The new order
We set up Duet Partners in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. It was clear that the funding world had been turned on its head, bringing with it immense challenges - but also opportunity - as the new order emerged.
With first-hand experience of managing high growth Tech businesses in the UK and Silicon Valley for over two decades, we could immediately relate to the uncertainty CEO’s were facing in this increasingly risk-averse investment climate. It was clear that the process of raising early stage capital needed rethinking.
Little did we know that 11 years later, a global pandemic would turn the funding world on its head again.
Startup to Scaleup advisory
Whilst fundraising was always the ultimate goal, we knew right from the start that the classic transactional support offered by traditional corporate finance firms was not going to be enough. With increasing fall out rates from Seed to Series A to Series B and beyond, founders were searching for ways to beat the odds. To cross the chasm. This gave us our purpose.
A critical requirement was to be able to support founders from the moment they began considering the next stage of funding – way before any investor pitch had been mapped out. And we needed to be flexible, as different founders require different levels of support through the funding process.
This led to providing Investment Analysis as a stand-alone service, designed to help founders build winning funding strategies. The process begins by identifying the most appropriate sources of capital based on stage, sector and business model, then uses this insight to stress test and improve the investment proposition. We have now undertaken dozens of these short projects to great acclaim.
Right from the beginning we provided complete project management support through the entire fundraising process, taking on the funding mandate based on a retainer plus success fee model, starting at Series A.
But not every founder wants a fully managed campaign, nor is this appropriate at Seed. As a result we introduced the concept of a 'guided campaign' where we assist the founder through all the funding preparation and execution phases on a retainer-only basis. We are invisible to investors in this mode, but provide expert guidance, step by step through the whole process.
We now advise on all aspects of business model and financial model development, funding preparation, investor identification and engagement, and due diligence. As a result, we have helped dozens of early stage businesses progress, raising over $400M along the way.
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