracts, the cap table and the metrics, and we run the pitch as an investment committee would — adversarially.
You leave with a written verdict: raise now, raise in two quarters after fixing a named list of things, or do not raise at all. Roughly one in three diagnostics ends in "not yet", and we say so in writing. It is the single most valuable thing we do and it is the cheapest.
01
The case
We write the investment case from scratch. Not a redesign of your deck — a document that answers what an investor owns, why the position compounds, what the business looks like at maturity, and precisely which assumptions carry the value.
Out of that comes the operating model, the deck, the data room, the diligence pack, and a rebuttal file covering every objection we expect. If we cannot make an argument survive our own committee, it does not ship.
02
The map of capital
A named list, usually forty to eighty investors, built partner by partner: live mandate, cheque size, recent deployments, conflicts, decision mechanics, and who inside the firm has to be convinced. Venture funds, growth funds, crossover capital, sovereigns, strategics, family offices and — in space and defense — the non-dilutive programs that should be running alongside the round.
We then sequence it. Who hears it first matters more than almost anything else in the process.
03
Process
Outreach goes in waves against a published timetable, with a stated date by which terms are due. Information is released in stages. We take the first call where we can, sit in the rest, and debrief every meeting the same day.
Feedback is fed straight back into the materials — by wave three the deck answers objections before they are raised. The point of the calendar is that offers arrive together, which is the only reliable source of leverage a private company has.
04
Terms & close
Term sheet negotiation on economics and control, syndicate construction, confirmatory diligence, and the close mechanics that quietly consume a founder's month if nobody owns them. We work alongside your counsel; we do not replace them, and we do not give legal or tax advice.
02 Terms of engagement
How we are paid, stated plainly.
Work fee + success fee
A monthly work fee that covers the team while the process runs, plus a success fee on capital raised. The work fee is credited against the success fee at close.
Most of it at the back
The work fee is deliberately set below what the hours are worth. We would rather be paid when you are funded. [Placeholder — confirm structure with counsel.]
Regulatory note — to be completed before launch.
Transaction-based compensation for introducing investors to a securities offering
is a regulated activity in most jurisdictions, including the United States. The
final version of this page must state the firm's regulatory status and, where
required, the registered entity through which any success fee is earned. Do not
publish this page until securities counsel has signed it off.
03 Boundaries
What we will not do.
Worth reading before you get in touch. It saves us both a call.
We do not spray
No mass introductions, no forwarding your deck to a list. If we cannot name the partner and the reason, the meeting does not get made.
We do not take contingent-only mandates
A pure success fee sounds free and is not. It buys you an agent with no incentive to tell you the raise is a bad idea.
We do not sell decks
Materials are an output of the argument, not the product. If you only need design, hire a designer — it will be better and cheaper.
We do not run more than three mandates at once
The map of capital decays fast, and attention does not divide. Sometimes this means waiting for a slot.
04 Next step
Start with the diagnostic.
Two weeks, a fixed fee, and a written answer to the only question that matters right now: are you fundable, and by whom.