Founder Stories
When to Pivot Your Startup with Michael True
Michael True, co-founder of Prescient AI, joined The Fundraising Debrief following their $4.5 million seed fundraise.
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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
A Series A fundraise takes 6 months from initial strategy to wire transfer. This breaks down to 2 months for structuring and research, 2 months of active pitching, and 2 months 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 "3-4 months" or "it depends."
Here's what actually happened when a data analytics startup closed their $17M Series A in early 2025:
Total timeline: 6 months
The founder pitched over 80 firms (~170 individual investors), secured 50+ first partner calls, and received 3 term sheets.
The math that matters: 3.75% 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.
Phase 1
Phase 2
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 4%, you need 40 first calls, if not more. To get 40 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 6 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.
👀 P.S. Looking for a ready-to-use list? Check out our curated Series A cybersecurity investors & Series A healthtech & biotech investors lists.
A Series A fundraise typically takes 6 months from initial strategy to wire transfer, breaking down into 2 months for structuring and research, 2 months of active pitching, and 2 months for legal closing. Most founders underestimate this timeline by 3-4 months because they skip the foundation work and jump straight to pitching. If your runway ends in December and you haven't started preparing by June, you're already late and should expect the process to stretch to 6-9 months or longer.
You should start preparing 6 months before you need the money in the bank. This gives you 2 months to build your foundation (strategy, research, targeting) and 4 months for active pitching and closing. If your metrics slip during the raise, add another 2-3 months to this timeline. The biggest mistake founders make is starting too late—if you wait until you have 4 months of runway left, you're already in a dangerous position.
Fundraising starts 2 months before you pitch your first investor, not when you begin taking calls. The pre-pitch foundation phase includes market positioning, competitive analysis, valuation benchmarking, cap table modeling, investor database building, and warm introduction mapping. This preparation determines whether you close in 4 months or 10 months. Founders who skip this phase and jump straight to pitching waste months learning on the fly while burning irreplaceable investor relationships.
To secure multiple term sheets, you should research 300-400 investors, identify 200+ warm introduction paths, and aim to pitch 80-100 firms (representing 150-200 individual partners). The math works backwards from conversion rates: if you want 3 term sheets and your call-to-term-sheet conversion is 4-6%, you need 40-50 first calls. To get 40-50 warm intro first calls, you need a research pool of 300-400 investors. Most founders fail because they start with only 20-30 names and run out of options.
A realistic conversion rate is 5-10% from first partner call to term sheet. In the case study example, the founder achieved 6.25% (50 first calls resulting in 3 term sheets), which is completely normal. If someone claims a 50% conversion rate, they either pitched only 6 investors who were already ready to invest, or they're not being truthful. High conversion rates often indicate you didn't cast a wide enough net and likely left better terms on the table.
Because more than half of your targets will pass after first calls—this is completely normal. The systematic approach creates competitive tension and optionality, leading to multiple term sheets and the ability to choose the best investor rather than taking the only offer you receive. If you start with only 20-30 investors, you'll likely end up with zero term sheets and wonder why fundraising is taking 12 months. Volume combined with strategic targeting is what generates options.
Warm introductions convert at 10-15x higher rates than cold outreach. Cold emails typically yield low single-digit response rates, while warm introductions through second and third-degree network connections generate significantly higher engagement and serious consideration. This is why spending 2 months mapping warm introduction paths is worth it—you don't waste time pitching 300 wrong investors through ineffective cold outreach.
Plan for 6-8 weeks from term sheet to wire transfer, with 3-4 weeks being the absolute minimum. This period includes legal documentation and review, due diligence requests and responses, final negotiations on legal terms, back-and-forth with the board, and wire transfer coordination. Never tell your team "we closed the round" when you sign the term sheet—you've only closed when the money is actually in the bank.
The foundation phase includes market positioning and competitive analysis, valuation benchmarking against comparable companies, pro forma cap table modeling comparing multiple scenarios, round strategy development (target size, valuation, investor profile), building a comprehensive investor database, filtering to strategically aligned firms, analyzing networks to uncover warm introduction paths, and developing targeted engagement strategies for each investor. Skipping this work means pitching with an unclear story and wasting your one shot with each investor.
One close is cleaner and more strategic. Rolling closes add complexity to your cap table and can signal desperation to later investors. The systematic approach that creates competitive tension through simultaneous conversations leads to multiple term sheets and the ability to choose the best investor at the best terms. Rolling closes dilute this competitive dynamic and often result in suboptimal terms.
Systematic pipeline management includes coordinating warm intro activation, conducting 50+ first calls with highly targeted partners, creating pre-meeting briefs on partner thesis and portfolio fit, writing post-call summaries tracking sentiment and pushback, continuously monitoring the pipeline status, documenting FAQs from investor questions, refining pitch based on feedback patterns, and tracking partner meeting progression for strong leads. Every call should generate data that improves the next call—most founders treat calls as isolated events instead of as a learning engine.
Large VC firms have multiple partners who each need to champion your deal internally. Pitching a firm often means taking calls with 2-3 different partners to build consensus. The 80 firms represented approximately 170 individual investor conversations because getting to a term sheet requires multiple champions within the partnership, not just one interested partner.
If you've been actively pitching for 6 months with no term sheet, stop immediately—you're likely pitching the wrong investors or your positioning is broken. Other red flags include getting consistently rejected after first calls (suggests targeting problem), taking more than 2 months to get 20 first calls (indicates weak network activation), or seeing your business metrics slip during the raise (adds 2-3 months to timeline). In these cases, go back to Phase 1 and rebuild your foundation rather than continuing to burn relationships.
A typical funnel looks like this: 395 investors researched and scored → 200+ warm introduction paths identified → 80 firms pitched (~170 individual investors) → 50+ partner first calls → 3 term sheets → 1 closed round at target valuation. The key insight is that this aggressive filtering and volume is normal and necessary. Starting with a small pool of 20-30 investors means you'll run out of options before securing even one term sheet.
Systematic preparation ensures you pitch the right investors through the right channels with the right story from day one. Random approaches take 12+ months because founders spend months learning what they should have known before the first pitch, waste time on poorly targeted investors, suffer from low response rates due to cold outreach, and burn through their entire network before figuring out their positioning. You only get one shot with each investor—systematic preparation ensures you don't waste it.
Join thousands of founders using our technology to find the right investors and close rounds faster than ever before.
Michael True, co-founder of Prescient AI, joined The Fundraising Debrief following their $4.5 million seed fundraise.
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