Welcome back to Raise Like a Pro dear reader! ; a newsletter to help you do exactly that.

I'm David, and unlike most people giving fundraising advice, I don't just talk about raising money – I’ve been there as a founder and now I spend my day raising money for startups all over the world from investors all over the world.

I've closed millions in new investment in the past few months alone for startups - and I’m going to teach you how to do it without needing someone like me. This is my playbook; the operational, tactical and yes - sometimes boring stuff you need to do each and every day to raise your round.

No nonsense, no fluff and definitely no fuzzy sheep.

Table of Contents

• My promise to you

• Explaining why now really does mean now

  • How to Make Your Case:

• 💰 Deals done this week

• The Perfect Timing: Convincing Investors That Now …

  • Conclusion: Turning Timing Into Your Competitive A …

• 📖 Interesting things I’ve been reading….

• About Raise Like a Pro

My promise to you

Every piece of advice in this newsletter comes from actual experience: deals I've closed, terms I've negotiated, and strategies I've refined through real-world application.

I'm not here to give you startup platitudes or generic advice. Instead, you'll get practical, actionable tactics that you can implement immediately in your fundraising journey.

The goal? To help you raise money faster, at better valuations, while protecting your interests and your time.

– David

Explaining why now really does mean now

One of the most crucial parts of your story to get right when talking to investors is the “why now”.

It’s about explaining why can this only be done now, what stopped it being successful in the past and why waiting means you’ll be too late.

This is about driving Urgency. With a capital Urg.

Typically “Why now?” hinges on the convergence of three main factors:

1. Technology Timing: Has a technological breakthrough or cost reduction made your product possible or affordable only recently?

2. Market Timing: Are shifts in consumer behaviour, demographics, or pain points creating immediate demand?

3. Regulatory Timing: Have recent or upcoming regulatory changes opened new opportunities or created urgent needs?

How to Make Your Case:

• Show clear evidence of these converging trends through data and timelines.

• Explain the opportunity cost of waiting—why delay means losing competitive advantage.

• Use analogies to past technological waves to help investors grasp the significance.

• Highlight your team’s unique expertise and industry experience that give you privileged insight into these trends.

We’re going to unpick this below.

💰 Deals done this week

• Cambridge-based battery firm Nyobolt has raised £22.6m ($30m) to capitalise on surging AI and data centre power demands, months after warning of potential financial trouble. Backed by IQ Capital, Latitude (LocalGlobe), Scania Invest, and Takasago Industry, Nyobolt is positioning its fast-charging, high-power energy tech as key to powering energy-intensive AI infrastructure. Despite a £20.2m loss in 2023 and minimal revenue, the company claims a $9m revenue boost in 2024 and $150m in contracts booked, with CEO Sai Shivareddy saying Nyobolt is "already positively impacting customers" amid the global power crunch. Read more

• London-based Inephany, an AI startup founded by ex-Apple Siri engineer John Torr, has raised £1.8m to drastically cut the cost of training large language models (LLMs). The company claims its novel approach can make LLM training 10x more efficient, sidestepping the “brute force” methods currently used. The seed round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners (known for backing Oxford Nanopore), with support from Sure Valley Ventures and Prof Steve Young—another former Siri engineer—who is also joining as chair. Inephany aims to tackle inefficiencies in model training, with plans to roll out its first products later this year. If scaled, the firm’s tech could dramatically reshape the economics of AI, especially as models push toward billion-dollar training costs. Read more

• North London-based Mindset AI, an embedded agent startup, has raised £4.3m to support its US expansion, including the opening of a Chicago office. Founded in 2019, the company helps software businesses deploy AI agents inside their platforms without needing in-house AI teams. The fresh capital comes off the back of a 120% YoY revenue increase, hitting £1m in 2024. The round was co-led by Pembroke VCT and Edge VC, with participation from existing investors like Mercia. Read more

The Perfect Timing: Convincing Investors That Now Is the Moment for Your Startup

When pitching to investors, founders typically hammer home what they're building, why it matters, where they'll operate, and how they'll execute. Yet many overlook perhaps the most crucial question investors are silently asking: Why now? This timing question isn't just another box to tick—it's often the decisive factor separating the startups that secure funding from those that walk away empty-handed.

Understanding the "Why Now?"

The "Why now?" question requires you to articulate two critical timelines: Why couldn't your company have been built five years ago? And why would waiting five years be too late? This isn't about arbitrary timing—it's about identifying the specific technological, market, or regulatory shifts creating your unique window of opportunity.

The most successful startups throughout history weren't just good ideas—they were good ideas that emerged precisely when the world was ready for them. They caught specific waves of change at the perfect moment. Your job is to prove you're about to catch yours.

