The fundraising planning tool for founders raising a round.

Fundraising planning is how a company prepares for and runs a funding round, whether that’s pre-seed, seed, Series A or a later round. It covers how much to raise and why, what milestones the money will reach, the story and the evidence behind it, the data room, the list of investors to approach, the timeline, and how the company will keep running while the founders are in meetings.

Most of a fundraise is decided before the first pitch. Investors are buying a story about where the company is going, and checking it against what has already happened. A good fundraising plan works backwards from what investors will need to believe, and makes sure the business can show it. That usually means a few months of real progress on the things that matter most, not a better deck.

A round sets the company’s runway, its valuation and often the next two years of its direction. Raise too little and you’re back on the road in a year. Raise on a weak story and the terms cost you more than the money is worth. And a raise that drags on pulls the founder away from the business for months, which makes the numbers worse just when they need to look their best.

The CEO owns the fundraise. Nobody else can. But a good raise is a team effort. The COO or a senior hire keeps the business running and the metrics moving. Finance builds the model and the data room. Heads of department own the progress that becomes the evidence. And advisers and existing investors help with introductions and challenge the story.

The founders who raise well tend to treat the round like any other company goal: clear target, clear reasons, clear owners, honest about what’s in the way. It also means investors can see a company that’s aligned and running well, which is often the thing they’re really assessing. For early-stage teams, see Clearahead for startups.

Give the round its own workspace with a goal written the way an investor would read it: “Close a £2m seed round by June, with 18 months of runway to reach £1m ARR”. Write why it matters and how you’ll know. Put the facts as they stand in the current reality, so the starting point is honest.

Then talk AJ through what investors will push on. AJ asks the questions a sharp investor would: why now, what’s the evidence customers will pay, why this team, what happens to retention after month three. The answers you’re not happy with become your constraints, in order. “We can’t show retention beyond three months.” “Our pipeline depends on the founder.” “We have no data room.” Each one gets moves with an owner and a date, which also gives the team a plan to follow while the founder is pitching.

As the round goes on, people update AJ in a sentence. AJ keeps the numbers and quotes as evidence and writes This week from AJ every Monday: the wins, how it’s going and what needs you. That’s most of an investor update, already written. Once investors are interested, invite them as Viewers so they can read the goal and ask AJ questions any time, which shows them a company that runs well, not just a deck that looks good.

A fundraise only works if the business keeps moving during it. Investors will ask what happened since the first meeting, so the company still needs to grow revenue, land the go-to-market or ship the launch the round is based on. A raise is also usually the start of scaling the company.

In Clearahead the round has its own workspace next to the company’s main goal. On the free plan you have one workspace, which many early teams use for the company goal. On the Clearahead plan you can run up to 10, so the round, the growth goal and the launch each get their own constraints and owners. People and billing are shared, and each person’s summary email covers every workspace they’re in.

Investors you invite as Viewers can see the whole plan and ask AJ questions, without waiting for a deck. That’s a much better answer to “how’s it going?” than a monthly email, and it keeps the conversation going after the round closes. For how AI changes the way companies report progress, read Information is cheap. Decisions aren’t.