Here’s the uncomfortable truth your fundraising consultant probably won’t tell you upfront: You’re going to get rejected. A lot. Like, hundreds of times. But hey, at least now you’re mentally prepared!
The Brutal Math of Fundraising
Welcome to Rejection City, Population: You
Your fundraiser isn’t being pessimistic when they say they need to contact hundreds of investors to get dozens of allocations. They’re being realistic. Fundraising is basically professional-grade speed dating, except most people swipe left on your fund.
The silver lining: Once you accept that most conversations will end in “thanks, but no thanks,” you can focus on making those rejections as efficient as possible. Quality rejections, if you will.
Stop Wasting Everyone’s Time (Including Your Own)
Pre-qualifying is your friend. There’s nothing quite like spending three months courting an investor who exclusively does biotech, only to discover you’re running a fintech fund. It’s like showing up to a vegan restaurant with a steak—technically impressive, but completely pointless.
Smart move: Figure out who actually invests in your strategy before you waste their time (and yours) with your beautifully crafted pitch deck that they’ll never care about.
The “Wrong Person” Tragedy (A Fundraising Horror Story)
Picture this: You’ve spent weeks building a relationship with someone at a major institution. You’re practically planning the allocation celebration. Then you discover you’ve been talking to Sophie, who covers hedge funds, while you needed Ramon, who handles private equity.
Plot twist: Sophie was too polite to redirect you, and Ramon doesn’t know you exist. Months of effort, zero results. This is why people drink during fundraising. This common scenario represents a significant opportunity cost in fundraising, where time and resources are finite. Tools like Octum address this challenge by providing clear mapping of institutional coverage areas and decision-makers, ensuring that outreach efforts are directed toward the appropriate contacts from the outset, rather than discovering organizational structures through trial and error.
How Octum Saves You From This Fundraising Purgatory
We do the detective work so you don’t have to:
- Match you with firms that actually invest in your strategy (revolutionary concept)
- Connect you with the correct person (not just a person)
- Give you a messaging system that’s like LinkedIn, but designed for people who understand that “synergies” isn’t a personality trait
The professional edge: Octum is used by professionals for professionals. Translation: We skip the amateur-hour mistakes and get you in front of people who can actually write checks.
Fundraising is hard enough without playing guessing games about who invests in what. Let Octum handle the intelligence gathering so you can focus on what actually matters—closing allocations instead of chasing ghosts.
Because life’s too short for inefficient rejection collection.
