Startups use a fundraising pipeline to organise fundraising activities and track correspondence with investors. During fundraising, you might request introductions with dozens of angel investors or venture capital (VC) firms before securing the investors needed to close your round. You'll need to schedule meetings, accept feedback, prepare documents, and agree to terms, all of which require frequent communication with your own team, plus the investors. A fundraising pipeline can help you manage the process and ensure communication is timely.

Below, we'll discuss the importance of a well-structured fundraising pipeline, how to build your own, and best practices for communicating with investors.

Key takeaways

• Diligently managing and tracking your fundraising pipeline can help your team stay aligned and communicate professionally with investors.

• To create a fundraising pipeline, you can build a straightforward spreadsheet or use more advanced customer relationship management (CRM) tools, many of which offer free and paid subscription options.

• A fundraising pipeline helps ensure you follow up with investors on a specific cadence, prioritising sending relevant news and business updates. This helps keep the relationship warm without communicating too often.

Why does a fundraising pipeline need structure?

A well-structured fundraising pipeline can improve your business's communication with investors. Fundraising requires managing multiple investor conversations at once, with each investor at a different stage – from initial outreach and introductory meetings to due diligence and term sheets.

An organised pipeline can help you present yourself as a trustworthy, reliable founder who responds quickly, shows up to meetings on time, follows through on commitments, and manages investors' money responsibly. This signals a business's strength to investors, which can have a direct impact on the success of the round.

Build your pipeline early on, even before you start actively raising capital. As much as six months before you officially start raising a round, it's worth attending industry events and casual meetings with investors in your network to communicate what you're working on. Add their names and contact information to an early version of your pipeline so you can reach out to them when you're ready to ask for seed funding.

What can you track for each investor in a fundraising pipeline?

Once you've decided it's time to raise a round for your startup, you'll create a list of potential investors to contact – including any leads you've already nurtured. Then, you can build a fundraising pipeline that lists the following information for each:

• Contact details, including the investor's name, title, location, and fund

• Investor's tranche and fund size

• Investor fit or why they'd be interested in your startup

• Relationship owner or the team member in your startup who's responsible for communication

• The referral source, if you have one, such as the name and title of a founder in the investor's portfolio who introduced you to the investor

• Current stage in the pipeline, such as "initial contact," "first meeting scheduled," or "due diligence"

• Notes from each conversation, including key concerns raised by the investor

• Most recent activity

• Next action required

• Next action date

• Investment amount, including investor's potential cheque size and amount they have committed or funded

There are a few situations that can complicate the management of your fundraising pipeline:

• Multiple members of the same VC firm are contacting you: Your team might be communicating with several associates, analysts, or partners at a VC firm. In these cases, add the firm's name to your tracker as the contact and list the names and titles of individual contacts at the firm in a separate column. You'll want to ensure that the person at your company who owns the relationship with the firm is aware of all communications so they can prevent duplicate interactions and missed follow-ups.

• Your outreach is ignored or rejected: When investors pass on your company, consider keeping them in the tracker. You can add them to a "Passed" field and note why they rejected your pitch. You might see patterns that can help you strengthen your messaging. If an investor indicates they might be interested later on, you can add them to a "Future Round" stage and keep the relationship warm with regular updates.

What are some simple tools founders can use to build a fundraising pipeline?

To make a fundraising pipeline, you can make a simple spreadsheet or use CRM software to manage the pipeline like a sales funnel. Google Sheets can work as a free starter tracker, especially for early-stage startups with few resources. However, if you want more features, such as feedback on your pitch deck and investor search tools, you can look into CRM solutions from companies like OpenVC and Foundersuite. Many of them have a tiered pricing model that provides a few basic features at no cost.

The best fundraising pipeline tool for your company is one your whole team will use reliably. Using a tracker helps ensure everyone has the most accurate, up-to-date information. That means all users can access the pipeline immediately, as soon as a meeting or other contact point ends. Consider making your fundraising pipeline shareable to gather input from mentors and industry contacts.

How do you track SAFE commitments and round progress?

You'll want to track the real-time status of your funding goals so both you and interested investors know when you're about to finish raising the round. Since pre-seed and seed rounds are typically simple agreements for future equity (SAFEs), your fundraising pipeline will include data about whether an investor has indicated a verbal commitment or signed a SAFE – and in what amount.

