From a side project to a full-time raise
Fundrally is a peer-to-peer fundraising platform built around athletes and the causes they run for. James Duvall built the first version on the side, under another name (TriFundIt), with a small team and a day job.
James DuvallFounder and CEO, Fundrally
I feel much more ready to pitch right now than I ever have before.
Where James was
A product that worked, with real nonprofits using it and real money flowing to them. A story he could tell with conviction. Almost nothing underneath the story: no model an investor could open, no data room, no go-to-market a stranger could follow, and no time, because the company still wasn’t his full-time job.
I still believe in it and probably believe in it more than I ever have… But it does feel like right now it’s me pushing up a rock by myself.
What we decoded
What stalled the raise was that everything an investor would want to see lived in James’s head, and James had a job. So the first move came before any deck: a small raise, enough to put him on Fundrally full time, so the real raise could be run like one.
I could sell this because this is fleshing out what’s in my heart and my mind.
What got built
- The Brand Codex: the story and voice every page of the raise is written from, now also driving the rebrand, the website and the content.
- The go-to-market strategy, with the funnel math behind every growth number, linked straight from the data room for any investor who wants to see the thinking.
- The five-year model, built line by line and rebuilt when early investor feedback said the return wasn’t big enough. The assumptions are his.
- The pitch room: video, deck, investor packet, go-to-market and model in one link, so a prospect never gets a deck without the homework behind it.
- Investor personas, including one for the donor-advised-fund holder he hadn’t been pitching, and the outreach channel that opened.
The Brand Codex, I think, nails us. I think it’s really great.
It’s affirming of the things we’ve been feeling for the last two years building this… we’ve got this tool and a pathway forward to actually scale it.
What runs without him now
The pipeline. James runs the raise himself. The daily task list, the follow-ups and the reminders come out of a system rather than his memory. Every two weeks we check in; the changes are his.
I actually feel more confident about this raise than I did our first raise.
Where it stands
A completed mini-raise that put him on Fundrally full time. A rebrand from the old name to Fundrally. Meetings with people who can write the whole check. One prospect with a donor-advised fund texted a current investor to set up a meeting before James had reached his car. And this, from a board member of an angel syndicate that sees fifty to sixty pitches a week:
This pitch is better than 90% of the pitches that we see… You’re buttoned up. This is really good.
The round is open. He’s the first founder through the Raise Roadmap, and we’d rather tell you that than dress it up.
It was a game changer for me… I learned so much through it.