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9 Do's and Don'ts of Raising Capital

... Secrets pulled from 10’s of SaaS founders who pay me as Fractional CFO

Ben Murray · SaaSCFO

Published September 1, 2022
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About this resource

Ben Murray has been a fractional CFO for 10s of top SaaS companies

In 20 minutes, he shares:

- The playbook he uses to help founders forecast their financials and raise millions

- 3 tactics on how to craft your numbers into a powerful story

- Most common mistakes founders make before they raise funds

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What you’ll learn

Ben Murray explains how SaaS founders can make fundraising more credible through financial metrics, realistic forecasting, planned investment milestones, and disciplined due diligence.

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Key moments

Find the ideas you need and go straight to the source.

Fundraising preparation

“founders what's going on you guys know i love in-person events and they are back the recording you're about to hear is from our most recent event where we had hundreds of founders come together share intimate details templates kpis okrs about their business and it was something special something special we'd love to meet you in person if you want to see the next live events we have coming up via our schedule the link will be down below in the description if you're listening on itunes check this out on youtube you'll see the links in the description or you can just google”
Watch at 00:00

Financial metrics that matter

“you know best in class you see 115 120 and above sas keck ratio or the cost of ar and actually pascal mentioned that yesterday is the dollars that you put into your sales and marketing engine what do you get out from that so what's the cost of arr so does it cost you if you put a dollar into your sales and marketing engine do you get a dollar out that's the sas cac ratio dollar for dollar is a good goal or less and then your payback period”
Watch at 03:55

Building a believable forecast

“templates because you could download download those for free from my site and so key areas that i look at to create a believable forecast because i don't know at this point i've done thousands of forecasts is your top of funnel so do you have self-service sign up website visitors to trial to paid do you speak the bookings language through your crm system so what's driving your revenue in each revenue stream what's your pricing do you know customer count asp the layers of your mrr expansion”
Watch at 08:12

Planning spend and milestones

“to support the cogs infrastructure are you going from founder led sales to sales and marketing so where are you investing and then finally i know as sas founders you can spend a lot of money but what milestones are you going to hit so yeah i know you can spend a million bucks but is that to get your first 10 customers your first billion of ar is it to move into an ancillary market a different geography so with that money what milestones will”
Watch at 12:04

Preparing for due diligence

“want financial projections so download my checklist because the preliminary due diligence checklist maybe about 10 items but if you go through an exit process it's probably going to be 50 to 60 items so be prepared about what they're going to ask you know so you're not kind of blindsided when you when you get to that point ben are any of these playbooks on your website yeah all of these playbooks are on my website you can download my forecast model you can download preliminary url uh it's the so”
Watch at 16:24

Making investor data usable

“March 2022 March 2022 | Ben Murray, Founder of TheSaaSCFO.com Ben Murray Founder of TheSaaSCFO.com 9 Ways to Increase Odds of Success”
Read slide 1

Protecting the financial profile

“Don’t let investors dictate your financial profile Know your financial profile Net Dollar Retention > 115% SaaS CAC Ratio < $1.00 CAC Payback < 12 months”
Read slide 4

Forecasting the business

“Your Forecast Playbook My templates have raised $100M+ OpEx Profile Pricing & Revenue Model People $100M+ Raised! Pipeline & Bookings Delivery of Revenue”
Read slide 6

Explaining use of funds

“Know How You Will Use The Funds Be prepared to discuss how will use the funds. Come prepared to discuss details Be specific about where in your P&L you will invest Define the milestones that you will hit with the funding”
Read slide 10

Preparing diligence materials

“Due Diligence Playbook Implement your data playbook before your raise. Revenue & Customer Data Pipeline & Sales Team Performance FInancial Projections Download my due diligence checklists!”
Read slide 13

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Resource files

  • Video

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  • P&L Format For Raising (Slide 6)

  • 9 Do's and Don'ts of Raising Capital - Slide Deck

About the speaker
Ben Murray

Ben Murray

Founder · SaaSCFO

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Ben helps SaaS companies via fractional SaaS CFO services, coaching, and courses in SaaS metrics and finance. He helps companies achieve financial improvement and transparency via a SaaS finance framework that links operations to finance. From debits and credits to financial forecasting to M&A, his experience has not just been silo’ed in the accounting or finance track, but both sides of the desk. His operations background at several airlines has improved his ability to translate operational performance into improved financial understanding and foresight. His on-the-job experience as a SaaS CFO has allowed him to help thousands of SaaS founders and finance teams.

Company revenue
$100K
Team size
2

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Slide text

Find a passage in the slides and open the original deck.