The Convergence of Opportunity

Think of your startup's timing as the convergence of multiple streams—technological readiness, market demand, customer pain points, and often regulatory frameworks—all flowing together at precisely the right moment. When investors understand this convergence, they feel the urgency that drives commitment.

As the founder, you need to paint this convergence and make these guys jump to back you. You're not building a business; you're capitalising on a unique moment in time that won't come again. That sense of "now or never" drives investment decisions far more powerfully than simply having a good product.

The Three Critical Timing Factors

Technology Timing: Riding the Innovation Wave

Technology timing involves spotting the moment when technological capabilities have just matured enough to enable your solution, but before everyone else has noticed. The sweet spot lies in that narrow gap between "technically possible" and "widely recognised as possible."

Consider consumer drones. RC aircraft had existed since the 1970s, and compact cameras since the early 2000s. What changed? The smartphone revolution dramatically reduced the cost and size of camera modules, accelerometers, GPS chips, and radio components. Suddenly, what had been prohibitively expensive became affordable. The founders who recognised this shift early captured the market.

Similarly, cloud computing enabled SaaS startups to emerge without massive infrastructure costs. AI advancements are now creating similar opportunities in numerous sectors. The question is: what technological threshold has just been crossed that makes your startup possible today when it wasn't viable yesterday?

You know that feeling when someone else out there is killing it and you think “if only I had done that?” - well now’s your chance.

Exploiting Technological Inflection Points

Beyond just identifying technological capabilities, the most compelling "Why now?" narratives identify technological inflection points—moments when technologies cross thresholds of price, performance, or accessibility that fundamentally change what's possible.

For instance, when processing power for machine learning algorithms became affordable enough to run on standard cloud infrastructures, an entire ecosystem of AI startups became viable overnight. When you can point to specific technological thresholds that have just been crossed, investors immediately understand why your timing is critical.

Market Timing: Surfing the demand biggee

Market timing means identifying shifts in consumer or business behaviour, demographic changes, or emerging problems that create demand for your solution. The pandemic, for example, accelerated remote work by years, creating instant markets for virtual collaboration tools.

But market timing goes deeper than obvious trends. It requires identifying the precise moment when a market need has become painful enough that customers are actively seeking solutions, but before the market is saturated with options. This timing often involves watching for signs that early adopters are starting to give way to mainstream adoption.

Recognising Market Inflection Points

The most sophisticated founders don't just ride waves—they spot them forming before others. This might mean identifying:

• Demographic shifts (millennials entering prime earning years, ageing populations)

• Behavioural changes (mobile-first consumers, subscription preference over ownership)

• Emerging pain points (cybersecurity concerns, sustainability pressures)

• Spending pattern shifts (movement from hardware to software, service-based consumption)

When pitching market timing, use data relentlessly. Show adoption curves of adjacent technologies, demonstrate spending shifts with clear metrics, and illustrate pain points with customer research. Investors need to see that your market timing insights are based on rigorous analysis, not just intuition.

Regulatory Timing: Navigating the Compliance Wave

Regulatory timing may be less glamorous, but it often creates the most defensible opportunities. Changes in laws, compliance requirements, or industry standards can suddenly make new business models viable or create urgent needs that didn't previously exist.

GDPR in Europe created an entire industry of compliance tools. Financial regulations after 2008 opened opportunities for fintech companies to reinvent banking services. Healthcare data interoperability requirements are currently creating new possibilities for health tech startups.

When regulatory changes align with your solution, you can often point to specific deadlines or implementation dates that create urgency for your customers—and by extension, for investors who want to capture that opportunity.

Regulation is great when it makes your customers buy whatever tin of baked beans you’re selling; less great if you’re the one being bullied into buying.

Weaving Your Personal Expertise Into the Timing Narrative

The "Why now?" question gives you a perfect opportunity to reinforce why you and your team are uniquely positioned to capture this moment. This isn't just about timing—it's about why you're the right person at the right time.

Demonstrate Pattern Recognition from Industry Experience

If you've spent years in your industry, emphasise how that experience has given you pattern recognition abilities that others lack. A statement like, "Having worked in commodity trading for 15 years in 3 different firms, I've experienced these problems myself” carries enormous weight.

Connect Your Technical Insights to Timing

For technical founders, connect your specialised knowledge to why you spotted this opportunity before others. "My research in distributed systems allowed me to recognise that the recent breakthroughs in consensus algorithms would enable entirely new applications that weren't possible before."

This reinforces that your timing insights aren't accidental—they stem from deep expertise that gives you unique perspective.

Crafting the Perfect "Why Now?" Narrative

Loyal readers of this newsletter know me well enough by now that if there’s a framework I can share - I will. They’re powerful and a great way to describe how to actually do something.

Build a Compelling Timeline

Create a visual timeline that shows the convergence of key factors making your startup possible now. Plot technological developments, market shifts, regulatory changes, and competitive movements on this timeline to illustrate how they've all come together at this precise moment.

