FUNDRAISING ADVICE FROM THE PROS (VOL. 1)
Fundraising is HARD 🫠, we’re here to help! Looking for more? Tune into our podcast 🎙️on Saturdays for a look behind the curtain of fundraising from the very people writing the checks!
1. How to Start + How to Roadmap Your Raise
Plan ahead. Fundraising from a position of strength (we have a great opportunity / we have runway, but know we will eventually need capital to get to the next level), is MUCH easier than fundraising from a position of desperation (we’ve already burned through cash / things aren’t going well and we need money to make it right asap). Know your “why” and your “how much.” Investors want clarity: why you’re raising, what milestones this capital gets you to, and how long that runway lasts. Start conversations early. The best investor relationships begin months (sometimes years) before you actually ask for money.
Expect distraction. Do not chase every channel or trend mid-raise. Simplify and make the story easy to follow. Don’t set yourself up for failure by spreading yourself too thin. Protect the “proof” and leave space for the “promise.” Give yourself time and expect it to take longer than you think. Depending on your stage and fundraising strategy, fundraising could take months to a year+. Understand the investor landscape: do your research before outreach. What funds actually make sense for your check size, focus, stage of business, and business dynamics.
Know your “why” and your “how much.”
Daniel Scharff, Founder of Startup CPG
Line up those warm intros! Friendly introductions through mutuals is what investors typically prefer. It gives them confidence the conversation is pre-vetted, and will be a lot easier than sending hundreds of cold emails (which you might have to do too)!
2. How Strong Your Business Needs to Be
The first question you should be asking yourself is “Are we even fundable right now?” Understand where your business strengths and weaknesses are, how you compare to the competitive landscape, and what your business narrative is from a metrics standpoint (not just mission and marketing). Is the numbers story compelling enough? Signals matter more than perfection. Investors don’t expect you to have perfect numbers, but they want to see you have a good understanding of your business, positive direction, discipline, and momentum.
FUNDRAISING ADVICE FROM THE PROS (VOL. 1)
SuperAngel.Fund backs founders at the very beginning. Unlike traditional venture firms, SuperAngel.Fund is a solo-GP firm led by Ben Zises, who is conviction-driven and seeks to write the first check into breakout consumer brands and commerce tech companies. Ben partners with founders who demonstrate clarity, grit, and the ability to execute. Founders gain access to deep pattern recognition formed across 150+ early-stage investments, zero-to-one product strategy, early retail navigation, capital planning and go-to-market sequencing.
SuperAngel.Fund supports companies long before scale, helping founders sharpen their model, validate real demand, and make the right early hires and channel decisions. More than capital, the fund provides a trusted partner and champion: someone who understands the messy middle of founding, where every dollar, decision, and day matters.
In addition to backing consumer brands, SuperAngel.Fund invests in the enabling tools, platforms, and infrastructure that power the next generation of emerging brands. These investments give the fund unmatched visibility into what’s working across digital acquisition, retail deployment, data infrastructure, and operational excellence, meaning portfolio founders benefit from real-time feedback loops and tested playbooks that compound value over time.
At its core, SuperAngel.Fund exists to empower high-upside founders at their earliest and most critical inflection point, when belief matters most, and the right partner can shape the entire trajectory of the company. The fund focuses on broad diversification, investing early, staying close, and doubling down when it sees breakout growth and positive data emerge.
Based on its storied track record, their Fund II is now backed by the AngelList Systematic Fund-of-Funds, which leverages proprietary data, predictive modeling, and quantitative analysis across 25,000 funds and 13,000 startups on the AngelList platform, and ranks them in the top 1%.
