Table of Contents

• 👉🏻 Introduction

• 💰 Deals done this week

• Want to know what your startup is really worth?

• Today's Deep Dive: The Eight Questions VCs Will (E …

• Want some 121 time with me?

• 🤖 AI in fundraising

• Interesting Things I Read

• Founders’ Guidelines

• About Raise Like a Pro

👉🏻 Introduction

Raising venture capital is often painted as a high-stakes performance: polish the deck, deliver the lines, drop the buzzwords, hope for applause. But the reality is far less theatrical.

Investors are mostly circling around a handful of deceptively simple questions. They’re not trying to trip you up – they’re trying to get comfortable with whether this is a business that can break out, and whether you’re the right person to lead it.

The good news? Once you know the questions, you can prepare the right kind of answers – not rehearsed soundbites, but thoughtful responses that actually reveal how you think. 

Today’s deep dive shows you how I prep my clients for the questions VCs ask.

💰 Deals done this week

• Innerworks, a London-based cybersecurity startup pioneering Synthetic Threat Intelligence, raised €3.7M in a seed round led by AlbionVC to scale its AI-powered platform that detects sophisticated AI-generated fraud with 97% accuracy. (Read)

• Clean Growth Fund, a UK-based climate tech venture firm, secured €56.8M in its first close for Fund II (targeting €174M), to back early-stage innovators in energy, mobility, and built environment decarbonization. (Read)

• Aira, a Swedish clean energy startup, raised €150M in equity from existing investors, including Temasek and Altor, to speed up heat pump deployment across Europe, targeting residential decarbonization at scale. (Read)

• Meshed, a UK insurtech transforming SME insurance with AI agents that cut quote times from an hour to nine minutes, closed a £950K pre-seed round led by Haatch and supported by Aviva. (Read)

• Sports Impact Technologies, a Dublin-based medtech startup, secured €650K in pre-seed funding (via Enterprise Ireland) to push forward beta testing of its behind-the-ear concussion detection wearable targeting real-time athlete safety. (Read)

Want to know what your startup is really worth?

Jason Lemkin is the founder of SaaStr, one of the largest and most influential communities for SaaS entrepreneurs, and the host of the SaaStr Annual event—an annual gathering that draws tens of thousands of SaaS founders and investors worldwide. Inside the community, he’s affectionately dubbed the “Godfather of SaaS.”

He’s a legend in the industry and has just put together an incredible startup valuation calculator.

Check it out here.

Today's Deep Dive: The Eight Questions VCs Will (Eventually) Ask You – And How to Think About Them

If you’ve ever raised money, you’ll know the conversations rarely stick to the neat pitch deck you spent late nights crafting. VCs don’t actually invest in slides; they invest in people, narratives, and answers to a core set of questions that, one way or another, will always surface.

Below are the eight questions I hear most often in early-stage fundraising conversations. Rather than treating them as traps or hoops to jump through, think of them as prompts to sharpen your own thinking.

1. Why is this venture scale?

This is the VC equivalent of asking: “Why should I care?” At its core, venture funding is about outsized outcomes. If your idea tops out as a tidy £10m-a-year business, that’s great - but it’s not the kind of growth that supports a venture fund’s model.

Scale, in this context, means: How does this become hundreds of millions in revenue-quickly, and with momentum? The operative word is “quickly.” Your job is to connect the dots between the problem, the size of the market, the urgency of adoption, and your playbook for getting there.

How to think about it: Don’t just wave a TAM slide around (and especially not a top-down TAM). Get specific about the leverage in your model - what happens when acquisition costs hit a tipping point, or when a network effect kicks in. Show that the ceiling on this business is way higher than anyone else has managed to touch.

2. Why are you the team to do this?

This is the human filter. Great ideas land in inboxes every day; very few are attached to the right combination of grit, expertise, and obsession to actually pull them off.

