The first term sheet playbook: what investors read before your deck
Most rounds are decided before the pitch. Here is the data room, the model and the one-page memo that got our last cohort to term sheets.
Fundup Club Program Team
By the time an investor opens your deck, they have usually already formed a view. They have seen your traction chart in a forwarded email, skimmed your LinkedIn and asked someone in their network what they think. The pitch confirms or breaks that view. It rarely creates it.
Start with a one-page memo
A memo forces clarity. Write the problem, who has it, what you have shipped, what is working, and what the money buys, in that order. If a partner can forward it to their team without adding context, it is doing its job.
Have the data room ready before the first call
- A cap table that matches your incorporation documents
- Monthly metrics for as far back as you have them, raw and charted
- A simple 18-month model with the assumptions written out
- Customer references who have agreed to take a call
Every Thursday someone asked for my deck, my data room or my model. By Demo Day it all existed, because I had no choice.
Run the process like a sprint
Batch your first meetings into two weeks. Momentum is a signal investors read, and spacing meetings out over months hands it away. Keep a simple tracker of every conversation, the next step and who owns it.