Fundraising Intermediaries? Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Do It, And Where It Still Makes Sense

When it comes to startup fundraising, using intermediaries is looked disfavorably in many if not most ecosystems. Three key reasons for this trend — more investors around, technology has made coordination and communication increasingly easier, entrepreneurs have become savvier about fundraising. In fact, in Silicon Valley at least it is expected CEOs lead fundraising and typically a strong negative signal if they don’t. The further expectation is that you will work with existing investors to get intros to future investors. Indeed a banker-led process invariably leads to the question of why the entrepreneur wasn’t able to raise directly. All that…...