Ready to Raise
Five days to a pitch investors actually answer.
The Ready to Raise Bootcamp is a no-cost, five-day working week with two operators who have raised, failed, and raised again. Thirty minutes a day, live, plus one short session each evening. You leave with a rebuilt story, a short list of investors who fund companies like yours, and a straight answer on whether you are ready to raise, and what to fix if you are not.
Three founders a week. The next cohorts start 21 September and 28 September.
How it works
01
Take the assessment
Ten questions and your current deck. About fifteen minutes, as a form on the site or on a call with James. Its only job is to tell us whether a week together would move you.
02
We pick
You hear back within 24 hours: in this week, in a later week, or not a fit and why.
03
The week
Monday to Friday. Thirty minutes live with James each day, one layer per day. A couple of hours after each call, a short session opens that was built from what you just said. It knows what you told us and pushes on it. Finish it before the next call.
04
The verdict
The following Monday. Where your story holds, where it breaks, what to fix first, and everything in the next section.
What you leave with
Not advice. Things you can use on Monday.
Everything below is delivered on verdict Monday, whether or not there is an offer on the table.
- 1A one-sheet verdict: strengths and holes across the five layers, and a 30/60/90 to close them.
- 2Ten to fifteen named investors who fund companies like yours, with why each one fits and how to open the conversation.
- 3Your LinkedIn profile rebuilt for the raise: headline, about, and featured section.
- 4A teardown of your deck by Neil.
- 5Every session recorded, and the recordings are yours.
The five days
01
The product
A rigorous deconstruction of what you actually build and why. No feature lists, no aspirational roadmaps. Just the truth about what you ship and why it matters.
02
The numbers
Hard truth about your actual runway, unit economics, historic efficiency, and true capital requirement. Truth is the only way to get better, and the only way to raise.
03
The customer
Your beachhead. Not the market that is available, but the specific customer you can reach and convert. The one who gets you to the next stage.
04
The brand
Why you matter, and how you say it to the world. Your positioning, story, identity, and where it overlaps with your customer.
05
The vision
The long view of the company and the path to it. What changes if you succeed, and whether the raise you are asking for connects to that.
Who it is for
Something shipped. Someone paying. A raise in the next six months.
Founders who will answer a hard question straight, including the ones they do not have an answer to yet.
It is not for an idea and a deck, and it is not for anyone who already knows everything is fine.
A day job does not rule you out. Treating this like one does.
Who we are
Two operators who have raised, failed, and raised again.
Positioning, brand and design
Twenty years of design direction for Nike, Samsung, Puma and Adobe, and a co-founded agency that grew to thirty people across Vancouver, San Francisco and Toronto. Founded LaunchBox, building brand systems for early-stage companies including Purse, UmYum, Pika and Tohora. Raised roughly $300K for his own startup, Zig, and can tell you exactly which link broke. Built and closed Blue Dot, and learned the emotional lever behind a purchase decision too late to save it. Author of DOSE, the positioning framework this week runs on.
Numbers, story and the raise
Three exits in sixteen years of building companies. Founded LinkedIntros and LinkedVC, where he runs investor outreach for founders and books twenty or more investor pitches in the first ninety days. Raised for his current company, Sociable, from a cold LinkedIn message: seven weeks from first message to first wire, and the same investor came back twice more.
What it looks like when it works
Seven weeks from a cold message to the first wire.
13 February 2024. A LinkedIn message to an investor James had never met. First wire seven weeks later. Three SAFEs since, $155K in total, from one investor who tripled down. Nothing clever in the message. The story behind it was right, and it went to the right person.
Luke, lead investor in Sociable.
After the week
The week is no cost and stays that way.
If we think we can get you to a term sheet, we say so on verdict Monday and make an offer: a ninety-day sprint where we rebuild the story, the deck and the profile, then run investor outreach with you. Twenty investor pitches booked in ninety days, or we keep working at no additional cash until you have them. You show up, you approve every message before it goes, and you answer interested investors within 48 hours.
Not every founder gets the offer. If all you want is the deck rebuilt, that is $1,999 and ten business days.
Find out where you stand.
Ten questions and your deck. About fifteen minutes. Answer from the head, not from research; a hedge tells us as much as an answer. Either way it ends on a call with James, and you hear whether you are in within 24 hours.
We record every session and store everything you type here so we can read it before we meet. The recordings are yours. We only use excerpts publicly with your written sign-off.