Dear SaaStr: How Difficult is It To Fundraise Over the Summer?
There’s still seasonality to venture fundraising, even now with so much being done over Zoom. Yes, deals get done every day in venture. But especially in bigger partnerships, it’s just harder to get everyone together to approve a deal when some of the folks are on vacation.
If you are fundraising in June / July / August, maybe just be less dogmatic. More flexible. Put less pressure on timelines. Especially now, when fundraising is tougher across the board:
If you are pitching a larger firm, with a non-managing partner, it may indeed be hard to get a deal done fast. When the managing partner is in Greece.
The top partners can always get a deal done whenever they want, period. But the folks just below that level do need to socialize deals more. And even in small firms, consensus is often important. Even in 2-partner firms, often they won’t do a deal unless both partners agree.
I can do a deal myself in 20 minutes.
But …
If you de-pressure the situation by saying we’re raising over “the next few months,” you may be able to get the best of both worlds. If the partner wants to do the deal — they’ll find a way. They’ll hack vacations and schedules and find a way to get the deal done. They just may need a little more time in late Summer, that’s all.
And .. you may be able to take advantage of a window when everyone else isn’t fundraising.
And also …
Not lose a shot just because partners are on Holiday.
A related post here:
(note: an updated SaaStr Classic answer)
