A fundraising mentor who has actually raised
I help founders raise money for their startups. We rebuild the narrative, the deck, and the list of investors worth your time, then rehearse difficult questions against the evidence behind your business. I have raised close to $6M across 15 raises myself: angels, VCs, accelerators, and the crowd. The first session is free and takes 30 minutes.
Prepare for an investor conversation
For pre-seed and seed founders with an upcoming investor meeting, a round that has stalled, or a US fundraising story that needs to be tested. Bring your deck, the investor's published focus, your current numbers and the question you find hardest to answer.
- Check whether the investor's stage and sector fit the business you are actually building.
- Connect the amount you want to raise to a milestone and the evidence needed to reach it.
- Separate revenue, pilots, pipeline and verbal interest in the pitch.
- Rehearse the weakest answer and define the next step you will request in the meeting.
What to leave the first call with
The aim of the free 30-minute session is a prioritized correction to your story and a concrete preparation task for the next meeting. A full deck rebuild, repeated rehearsals or a fundraising sprint needs a separate agreed scope. Funding and introductions are not guaranteed.
01What does a fundraising mentor actually do?
A fundraising mentor closes the gap between "we have a great company" and "investors wire money". In practice that means four things: we sharpen the story until a stranger retells it correctly after one hearing, we rebuild the deck around that story, we map which investors to approach and in what order, and we rehearse the questions you are afraid of until they become boring. I have sat on your side of the table. I have signed the papers.
I do not send your deck to my contacts as a service, and I do not promise introductions "through a connection". We identify weaknesses you can address before the next investor meeting.
02Close to $6M across 15 raises
My first raises were in Kyiv, for best.ua, which I later sold. Then came Delfast, the e-bike company: a $165,800 Kickstarter campaign, then a $3.4M equity crowdfunding round on Fundable with 300 individual investors, one of the largest campaigns on the platform at the time. In the Valley I raised $200K from 500 Global in batch 33 and took In Charge One through pilots in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Fifteen raises in total, close to $6M, three different countries, every instrument from angel checks to the crowd.
The bike we built along the way holds the Guinness World Record for distance on a single charge and was named Forbes Fastest Electric Bike two years in a row. See the Delfast case and the track record for the published account and supporting material.
03Who this works for
Pre-seed and seed founders preparing a round. Founders whose pitch "goes well" but investors go quiet afterwards, usually because the go-to-market story underneath the deck does not hold up. Founders planning equity or rewards crowdfunding, where I have run campaigns most mentors have only read about. And international founders raising from US investors for the first time, which is its own game: see US market entry.
04Frequently asked questions
How much does a fundraising mentor cost?
The first 30-minute session costs nothing and comes with no obligation. Paid work is a monthly retainer or a scoped sprint; we agree the format on the call, after we both see the fit.
Can you guarantee I will raise?
No, and walk away from anyone who says yes. What I can do is remove the failure modes I have seen kill dozens of rounds: a muddled story, a deck that buries the point, the wrong investor list, and unrehearsed answers.
Do you help with crowdfunding campaigns?
Yes. I raised $3.4M in one equity crowdfunding campaign and $165,800 on Kickstarter. We plan the pre-launch list, the page, the press push, and the fulfillment math before you take a single dollar.
30 minutes. No pitch, no obligations. English, Russian, or Ukrainian.