This timeline should extend into the future, showing how these trends will continue to accelerate, creating even more favourable conditions for your business—but also highlighting why waiting would mean missing the critical early window.

Frame the Opportunity Cost of Waiting

Don't just explain why now is good—make it painfully clear why waiting would be catastrophic. Show investors the opportunity cost of delay. Will competitors emerge? Will the market crystallise around inferior solutions? Will early-mover advantages disappear?

Create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) by clearly articulating what the landscape will look like in 12, 24, and 36 months, and why getting in now is critical to capturing the maximum opportunity.

Use Analogies to Similar Technology Waves

Draw parallels to similar technological or market waves from the past to help investors contextualise your timing. "We're at the same inflection point for enterprise AI that cloud computing was in 2010—possible enough to build real solutions, but early enough that the market hasn't yet solidified around dominant players."

These analogies help investors mentally map your opportunity to patterns they've seen play out before, making your timing argument more intuitive and compelling.

Becoming the Wayne Gretzky of Your Sector

As Wayne Gretzky famously said, the key is to "skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been." The perfect "Why now?" pitch shows investors that you're not just reacting to current conditions—you're anticipating where things are headed and positioning to intercept that future.

This forward-looking vision must be deeply rooted in evidence and trend lines from the past, but it's fundamentally about the future. Show investors how current trajectories will create the perfect conditions for your business to thrive, and why your team is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this coming reality.

Conclusion: Turning Timing Into Your Competitive Advantage

The "Why now?" question isn't just another slide in your pitch deck—it's potentially your most powerful argument. When crafted correctly, it transforms your startup from merely interesting to absolutely urgent. It changes the investor's calculation from "Should I invest?" to "Can I afford not to invest?"

Remember that timing isn't just about external factors—it's about the unique intersection of those factors with your team's capabilities and insights. The most compelling timing stories are those where your background has given you a privileged view of emerging opportunities that others simply cannot see.

Master the "Why now?" narrative, and you won't just raise capital—you'll turn your timing insights into a lasting competitive advantage that drives your business forward long after the investment round closes. Because in startup success, being right isn't enough—being right at exactly the right time is everything.

🤖 AI in fundraising

Fundraising is time-intensive and distracts from what matters - building the business. Emerging AI tools will help you save time whether summarising investor requests, preparing for meetings, or managing due diligence materials.

Here are a couple of tools that have been a game changer for me recently:

• PitchBob - a powerful pitch deck generator and general startup co-pilot that has helped over 37,000 founders find early-stage funding and create enticing pitch decks. Try it here

• VenturusAI - designed to help you turn your business ideas into reality. Using advanced AI, it provides instant feedback on ideas by generating detailed analyses such as SWOT, PESTEL, and Porter's Five Forces. Try it here

📖 Interesting things I’ve been reading….

• OpenAI is building a social network. Read here.

• Instagram and Facebook are hardly social media apps anymore. Here's the proof.

About Raise Like a Pro

Raising a funding round isn’t rocket science. It’s not even brain surgery. But it's incredibly time-consuming, HARD and emotionally challenging.

As a founder, your time is better spent building product, finding product-market fit, signing up customers, and building your team. Yet fundraising demands an enormous amount of your attention and energy.

I've witnessed countless founders struggle with this balance. They get stuck in the cycle of endless pitch meetings, confusing feedback, and the dreaded "no's" that seem to pile up without explanation. Even successful companies like Canva, now valued at $25.5 billion, started with their CEO Melanie Perkins hearing "no" over 100 times before getting that crucial first "yes."

What this newsletter will give you

I'm going to share my exact playbook – the same one I use to raise millions for startups across the world. This isn't about theory or inspiration. Instead, you'll get:

• The actual processes I use to close deals.

• Step-by-step morning routines for effective fundraising.

• Real email templates that get responses.

• Meeting scripts that convert to term sheets.

• Pipeline management techniques that close deals.

• The stuff you really need to know so you don’t get screwed by investors.

My days are spent navigating negotiations with every type of investor: angels looking for their next big win, syndicates pooling capital for bigger deals, and VC firms conducting thorough due diligence.

I'll share insights from all these perspectives, helping you understand how each type of investor thinks and what they're really looking for.

What's coming up

In the next issues, we'll dive into a whole bunch of stuff including:

• How to structure your fundraising for maximum efficiency

• The exact outreach strategies I use to get investor meetings

• Common terms to watch out for (and how to negotiate them)

• Ways to create competitive tension in your raise

• Due diligence preparation that speeds up closing

Raise like a Pro is what David Levine does every single day though this business Glenluna Ventures. An exited founder, he raises money each and every day for founders all over the world from investors all over the world.