It can be very exciting when an investor agrees to fund you, but you need to understand that this is just the first step on a new leg of your journey. There is still lots of stuff which needs to be accomplished before the cheque hits your bank account, and you need to be on top of things to make sure that this process gets expedited.
Think of it as a project with multiple moving parts, and you need to take ownership to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. Things can change quickly, especially when you are dealing with many investors, and you don’t want to lose momentum.
Because there are multiple players (your lawyer, their lawyer, their analyst, the many complex forms; and the multiple signatures) the process can seem complex and this can unnerve you. It’s a good idea to set up a list of deliverables; define who is responsible for which task; create a timeline; and then share this with everyone proactively, so that everyone can track progress.
The fact of the matter is that investors are busy, and there are lots of different things going on in their life. Unless you make this your personal priority, things will take forever and ever to happen.
You need to keep on pushing and pulling to make sure that things move quickly, because you may find that the ball gets dropped because no one is very clear who’s supposed to be doing what. This lack of coordination can come back to hurt you.
There are lots of tools available to help you manage the closure of the deal effectively. Once you put down the tasks on paper and add a timeline to it, what you need to accomplish will become a lot clearer, and you’ll be able to remain on top of things.
[This post by Dr. Aniruddha Malpani first appeared on LinkedIn and has been reproduced with permission.]
