Three reasons why we built ProRaise to help founders

16th December 2020

We know exactly how difficult it is as a start-up founder. We’ve been there. We’ve been in your shoes. We know how hard it is to raise capital for your business.

And after having been through the whole process – numerous times – we knew there could be a better way to fundraise. A way to help founders raise the investments they needed – without the stresses and strains most of us go through.

So, we built ProRaise. By founders, for founders.

We built ProRaise to:

Give founders a head start on the capital raising process

You’ve done all your research, you’ve developed your skills and you’ve been business planning for months. All excellent. But raising capital? That’s not really something you’ve focused on.

It’s alien to most founders. There are bigger business priorities… until that moment when you really do need to raise capital.

Then it seems like a minefield:

• What’s the process to raise capital for your business?
• Who do you reach out to?
• What do you say (and what don’t you say)?
• What’s the right way to go about engaging potential investors?
• What should you avoid?

Suddenly you feel way out of your depth.

Even when you get started, it’s still a big challenge. Which investors do you focus on and nurture?

With multiple calls, emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, LinkedIn notes and personal referrers, how do you keep track of everything?

That’s why we built ProRaise.

ProRaise guides you through every step of the process (exactly what we needed when we were start-up founders).

Our structured set-up suggests exactly what you need – the key information that will be useful to potential investors. Just fill in the details, and you’re good to go (we can even import some details directly for you). 

Then we help you track the interest of all the potential investors, using an easy-to-read dashboard that helps you identify opportunities that are most likely to lead to investment.

Help founders use their time more productively

One of the biggest challenges as a founder is time – and the lack of it. There’s so much to do, and initially at least, you’re responsible for it all. You’re pulled in every direction, wearing many hats.

One day you’re overseeing product development, then you’re handling customer service. The next you’re laying out your business strategy before liaising with suppliers. There’s never enough time to get everything done.

And raising capital takes time. A lot of it, if you want to do it effectively.

According to a recent TechCrunch survey, the average founder who was successful in fundraising engaged with 63 different investors.

But for many of us, raising capital slips down the list of priorities and is often a last minute, panic-fuelled activity when we realise we’re running out of funds.

That’s why we built ProRaise.

We know how important it is to plan ahead with your fundraising goals. We know it takes time to connect with investors and share the credible documentation they need to see to make decisions about investing.

And we know your time as a founder is precious. So, we’ve built a platform that saves you loads of it.

We help you quickly create a company profile that’s always active and viewable for investors, prompting you on all the essential information you need to share. It’s a quick, simple link to send to potential investors, minimising the time-consuming effort you might otherwise spend on pitches. 

Encourage founders to use data more effectively

Sharing a company profile is just the start of the capital raising process. We know from experience that investors will want to see a lot of information, going into more and more detail the closer they get to a decision on investment.

Keeping track of who has which financial document or sensitive business plan can quickly become a nightmare. But it’s essential for success.

The more facts and data you can share with an investor, the more chance you have of getting a yes. That means sharing private, sensitive business data.

But you still need to keep that data as secure as possible. You want to limit access to it. And if you know when a potential investor is reading, you can act quickly.

Just as with sales, the most successful founders are those who act fast and first.

Imagine knowing if a potential investor had viewed or downloaded your documents?

A well-timed call the next day could be the difference between success and failure.

That’s why we built ProRaise.

We wanted to build a capital raising platform that actually supported founders, that was built for purpose. Much of the current software tools were never designed with fundraising in mind.

So, we built our own software.

We wanted to create a place where founders could securely upload all their key financial data and share with investors – limiting or granting access where appropriate.

So, we created the Virtual Data Room (VDR)

Our VDR also incorporates the real-time statistics that can make all the difference to your fundraising efforts. We show you exactly who is reading what, and how often, so you can act quickly and focus on the most promising investors.

ProRaise is built by founders, for founders

Every one of our features was conceived from our own experiences raising capital and designed to help founders just like us.

We knew what we needed to make raising capital simpler, easier and more successful for founders – and we built it.

Try all the features for yourself. Sign up here.