To monitor progress towards a round's target size and close date, include sections in your CRM tool or spreadsheet that state where each investor currently stands. Split investors in your pipeline into categories such as:

• New

• Advancing or in discussion

• Soft circle or verbal commitment

• Committed

• Funds sent

• Passed

• Future round

If you're building a CRM tool yourself, it's worth listing investors by row. Then, you can add colour-coded rows in your tracker for each progress category and place the relevant investors below each. When an investor makes a soft or hard commitment, you'll want to add the amount in the "cheque size committed" or "cheque size funded" column so you can see how close you are to your goal.

How can consistent follow-up with investors help sustain momentum?

To keep discussions with investors active, without overwhelming or irritating them, consider sticking to a clear schedule and philosophy for follow-ups. The ideal follow-up cadence depends on the context and where the investor is in the pipeline.

Here are some examples:

• Send a thank-you message with any follow-up deliverables within 24 hours after a first meeting and within 48 hours of subsequent meetings.

• During the due diligence process, contact the investor if you haven't heard from them after four business days to offer a business update while checking on progress.

• Send a weekly update, with new data or milestones, to investors who've completed the partner meeting stage but haven't yet made a soft commitment.

• Contact every investor active in the pipeline at least once every ten days with new compelling information about your business, if you haven't communicated otherwise in that time.

It's worth choosing a single owner for each relationship so the investor receives introductions, follow-ups, and deliverables from one person. Several team members could provide input and attend meetings since expertise will likely be spread across your organisation. But one person should be in charge of ultimately handling all communication so no missteps occur.

What are sample pipeline stages worth tracking?

Here's a list of common pipeline stages you can customise to your own needs and track:

• Sourced

• Researched

• Contact initiated

• First meeting scheduled or held

• Second meeting scheduled or held

• Partner meeting scheduled or held

• Verbal interest

• Documents sent

• Diligence

• Terms discussed

• Term sheet

• Committed

• Signed

• Funds received

• Closed

When multiple members of the founding team are involved in fundraising conversations, you'll want to clarify the precise stages of the pipeline and necessary conditions to move an investor to the next stage. You'll also want to define up to ten pipeline stages and avoid introducing new ones specific to particular investor relationships. This can help you clearly compare how each investor is advancing along the pipeline.

How Stripe Atlas can help

Stripe Atlas handles everything you need to legally launch your company – incorporation, employer identification number (EIN), equity setup, and tax filings – so you can fundraise, open a bank account, and start accepting payments in as little as two working days, from anywhere in the world.

Join 100,000+ startups incorporated using Atlas, including startups backed by top investors like Y Combinator (YC), a16z, and General Catalyst.

Get started in minutes

The application takes under ten minutes. You'll choose your company structure, confirm your name is available, add up to four co-founders, set your equity split, and e-sign. Then, Atlas takes it from there, including notifying co-founders to sign their documents electronically.

Fundraising with SAFEs

Once incorporated, you can open a SAFE round directly from the Stripe Dashboard. Create board approval documents, issue YC-standard SAFEs, and track investor commitments – without switching tools. If you have Stripe Treasury, investor capital lands directly in your Stripe financial account.

Banking and payments before your EIN arrives

Atlas files your EIN application automatically after incorporation. You don't have to wait. Atlas enables pre-EIN payments and banking so you can start accepting payments and making transactions right away. US founders with a Social Security number (SSN) are typically eligible for expedited IRS processing.

Automatic 83(b) tax election filing

Atlas files your 83(b) election for you – US and non-US founders alike – with US Postal Service (USPS) certified mail and tracking to reduce personal income taxes. You'll get a signed 83(b) election and proof of filing directly in the Stripe Dashboard, with certified mail confirmation.

World-class company legal documents

Atlas provides all the legal documents you need to start running your company. Atlas C corp documents are built in collaboration with Cooley, one of the world's leading venture capital law firms. These documents are designed to help you fundraise immediately and ensure your company is legally protected, covering aspects like ownership structure, equity distribution and tax compliance.

US$2,500 in Stripe credits, plus US$50K+ in partner discounts

Atlas startups get US$2,500 in Stripe product credits for their first year, plus US$50,000+ in discounts on essential tools – Mercury, AWS, Carta, Xero, Perplexity, and more. Delaware registered agent service is also included free for your first year.

Learn how Stripe Atlas can get your company incorporated, funded, and running – all in one place.

FAQs about managing your fundraising pipeline