FundraisingTips
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The real timeline and conversion rates for closing a Series A fundraise, backed by data from an actual round.
Ariana Amirkhanian
TL;DR
A Series A fundraise takes amost 8 months from initial strategy to wire transfer. This breaks down to 2 months for structuring and research, 2 months for investor targeting, 4 months of active pitching, and 2 month for legal closing. Most founders underestimate this by 3-4 months because they skip the foundation work and jump straight to pitching.
Search "how long does a Series A take" and you'll get vague answers like "3-6 months" or "it depends."
Here's what actually happened when a tech-enabled data analytics startup closed their $17M Series A in early 2025:
Total timeline: 8 months
The founder pitched over 80 firms (~170 individual investors), secured 50+ first partner calls, and received 3 term sheets.
The math that matters: 6.25% conversion from first call to term sheet.
Most founders think fundraising starts when they begin pitching. Wrong.
The work that happens before the first investor call determines whether you close in 4 months or 10 months.
What happened in Phase 1 (Months 1-2):
What happened in Phase 2 (Months 3-4):
Why this matters: Cold outreach yields low single-digit response rates. Warm introductions convert at 10-15x higher rates. The 2 months spent mapping introduction paths meant the founder didn't waste time pitching 300 wrong investors.
Most advice tells you "start pitching and see what happens." That approach takes 8-12 months because you're learning while burning relationships.
Here's what systematic outreach looked like:
Here's the breakdown from 395 investors researched to 1 closed round:
Key insight: More than half of targets passed after first calls. This is normal. The mistake is starting with 20 investors instead of 80.
If you're aming for multiple term sheets and your call-to-term-sheet conversion is 6%, you need 50 first calls, if not more. To get 50 first calls with warm intros, you need to research ~400 investors.
Most founders skip the research phase, pitch 30 investors cold, get 3 calls, receive 0 term sheets, and wonder why fundraising is taking 12 months.
6 months before you need the money in the bank. If your runway ends in December and you haven't started preparing by June, you're already late.
The breakdown:
This assumes you hit your milestones. If your metrics slip during the raise, add 2-3 months.
5-10% is normal. The company in this case achieved 6.25% (50 calls → 3 term sheets).
If someone tells you their conversion rate was 50%, either they're lying or they only pitched 6 investors who were already ready to invest.
High conversion rates often mean you didn't cast a wide enough net and left better terms on the table.
3-4 weeks minimum, often 6-8 weeks.
This includes:
Don't tell your team "we closed the round" when you sign the term sheet. You've closed when the money is in the bank.
One close is cleaner. Rolling closes add complexity to your cap table and can signal desperation to later investors.
The systematic approach in this case study created competitive tension, leading to multiple term sheets and the ability to choose the best investor.
The reason this raise took 8 months instead of 12+ is systematic preparation.
Deliverables:
Why it matters: Most founders skip this and start pitching with an unclear story. You get one shot with each investor. Wasting that shot because you haven't done the positioning work means you're burning relationships you can't get back.
Deliverables:
Why it matters: Warm introductions convert at 10-15x the rate of cold outreach. The founder didn't waste time cold emailing 300 investors. They activated warm paths to strategically chosen firms.
Deliverables:
Why it matters: Every call generated data. That data improved the next call. Most founders treat investor calls as isolated events. Systematic founders treat them as a learning engine.
If you're 6+ months from needing to close your round:
If you're 3 months from needing to close:
You're late. You can still close, but expect 6-9 months, not 3. Focus on the highest-probability warm intros and move fast.
If you're already pitching and it's been 6 months with no term sheet:
Stop. You're likely pitching the wrong investors or your positioning is broken. Go back to Phase 1 and rebuild your foundation.
Want to see your fundraising data in one place? Try Flowlie's 7-day free trial and map your warm introduction paths before you send a single cold email.
Join thousands of founders using our technology to find the right investors and close rounds faster than ever before.
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