Raise Roadmap
They’re betting on you. Show them what you’ll build with it.
You found something that works. Now you’re raising, and every investor in the room is making the same bet: on you.
What they need to see is what you’ll do with the money that isn’t just more of you.
90 minutes. $1,200, credited toward your next step.
Imagine your raise with the homework done
One clear story the whole raise runs on
Numbers you can defend line by line, because they’re yours
A data room ready before anyone asks for it
Momentum you can point to before the first meeting
A plan for who you’ll hire and what each person will own
And you, walking into every room ready
The pitch is you. The plan is everyone you’re about to bring in.
Most founders walk into a raise with a story and a spreadsheet. Investors have heard a thousand stories.
You know the moment. The meeting goes great until they open the model, and you can watch their eyes change.
That’s the homework
What they almost never see is a founder who can show, in detail, who they’re going to hire, what those people will own, and what the business looks like when it’s bigger than the person who started it.
- The go-to-market that says who you’re for and how you’ll reach them
- The model that says what a hire produces
- The data room where every claim in the deck has something underneath it
When it’s there, the conversation changes. They stop testing the story and start pricing the company.
One founder we’re working with right now heard it from a prospective investor in the first meeting: they’d never seen someone show their homework so well. The Raise Roadmap is a new product. We’d rather tell you that than dress it up.
How we do the homework with you
The Raise Roadmap is the story, the numbers and the materials your raise runs on, built with you before the first meeting.
Tap any part of the plan or the data room to see an example.
Go-to-market plan
SampleWho you are, what you say, and how you answer every objection. Everything else is written from it.
Positioning
For operations leaders who can’t afford downtime, we’re the service partner that fixes it the first time.
Voice
We say “here’s what we found.” We never say “per our assessment.”
Objection reframe
“You’re more expensive.”
“We are, by about 12%. Last year the cheaper option meant a second visit, three times out of ten.”
- Origin story
- Positioning
- Voice
- Elevator pitches
- Objection reframes
Your books, compared with companies your size, in plain English.
| Ratio | Today | Companies your size | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash from the business | -10% | 8 to 15% | 12% |
| Net margin | -6% | 5 to 12% | 9% |
| Sales growth | 5% | 10 to 20% | 17% |
Marketing
What your buyers believe, fear and push back on
The ops lead 1 of 3 personas
- Believes
- Downtime is the only number the boss reads
- Fears
- Another vendor who needs babysitting
- Pushes back
- “We already have someone for this”
- Decides on
- Response time, then price
Every alternative your buyer weighs, and where you win
| Alternative | Their pitch | Where you win |
|---|---|---|
| National chain | “Coverage everywhere” | Response time |
| Local shop | “We’re cheaper” | Fixed the first time |
| In-house team | “We know the building” | Specialist depth |
Every channel run through the math, from money in to customers out, so you only fund what pays back
Money inreachclickscustomersreturn
| Partner referrals | 5.4× | Fund |
| Email list | 6.4× | Fund |
| Industry events | 1.9× | Fund |
| Influencers | 1.0× | Test |
| Podcast ads | 0.6× | Skip |
| Paid social | 0.2× | Skip |
Every channel you’re weighing, from dollars spent to customers won. Sample numbers.
Sales
Your customer’s whole journey, from never having heard of you to doing everything you hoped they would, with what your CRM tracks at each step
- Never heard of youMarketing
- Knows the problemMarketing · 30%
- First callSales · 40%
- SignsSales · 55%
- OnboardedResults · 95%
- Gets resultsResults · 85%
- Sends a referralResults · 35%
Every step from your customer’s side, well past the signature, with its owner, its rate and what your CRM tracks there. Sample numbers.
What to say at each step of the Perfect Pipeline, written from the way you already sell
Step 3 · First call
- Open
- “What made you look for help now?”
- Listen for
- What the last breakdown cost them
- If they say
- “We tried someone like you.” Ask what went wrong, then show how you’d handle it
- Next step
- Book the site visit before the call ends
Team and systems
The company your plan needs, every seat with the numbers it owns
- RevenueNew revenue
- MarketingQualified leads
- SalesWin rate
- ResultsReferrals
- EmpowermentTeam capacity
What good looks like in each seat, built from the org chart
Head of Revenue
Fill the pipeline so the CEO doesn’t have to.
- Qualified meetings24 / mo
- Win rate30%
- Pipeline$1.2M
- 30 days
- Learn the Perfect Pipeline
- 60 days
- Run discovery calls alone
- 90 days
- Own the forecast
Every tool you use, how they connect, and what to automate first, ready for the build
- Automate first
- New form lead goes to the CRM and books a call
- Then
- Signed proposal starts billing
The plan says what to automate. The build wires it up.
Data room
SampleThe story your raise runs on, in your voice, with something in the data room under every claim
The five-year model behind the deck, built with you line by line
| Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.2M | $2.9M | $5.4M | $9.1M | $14.6M |
| EBITDA | −$0.8M | −$0.2M | $1.1M | $2.7M | $4.9M |
Use of funds
- Team 45%
- Growth 35%
- Product 12%
- Reserve 8%
Sample numbers. In your model, every number is yours to set and stand behind.