20 passages

Making investor data usable

  1. Slide 1Open deck

    March 2022 March 2022 | Ben Murray, Founder of TheSaaSCFO.com Ben Murray Founder of TheSaaSCFO.com 9 Ways to Increase Odds of Success

  2. Slide 2Open deck

    What numbers play to your strength? 9 Tactics To Increase Odds of Success Secrets pulled from 10’s of SaaS founders who pay me as Fractional CFO Make it easy Forecast your financials More than numbers Got TAM? Big funding errors Are we doing this? Due diligence playbook Dream team NUMBERS PREPARATION STORY

  3. Slide 3Open deck

    “To be honest, the numbers are little fuzzy right now.” Anonymous founder Founders that know their numbers increase their odds of funding 3 ways to make it easy for investors to consume your data. The playbook I used to help founders forecast their financials and raise millions Know Your Numbers

Protecting the financial profile

  1. Slide 4Open deck

    Don’t let investors dictate your financial profile Know your financial profile Net Dollar Retention > 115% SaaS CAC Ratio < $1.00 CAC Payback < 12 months

  2. Slide 5Open deck

    Is Your Profit and Loss Wrong? 100’s of P&L’s analyzed Revenue Recognition Department Structure SaaS Chart of Accounts

Forecasting the business

  1. Slide 6Open deck

    Your Forecast Playbook My templates have raised $100M+ OpEx Profile Pricing & Revenue Model People $100M+ Raised! Pipeline & Bookings Delivery of Revenue

  2. Slide 7Open deck

    Your story matters regardless of ARR size 3 tactics on how to craft your numbers into a powerful story 3 methods to estimate TAM 3 common errors founders make when explaining to investors how they will use funds Tell Your Story

  3. Slide 8Open deck

    Don’t Just Talk Numbers! It’s your job to tell a compelling story. Your team and experience The problem you are solving Competition is good Download my pitch deck template!

  4. Slide 9Open deck

    Got TAM? TAM helps investors size investment and return. Bottoms Up Target Customers x Pricing Model Revenue Projections GTM model, pricing, and ICP. Market Share % Don’t say you can capture X% Your analysis is in the hot seat!

Explaining use of funds

  1. Slide 10Open deck

    Know How You Will Use The Funds Be prepared to discuss how will use the funds. Come prepared to discuss details Be specific about where in your P&L you will invest Define the milestones that you will hit with the funding

  2. Slide 11Open deck

    3 mistakes founders make before they raise funds The due diligence playbook I use with founders that increase odds of funding Why it’s important to assemble your team Be Prepared

  3. Slide 12Open deck

    Be Prepared Don’t make these common mistakes. Are you in our out? It’s a full-time job. What’s your ask? Do you have founder/investor fit?

Preparing diligence materials

  1. Slide 13Open deck

    Due Diligence Playbook Implement your data playbook before your raise. Revenue & Customer Data Pipeline & Sales Team Performance FInancial Projections Download my due diligence checklists!

  2. Slide 14Open deck

    You Need a Team Assemble your team prior to the raise. Pulling data is a lot of work. Who is on your internal team? You need legal and tax advisors. Don’t contact me mid-raise

  3. Slide 15Open deck

    What numbers play to your strength? In Summary, I just showed you: Secrets pulled from 10’s of SaaS founders who pay me as Fractional CFO Make it easy Forecast your financials More than numbers Got TAM? Big funding errors Are we doing this? Due diligence playbook Dream team NUMBERS PREPARATION STORY

  4. Slide 16Open deck

    March 2022 | Ben Murray, Founder of The SaaSCFO.com Ben Murray Founder of TheSaaSCFO.com

  5. Slide 17Open deck

    What numbers play to your strength Know Your Numbers Make it easy for investors Forecast your Financials It’s more than numbers Got TAM? Funding errors Are we doing this? Due Diligence Playbook Dream Team Tell Your Story Be Prepared Need icons Over The Next 20 Minutes, You’ll Get 9 Tactics To Increase Your Odds of Raising Capital

  6. Slide 18Open deck

    Your SaaS P&L Is Wrong! Avoid these common accounting mistakes. Revenue Recognition Department Structure SaaS Chart of Accounts Reviewed 100’s of P&L’s!

  7. Slide 19Open deck

    Don’t Let Investors Dictate Your Financial Profile “To be honest, the numbers are little fuzzy right now.” Anonymous founder NDR > 115% SaaS CAC Ratio < $1.00 CAC Payback < 12 months

  8. Slide 20Open deck

    Your Forecast Playbook My templates have raised $100M+ OpEx Profile Pricing & Revenue Model People $100M+ Raised! Pipeline & Bookings Delivery of Revenue