Describe a time when you used the fundraising process itself as a strategic lever to advance your company’s long-term vision (e.g., by choosing specific investors, setting round size, or timing the raise). How did you lead your team through the execution and keep them focused on operating the business while you were fundraising?

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VirtualInterview.AI · Accepted Answer

In our Series A, we deliberately used the fundraise to reposition the company from “SMB tool” to “infrastructure platform.” Instead of maximizing valuation, I optimized for investor fit and signal. We raised a $9M round when we probably could’ve stretched to $12M, but I targeted a fund with deep infra cred and a partner who’d shipped similar products at AWS.

To make that credible, I time-boxed fundraising to 8 weeks and aligned the whole company around two proof points: a live Fortune 500 pilot and net dollar retention above 135%. I owned the fundraise and limited myself to three investor days per week. My VP Eng and Head of Sales ran an internal “no drama, just dashboards” cadence: weekly metrics email, clear owners, no new strategic projects. During the process, we still grew MRR 18% and closed the pilot. Post-close, that investor helped us land three more enterprise logos and hire a VP Product we couldn’t have attracted before.

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