Notice: they’re not asking if you’re the only team - they’re asking why you, specifically, are uniquely dangerous in this space. Lived experience? Domain expertise? Weirdly deep obsession? Hard-won distribution advantage? They want evidence that when the inevitable hurdles arise, you’re not the type to fold.

How to think about it: Be candid about why this problem found you. Investors buy into founder-market fit as much as product-market fit.

3. How do you think about the market you’re in?

This isn’t about the addressable market slide - it’s about your worldview. Do you have a thoughtful map of how the market is structured, how it’s evolving, and how the various players will sit on the chessboard in the future?

VCs want to know: Are you surfing a trend or chasing a fad? Do you understand where the white space is? Have you questioned the assumptions everyone else seems happy to accept? A great example is Lovable; they weren’t disrupting the market for dev tools for professional devs. They saw the white space around people who could never code.

How to think about it: Frame it as a narrative. “Here’s how this sector looked five years ago; here’s what has shifted; and here’s why the next decade belongs to companies like ours.” Show that you’re not just reacting to today but actively reading the future landscape.

4. Where is your defensive moat in the age of AI?

The question on everyone’s lips right now. Copyable software is a click away, and AI tools can accelerate competitors just as easily as you. What will you build that doesn’t vanish the moment someone runs an LLM over the same problem?

Traditional answers (IP, network effects, data advantages, brand) still apply - but investors want to see you’ve internalised the AI challenge.

How to think about it: A moat today is less about technology (and almost never about patents) and more about compounding unfair advantage. Maybe it’s a proprietary dataset. Maybe it’s a deeply integrated community. Maybe it’s distribution muscle in a market where others still fight for airtime. The key is to show sustainable differentiation in the face of fast-moving tech.

5. How do you think about competition?

This is where founders often stumble - either downplaying (“We don’t really have competitors”) or overloading (“Here’s a 20x20 grid of every logo we could find on Google”).

The truth: if you have no rivals, you probably don’t have a market. And if you’re just mimicking rivals, you don’t have a business worth backing.

How to think about it: Map the playing field honestly. Show you’ve studied competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and that you see openings they don’t. Then draw the contrast: What’s your wedge? Why does your approach win even when others wake up to it? The best founders talk with a mix of respect and confidence - acknowledging competitors but also radiating the belief they’ll outlearn and outmanoeuvre them.

6. What does your GTM look like?

Build it and they will come? Only in Hollywood. VCs know most great product ideas wither in obscurity because go-to-market strategy was an afterthought.

GTM is shorthand for: How will customers first hear about you, how will you convert them, and how does that process scale?

How to think about it: Anchor your GTM in your unique insight into your user. The early tactics don’t need to be glamorous, just precise. Is it a product-led flywheel? A sales-heavy wedge? A channel play through an existing ecosystem? Show that the sequence has been thought through - and that customer acquisition won’t eat your margins alive.

7. Why has no one else done this?

It’s tempting to say “because we’re brilliant,” but the truthful version usually lies in markets being messy. Timing, technology, regulation, incentives - these things line up poorly until suddenly they align.

How to think about it: Frame this as a story of timing. “This wasn’t possible five years ago because of X. It wasn’t appealing two years ago because of Y. But now Z has changed, and the window is open.” Investors want to know you’ve thought critically about why the opportunity only exists now - and why you’re the one seizing it.

8. How are you validating your hypothesis?

The early stage is a game of reducing uncertainty. You don’t need to have all the answers - you need to show your process for finding them.

VCs aren’t looking for perfect certainty; they’re looking for signals you run disciplined experiments, learn quickly, and iterate without ego.

How to think about it: Talk about the loops. How are you stress-testing assumptions? What customer conversations have changed your thinking? Where have you been proven wrong, and what did you do about it? The best founders make validation an ongoing muscle, not a box-ticking exercise.

