Three huge fundraising mistakes founders are making in 2026
Yet again this week, another founder with years of commercial experience tells me they’ve been fundraising for months with nothing to show for it. They’ve spent weeks on their business case, they’re on v.12 of their deck, and when they reach out to investors, they get tumble weeds. In the same week, a client of mine closed £600k for their pre-seed round.
The long, painful and failed attempts at fundraising are not caused by bad timing or difficult investors. They’re caused by founders following a playbook that doesn’t work.
Best Startup Books for Founders: My Personal List
There are a lot of books about building startups. Most of them focus on product, culture, or mindset. Very few focus on the thing that determines whether a startup survives its early years: convincing investors to back it.
This is my personal list of the best startup books for founders – the ones I actually think are worth your time, and more importantly, the ones that will have a direct impact on your ability to build and fund a business.
Why corporate execs struggle raising investment
Why do so many experienced corporate executives struggle to raise capital as first-time founders? After a decade working with startup founders, I’ve seen the same pattern repeatedly – highly capable professionals unknowingly pitch investors like they’re defending a budget instead of enrolling people into a vision. In this article, I explore the mindset shift required to move from corporate leadership to founder fundraising and how corporate instincts can quietly sabotage investor confidence.
How to create an investor pitch deck that actually raises money
Most founders spend weeks designing their investor pitch deck. They obsess over fonts, colour schemes, and slide order. They polish every word until it feels perfect. And then they walk into a room full of investors and wonder why the conversation never quite lands the way they expected. This article explains why.
Your pitch deck doesn’t need more AI. It needs more of you.
More founders are using AI to build their pitch decks, but the result is a wave of presentations that sound identical. Investors are not backing polished prompts – they’re backing judgement, clarity and strategic thinking. In this article, I explain why humanisation is now the advantage in seed fundraising and how to use AI to strengthen your pitch without losing what makes investors back you.
Investors decide in 4 seconds, long before they read your pitch
Investors don’t begin by analysing your strategy or your numbers. They decide how seriously to take your company within seconds of opening your pitch deck. In this article, I explain why visual credibility shapes investor confidence before a single slide is read – and how founders can use those first four seconds to their advantage.
Investor Readiness Explained: Why some founders get funded and others don’t
What do investors really look for before they say yes? Discover how investor readiness is judged and the key signals that close funding rounds.
How early-stage investors evaluate your startup
Across pre-seed, seed and Series A, I see the same patterns again and again. Different funds, different cheques, but very similar thinking. In practice, investors are trying to understand eight core areas when they look at your opportunity. Once you understand those eight areas, the way you talk about your business – and the way you build your deck – changes completely.