This week on the startup to scaleup journey:

• Founders, what is your most burning question on fundraising?
  
  

Founders, what is your most burning question on fundraising?

49% of founders say they’re considering quitting their startup this year, according to the latest Sifted survey.

Over the past 18 months, stress levels been rising: "Valuations have fallen, investors have been reluctant to part with their capital, layoffs have swept the industry, and there’s been more scrutiny of the bottom line than most founders have ever experienced."

Against this brutal market backdrop for VC-backed tech companies, founders say they are “overworked”, “exhausted” and “broken”. Some founders have said “board pressure” is leading them to consider leaving their businesses. 

More than half of the founders surveyed said they get no support whatsoever from their investors when it comes to their mental health. Only six respondents said they get ‘a lot’ of support from investors regarding their wellbeing. 

Fundraising is the most common challenge founders say they are facing. As this is our core area of expertise at Duet, we have been looking for further ways to support the CEO/founder community during this very challenging period.

As a result, this week Duet is launching a new initiative, ‘Duet Founder Clinics’. As we describe below, we are inviting founders to bring us their most burning questions on fundraising.

We hope that our special vantage point will enable us to help founders find the answers.

Supporting the founder community

When Covid struck, Duet launched an initiative to keep founders informed of market developments. This gave birth to our newsletter; 'Weekly Briefing Note for Founders'. 

Initially intended for just our client base, almost 800 UK tech founders now receive it direct to their inboxes every Thursday morning. Thousands of other founders access this information a week later across our LinkedIn, Medium, and Substack channels.

As a result, the feedback we receive from the founder community has risen exponentially.

As the market went into reverse through early 2023, founder anxiety rose. This was suddenly a much more challenging environment in which to steer a startup through the early phases. Our own analysis, informed by research from Startup-Snapshot, identified that this was especially acute with first-time founders.

In response to this, we launched our founder coaching service, Founder to Funder, back in October. Helping founders shape remarkable, breakthrough ideas into serious, fundable opportunities is incredibly exciting.

The recent Sifted research underlines just how important founder coaching has become: "28% of respondents say they now regularly see a coach, and 18% regularly see a therapist. Only 13% look to their investors for support."

The valuation question

As market conditions worsened through 2023, it became increasingly clear that one of the big blocking issues on funding strategy was valuation.

Concerned by big valuation drops being reported across late-stage and public markets, anxious boards put the brakes on funding plans. The spectre of a possible down round loomed large. But many early-stage founders believed this concern was misplaced and began asking the question: "What is my startup worth?"

In response to this, we decided to reach out to our community again. This time, Duet made available our extensive investment research capability to provide a free, no obligation, peer group valuation trend analysis. For those planning rounds for early 2024, we enabled 25 founders to dig into this data with us during December.

As a result, these founders gained key insights into the real valuation trends within their sectors. Many commented that they had never had access to information like this before. Boards immediately became better informed.

Big questions remain

Compelled by the need to raise fresh capital in 2024, many founders are now gearing up for their next round. Some already have campaigns underway.

The fortunate ones will be bringing forward compelling propositions that will be in high demand. For many others there will be greater uncertainty. Investors have raised the bar at all stages.

Founders are facing many more questions than ever before about the funding challenges ahead. And they are urgently searching for answers.

In response to this increasing need and to give founders a new resource to draw on, Duet is now launching a series of free ‘Founder Clinics’.

NEW: Duet Founder Clinics

Over the next 3 weeks, we are inviting founders to bring us their most challenging funding questions.

These might relate to planning a campaign, executing a campaign, or even decoding investor feedback. Founders may just be seeking inspiration, looking for market insights, or need a sounding board on an idea.

Whatever the circumstances, our intent is to help find answers.

Clinics will be held on Thursday and Friday mornings. These are free, no obligation, private 1/1 sessions for UK startup founders. As before, we are making available 25 consultation slots. First come first served.

BOOKINGS: To discuss your most challenging funding question with us, you can immediately book your 1/1 slot here.

If you would like more information or have any other queries before you book, then please contact us at: john.hall@duetpartners.com

Let's talk!