Leer en español: El peor momento para levantar capital (y cómo elegir el momento de tu ronda)

Educational only — not investment, legal or tax advice.

The worst time to raise money is when you actually need it. Investors can tell. A founder with three months of cash left is negotiating against the calendar, and everyone at the table knows who runs out of time first.

This guide covers how to time a round, how long it really takes, and the mistakes I have seen sink raises that should have closed.

Why runway decides your terms

When you start a fundraise with plenty of cash, you can walk away from a bad term sheet. When you start with three months left, you can’t. That changes everything: the valuation you accept, the control terms you sign, and which investor you end up with.

Nobody wants to see three months of runway on the first call. It tells an investor two things: that the company may not survive the time it takes to close, and that the founder didn’t plan ahead.

How long it really takes

Rounds take longer than founders expect, and the time between rounds has been growing. Carta’s data shows the median wait between a seed round and a Series A reached 616 days in Q2 2025, a little more than 20 months, and more than two months longer than two years earlier.

The process itself also takes months: building the investor list, first meetings, partner meetings, due diligence, term sheet negotiation and legal closing. Any step can slip. A lead can go quiet. Diligence can surface a problem in your cap table. Plan for delays, because they happen.

Cash, not projections, is what kills startups

Startups don’t die because their five-year projections were wrong. They die when the cash runs out. CB Insights analysed 431 VC-backed companies that shut down since 2023. “Ran out of capital” topped the list, cited in 70% of cases. CB Insights notes it is almost always the final cause of death rather than the root problem, but it is the one that ends the company.

That’s why founders have to run the finances, not just the product. Know your monthly burn, your runway in months, and the date by which you must have new money in the bank.

A simple timing rule

Work backwards from the day your cash runs out:

1. Your zero-cash date. Cash in the bank ÷ monthly net burn.
2. Subtract a safety buffer. You want months of runway left when the money arrives, not days.
3. Subtract the time to close. Assume the process takes several months, and longer if the market is slow.
4. Subtract preparation time. Deck, data room, financial model, investor list.

The date you’re left with is the latest day to start. For most companies, it’s much earlier than they think.

Always be fundraising (without always raising)

The best founders are not raising all the time. They are building investor relationships all the time.

• Keep a target list of investors who fit your stage, sector and cheque size.
• Send short regular updates months before you raise, so investors watch you hit milestones. Our investor update template shows how.
• Take the coffee when an investor reaches out, even if you’re not raising. It costs an hour and builds a relationship you’ll need later.

When you do start the round, you’re talking to people who already know your story.

The two hardest parts: timing and a lead

In my experience, the two hardest parts of a round are timing it and finding a lead investor. Many investors will say “we’re interested, come back when you have a lead.” The lead sets the price and the terms, and the rest follow. Without one, a round can stay open for months. Start lead conversations first, and ask early how each investor works: do they lead, what cheque size, how fast do they decide?

Real examples, and what not to do

These are anonymised examples from deals I have seen.

Don’t let your valuation fall behind your business model. A startup I worked with changed its model, from selling software to running its own clinics, but wanted to keep its software valuation. The investors I brought were ready to invest, but not at that price. We proposed a valuation that would rise if the clinics reached the margins the technology promised. The company didn’t make it. When your business model changes, your valuation changes with it, and you should be the first to see it.

Don’t ask for a valuation the math can’t support. Recently I saw a company asking for a $40 million valuation with no revenue, a capital-heavy consumer business, margins projected at 20 to 30%, and a plan to grow from 1 to 5 to 10 million. That can be a fine business. It’s not a venture case, and no amount of pitching changes the math. See when VC is the wrong money.

Don’t go into a round with a cap table that can break. A startup I advised had a CEO with 10% and a co-founder with 90%. In the middle of closing a round, they couldn’t agree, and the CEO walked out. Six months later, the company was gone. Fix your split before you raise. Read cap table basics.

Other common mistakes:

• Sending the same deck and data room to every investor instead of tailoring them. See what a VC reads in your pitch deck.
• Starting with investors who never lead rounds.
• Treating fundraising as a side task. It’s a specialised skill and a full-time process while it runs.

From the investor’s side of the table

Most founders I meet are desperate for investors, and only a small share raise fast. The difference is rarely the idea. It’s preparation: the founders who raise well started building relationships early, knew their numbers cold, and never had to raise with their back against the wall.

The short version

Start fundraising long before you need the money. Know your zero-cash date, plan for a process that takes months, find your lead first, and fix your valuation expectations and cap table before the first meeting.

Sources

• Carta: Series A funding slides in Q2 2025 (19 September 2025)
• CB Insights: Why startups fail, top 9 reasons (updated March 2026)

Written by Fabian Cisneros. Educational only — not investment, legal or tax advice. See the full disclaimer.