Resources
- Go-to-market strategy
- Brand Codex
- One-pager
- Org chart and hiring plan
- Channel validation
- Market research
- Customer proof
- Investor questions
What stays yours
The numbers
We build the model with you and bring our best research, but we don’t audit or verify your materials. Every number you show investors is yours to set, check and stand behind.
The investors
You find them, decide who sees your materials, send everything yourself, take the meetings, and decide who you take money from and on what terms.
The legal side
We’re not a broker, and we don’t give legal or securities advice. Your lawyer handles that side of the round.
Financial DecodePart of your go-to-market plan
See where your numbers stand
We read your books, compare them with companies your size, and walk you through what we find in plain English: what’s working, what to change now, and where the plan takes you.
Whether the business pays its own way, or loans fill the gap.
What we see Sample
Keep doingBooks that tie out every year, so every number can be trusted.
Change nowSince 2022, loans have covered what the business didn’t earn.
We read your books
View-only access to your accounting reports.
We compare you with companies your size
Our CFO signs off on every benchmark.
We walk you through it
One page per part of the business, then what to keep doing and what to stop.
Pre-revenue? No problem. We start from the best data we can find on companies like yours and set the targets your plan should hit.
On a raise, these targets can inform your pro forma. Every number in it is yours to set, check and stand behind.
Sample company and numbers. Benchmarks and projections are estimates, not guarantees, and not tax, accounting or investment advice.
Seven steps to investor-ready
The homework comes first, so you start the raise with the hard questions already worked through.
1.Discovery
Before the event, we learn why you built the company and how much you plan to raise. Then you and your team answer our questions on:
- Where you want the business to go
- Your customers, and why they choose you
- Your marketing and sales numbers
- How your team works today
2.The Visionary Clarity™ EventRLL exclusive
Three days offsite, just you and our founder, planned around you:
- A private venue picked from your preferences
- Inspiring views, and the place stays a surprise
- Meals planned around how you eat
- Phones off, so you can think bigger
- The thesis your raise runs on, pulled out and written down
3.Go-to-market plan, at raise depth
Enough go-to-market to be investable, linked straight from the data room so an investor can see the thinking. The full rework waits until the money is in.
- Brand Codex™
- Financial Decode
- Psychographic Matrix™ personas
- Competitive research
- Channel validation
- The Perfect Pipeline™
- Sales guides
- Org chart
- Team scorecards
- Systems map
4.The model
The pro forma is the biggest single piece of work in the raise and it takes months to do properly (most founders budget a weekend for it). We build the model and the tools with you, line by line. The assumptions and the numbers are yours, and you’ll own every one of them in the room.
- Pro forma
- Use of funds
5.The raise materials
All in your voice. If you don’t have a deck yet, that’s fine. Most people who come to us don’t.
- Pitch deck
- One-pager
- Data room
- Investor questions
6.The raise
You run it. You find the investors, decide who sees your materials and send them yourself, lead every meeting, and make every decision about who you take money from and on what terms. We are not a broker. We don’t introduce or contact investors, sit in on your meetings, negotiate terms, or touch the securities side of your round, and we don’t want to.
7.The buildScoped separately
Once the round closes, the capital funds the systems, the roles and the infrastructure the strategy called for. Every build is different, so yours is scoped separately, and you see exactly what it covers and what it costs before you sign. The money you raised builds the company that earned it.
- CRM setup or migration
- Lead capture and follow-up
- Automations
- Sales playbooks
- Scorecards and reporting
- Team training
- Getting your team on board
We take only a few of these a year
We choose them the way you’d choose a co-founder: slowly, on purpose, and with the right to say no.
If it becomes clear after the event that it isn’t going to work, we’ll say so, and we’ll stop.
Accelerators, angels and fractional CFOs can send us founders before the first pitch. See how we partner
Fractional leaders, if you need them
If your plan calls for a seat you haven’t filled yet, one of us can sit in it until you hire the right person.
Jon Allen- CEO
- COO
Jeff Kimes- CMO
- CRO
David Jones- CFO
Ashley Holl- COO
- Chief of staff
Alex Cadena- Creative director
Tim Branch- CMO
- Head of content
Hunter Branch- Head of growth
- Head of SEO
Questions founders ask
Who you’ll hire, what each of those people will own, and what the business looks like when it’s bigger than you. Most founders bring a story and a spreadsheet. When that homework is there, investors stop testing the story and start pricing the company.
No. Most people who come to us don’t. We build the deck, the one-pager, the data room and the investor questions with you, all in your voice.
You do. We build the model with you and bring our best research, and every number you show investors is yours to set. That’s what lets you defend it line by line when they open the spreadsheet.
No. You find the investors and lead every meeting. We build what you walk in with: the story, the model and the data room. (We’re not a broker, so introductions and terms stay with you.)
You run it, start to finish: you decide who sees your materials, send them yourself and lead every meeting. We don’t contact investors, sit in on meetings or negotiate terms. Once the round closes, the build can start.
Start with a Clarity Map
They’re betting on you. Get the map first. 90 minutes, live, with us. A written plan within two days. $1,200, credited toward your next step.