Stop Fundraising and start "Checking the Market"

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"I'm feeling anxious about this round. It doesn't feel like many people are writing checks. We've gotten the business close to cash flow break-even, but there's still real risk, and I'm not sure we're especially desirable in this market."

My coach smiled.

"It sounds like you're doing a market check."

"A market check?" I asked.

He laughed.

"It sounds like you could push the business to cash flow positive. But instead, you're going out to see what kind of capital is available to the business and on what terms."

I felt something shift immediately.

If I was going out to raise money, then I needed to tell my team and board that we were raising money. And if we decided not to raise, or couldn't close the round, it would feel like failure.

But if I was simply doing a market check, my job was different. My job was to gather information. To learn what capital was available, under what terms, and then bring that information back to the board so we could make better decisions together.

That framing was incredibly liberating. I still use it all the time with coaching clients.

As founders, it's easy to believe our job is to close the financing.

But it isn't.

Our job is to keep the business capitalized.

Sometimes that means raising equity. Sometimes it means getting to profitability. Sometimes it's debt, strategic partnerships, selling a minority stake, selling the business entirely, or acquiring another company.

The CEO's responsibility isn't a particular financing strategy. It's ensuring the business has the resources it needs to succeed.

I've found that whenever we can shift from performance to exploration, something changes. When the work becomes learning instead of proving, we become more creative. We ask better questions. We notice more options. And ironically, we often improve the outcome we were chasing in the first place.

It also creates more partnership.

The work isn't mine alone. It's ours.

My role as CEO isn't to hit a home run. It's to bring back good information and help the board make wise decisions together.

Where in your work today might it help to think of what you're doing as a market check?

Where might you replace certainty with curiosity?

Where might there be an opportunity to invite more partnership into your work, and to carry a little less of it alone?

Wherever you find yourself in the journey, you are not alone. Sending a huge hug from my desk in Los Angeles.

—Matt

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