How emerging VCs can survive tough fundraising

The fundraising landscape in 2025 has left me feeling both challenged and motivated. On paper, the statistics are stark: almost half of all capital raised by U.S. private‑equity managers went to just ten mega‑funds. Overall fundraising fell sharply to around US$260 bn from roughly US$370 bn the year before, and a handful of giants alone scooped up over US$60 bn. When you work with emerging managers and SMEs, numbers like that can feel discouraging. But instead of lamenting, I ask: what can smaller players offer that scale can’t? Maybe it’s agility, niche expertise or closer relationships with founders. I’ve found that family offices and UHNW investors often value authenticity and alignment over size. In a world where the biggest funds dominate headlines, how will you differentiate yourself?

When I first started raising capital, I thought the key was simple: take as many calls as possible. If my calendar was full, I thought I was winning. But I was wrong. More calls didn’t mean more capital, it just meant more wasted time, more frustration, and more burnout. The real shift came when I stopped trying to talk to everyone and focused only on the right investors. The ones who were qualified, aligned, and actually ready to move. That’s when raising capital got easier. Better calls really do create better raises.

Capital raising timelines vary, but long-term platform commitments don’t always align with how founders actually operate. Fundraising momentum can change quickly — market conditions shift, priorities evolve, and timelines move. Founders should have access to the right systems without being locked into a year-long commitment. That’s why we designed our infrastructure to be available on a monthly basis, providing flexibility while supporting structured execution when it matters most. #CapitalRaise #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #StartupStrategy #WeGetYouFunded #FidelmanAndCo

If I were a founder who was raising, I would set up casual coffee chats with my ideal investors in the last few weeks of the year. Most VCs already have the deals in mind that they are pushing hard to do DD and close on, but other than that they mainly have holiday parties and 2026 planning sessions. It's a perfect time to reach out to a principal or analyst and just ask to grab coffee. Tell them you're planning on opening a round early next year and you'd love to get their take and chat. It will be a lot easier than trying to get them to invest before year end and you can understand what they're focusing on next year.

A pattern with biotech founders. They talk about: - raising funds, - partnerships, - breakthroughs. But rarely about trust. Trust is what gets people to say yes. And trust is built by how often you show up and how transparent you are. Visibility is not vanity. It’s due diligence. → If you were your own investor, would you trust yourself?

One thing I’ve seen repeatedly with emerging fund managers is this: Fundraising rarely stalls because managers lack talent. It stalls because the wrong problem is being solved at the wrong stage. That’s why, to start the year, I’ve launched the Fundraising Friction Diagnostic for alternative emerging fund managers (Fund I–III). Most fundraising tools jump straight to scoring. But in practice, fundraising usually breaks before institutional standards are the issue. Friction shows up earlier, in LP hesitation, timing mismatches, unclear risk translation, and signals that never quite convert into momentum. 🩺The "Fundraising Friction Diagnostic" is designed to surface: ✅ Where LPs are most likely hesitating ✅ Whether friction is foundational, structural, or execution-related ✅ Which risks still feel under-de-risked from an institutional perspective ✔️The "Fundraising Readiness Scorecard", already part of our digital toolkit and now fully revamped with an enhanced report, quantifies readiness across six institutional dimensions and highlights where unevenness is slowing progress. 🏋️Used together: ✅ The Diagnostic explains why fundraising feels the way it does ✅ The Scorecard shows where to focus next Both tools are free and built for practitioners, not marketing optics. If you’re navigating Fund I–III fundraising (or advising someone who is), this may be useful. 👉 Start here: bit.ly/3YU6Z1c Wishing you a healthy, successful start to the year.🎈🚀✨ Florence Business4People 🌐 #alternativeinvestment #fundraising #emergingmanagers #digitaltools #institutionalinvesting

We analyzed 600+ emerging funds. Here's what actually predicts early fundraising success: Fund size matters. But not how you think. GPs who raised $0 in their first 4 weeks? Average target fund size: $9.5M GPs who raised $150K-$500K in their first 4 weeks? Average target fund size: $5.5M Nearly 2x difference. Same LinkedIn presence. Same LP pitch activity. Same prior investment experience. The only difference? Realistic targets. Here's what's happening: LPs can smell overreach. When a first-time manager with a small network targets $10M+, it signals misalignment. When that same manager targets $5M, it signals self-awareness. Ambition doesn't get rewarded early. Calibration does. Set your fund size to match your current profile. Then scale from there. What was your first fund target vs. what you actually raised?

One of the biggest mistakes early founders make is pitching funds that are not aligned with their stage. Precision beats volume every time.

Fundraising gets easier when founders focus on the right investors, not more investors. This is a practical resource worth bookmarking.

Fund raising series, post 9 out of many   Indicators Some very important indicators to watch for If they ask for the deal terms (how much for how much)? That means they are interested Asking about other investors (or in this round or previous investors) – again they are starting to think of a deal. Suggest or comment on the structure of the presentation (this slide should come before that slide…) – that actually mean that they would like to share the deck with other members of the fund and they think that they know how to present it to them. Speak about how good they are and dropping names who can help – they switch their role from buying to selling       Negotiations If this is first time to you, you have no idea how and when to negotiate a deal like that. Get yourself familiar with the terms. Because once they will tell you they are interested there will be the first phase of negotiating the terms that will later be in the termsheet. If you are not familiar with those you are likely to say yes to something that you would be sorry later.   Get to see a term sheet before hand, understand what’s the different between participating and none-participating liquidation preference and be ready to negotiate them on the first meeting, before written term sheet.   The only way to get the deal that you want, is to say NO to the deal that you don’t want. And no, is NO. “no, but…” is a yes. It is way easier to say no to a deal, if you have an alternative deal – create an alternative.   They are way better than you, they have done that multiple times.