For startups, the fundraising process is tough and time-consuming. Unfortunately for your early stage business, at the exact time when you want your numbers going “up and to the right” the people most responsible for driving that growth (i.e. you and your co-founders) are taken out of your business to trudge around seemingly endless meetings with potential investors, the vast majority of whom won’t invest (statistically speaking). At rampersand we often discuss how to hack that process to save founders’ time and increase the chance of finding a fit which, given we back ideas and(most critically) people, is not always super easy. One we way we do it is keep a register of founders on our watch list who we check in with regularly and map progress, so when it does come time to raise a round, much of the work has already been done.