VC Voice: Nauta - Running The Fundraising Process
- Jul 9
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 10
A conversation with Theo Wethered from Nauta, on the realities of raising VC funding - what to expect from the process, and how to run a successful campaign.
Key Insights: The most successful fundraisers may start planning a raise as long as 12 months before launch, with founders treating investor conversations like customer discovery. Building genuine partnerships matters more than optimising terms and valuation.
For founders navigating their first VC funding round, the process can feel like a black box. What do investors actually want to see? How far in advance should you start preparing? And once you have multiple term sheets, how do you choose?
We sat down with Theo Wethered, Principal at Nauta, investing in B2B software companies across Europe, to get the insider perspective on what makes a funding round successful.
The 12-Month Head Start Strategy
The most successful founders begin fundraising conversations a full year before they actually need the money. Theo recalls working with one portfolio company where this approach paid off dramatically:
“There’s a company in our portfolio, we spoke to them just after they closed their pre-seed and the founder asked: ‘What should I show in order to raise a seed round of £3 million?’ They came back 12 months later and, remarkably, had hit all those milestones. If you do that to an investor and you show that level of execution... any investor will be blown away.”
This isn’t just about effectively managing timelines - it’s about thinking of fundraising as a strategic process.
Do “Investor Discovery” As You Would With Customers
Just as you wouldn’t launch a product without understanding customer needs, don’t start fundraising without understanding what investors want to see. Theo advocates for a consultative approach:
“I always advise founders to speak with investors and say ‘What do you look for? If we wanted to raise this much, what would we need to show in order to do that for this type of business?’ This way you can see the scorecard before you go out.”
This customer discovery approach for fundraising helps founders avoid the common mistake of pitching to investors who aren’t a fit for their stage or sector.
Document Essentials
When it comes to fundraising documents, focus on the essentials: financial plans, revenue breakdown and cap table. Add a well-crafted deck and you’re sorted, at least to begin conversations.
“I'm always slightly averse to huge 50-page word documents. Investors have a short attention span and their job is to be interacting with 50 different companies at once,” Theo explains. Detailed market analyses and competitive landscapes can wait until investors are genuinely interested.
Cold Outreach Can Work
Whilst warm introductions carry weight, cold emails can be equally effective with the right approach. The key is brevity, clarity and relevance: “If you message me [a seed/series A stage B2B software VC] saying ‘Building a B2B software product. Scaled it to 600K of ARR, having launched a year ago, with clients like XYZ, would love to jump on a call or share a deck’ - instantly, everything they've said there is enough to get me to at least spend a bit more attention on it.’
Artificial Deadlines Are A Double Edge Sword
Setting a timeline can be pivotal to creating urgency in a fund raise. However, one of the biggest mistakes founders make is setting unrealistic timelines. Announcing you need term sheets by month-end when you’re just starting conversations signals naivety and often backfires when deadlines inevitably slip. This is why you need to know your prospects and their process and set a deadline that you know will be met.
Choose Partners, Not Just Valuations
When evaluating multiple offers, relationship quality often trumps pure valuation - though there are limits. Theo observes that founders typically prioritise partnerships when valuations are within 10-20% of each other, but larger gaps tend to lean towards the founder favouring the top offer.
The best investor relationships are built on genuine collaboration. “If you see investors as a big pot of money they will see you as a lottery ticket. We like to invest in businesses and in founders who want to work with us and who want our opinion on things.”
The Post-Investment Reality
Successful partnerships require ongoing communication. Theo prefers monthly check-ins focused on the founder’s biggest challenges, allowing problems to be addressed before they become critical.
“What's really difficult is when someone comes to us having not interacted with us at all for two or three months and they say ‘we've got a bit of a problem’. It's really hard to help in those situations because it's sort of too late at that point.”
Ready to dive deeper? Watch the full interview to get Theo's complete playbook for running a smooth and successful fundraising process.