Closing thought

Fundraising conversations are often framed as battles - founder versus investor. In reality, these questions aren’t traps; they’re a mirror. Investors want to know if you’ve thought deeply about the levers that matter. If you can answer candidly - and show you know where the gaps still are - you’ll build more trust than any “perfect” pitch ever could.

So the next time you hear one of these eight questions, don’t freeze. Smile, lean in, and treat it as what it really is: an invitation to prove you’re building something worthy of the venture bet.

Want some 121 time with me?

I've recently been taking a whole bunch of calls from founders all over the world where either I don’t have the time to work fully on their raise—or just need some specific targeted advice around different areas of their fundraising campaign, be it GTM, market sizing, pitch deck, or whatever.

I've now opened up additional slots, which you can book here.

🤖 AI in fundraising

Fundraising is undeniably time-intensive and often pulls focus from the critical work of building your business. The good news? The landscape of AI tools is rapidly evolving, offering increasingly sophisticated ways to save precious time – whether you're summarising investor requests, meticulously preparing for meetings, or streamlining the management of due diligence materials.

This week, I've been diving into a few platforms that have truly impressed me with their potential to be game-changers for any fundraising effort:

StartupFundraising.com takes a holistic approach to streamlining capital raising. Its AI-powered engine provides pitch optimization, tailored investor matching, and automated workflows for managing a full funding round. By combining investor discovery with actionable feedback loops, the platform helps founders not only identify the right partners but also refine their pitch narratives to close rounds faster.

Visible focuses on the often-overlooked challenge of investor relations post-introduction. The platform leverages AI to automate reporting, create dynamic charts, and streamline regular investor updates. For founders managing multiple stakeholders, Visible ensures that communications stay professional, data-driven, and timely, ultimately strengthening trust and transparency throughout the fundraising journey.

Affinity redefines relationship intelligence by analyzing the depth and frequency of investor interactions. Using AI to surface insights about network strength, it helps founders understand which relationships are most valuable and how to nurture them. By capturing communications across email and calendars, Affinity builds a living map of investor engagement, empowering founders to strategically leverage their networks for capital and partnership opportunities.

Interesting Things I Read

Decline in Female Funding in the UK & Europe

Women-led startups raised €3.4M last week across Europe and the UK, down from €45M the week before, but still highlighting resilience and challenges in consistent VC support. Standouts included CV Wallet, Silver Lion Innovations, Better Medicine, Qured, and Logmind. (Read)

Global Venture Capital Outlook

Q2 2025 saw $109B in global VC, down 17% QoQ (excluding OpenAI’s massive raise). The US led with 64% of funding; applied AI dominated, Europe cooled, India surged, and China stayed muted. Generative AI continues to outperform 2024 levels. (Read)

Biopharma IPO Drought

The US recorded zero biopharma IPOs in Q2 — the first since 2016. Weak stock performance, inflated valuations, and high rates fuel investor caution. Analysts expect IPOs to return in 2026, especially for AI-driven drug discovery. (Read)

European Healthtech’s Momentum

Despite a broader VC slowdown, European health-tech raised €4B across 453 rounds in H1 2025. Mega-rounds from Verdiva Bio ($410M), Neko Health ($260M), and Windward Bio ($200M) highlight investor confidence, especially in AI-enabled healthcare. (Read)

Founders’ Guidelines

• Build A StartUp From a Scratch – A deep dive into how much to pay yourself, manage taxes, Exit Strategy, and think about liquidity as you build.
  🔗 View guide

• How to Raise a Seed Round – A step-by-step breakdown of when to raise, how much, and what top VCs expect from early-stage founders.
  🔗 View guide

• Principles for Uni Spintouts – 10 key principles on how to spin out your deep-tech startup from university.
  🔗 View guide

• Management Team Offsite – How to keep your company from running of the Rails
  🔗 View guide

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."

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. This is the playbook I use each and every day to help founders all over the world raise money from investors all over the world.

The type of things we have and will continue to cover:

• 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.

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

– David

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.