Why your Series A is taking so long

I've had three founders this month ask me why their Series A is taking 6+ months. Let me pull back the curtain on what's happening on the investor side.

Six months? We spent eight months closing our A. It nearly killed us. The cash management during that period was the hardest thing I've ever done operationally.

The timeline extension is structural, not cyclical. Due diligence has tripled in intensity since 2021. Investors are doing customer calls, technical reviews, financial audits — things that used to happen at Series B.

It's true. My fund now does 40-60 hours of diligence per Series A deal. In 2021 it was maybe 15. We got burned and the whole industry recalibrated.

What I tell founders: plan for 6-9 months from first meeting to wire. Start fundraising when you have 12 months of runway. If you wait until you have 6 months, you're negotiating from weakness.

And keep your metrics pristine during the process. Nothing kills momentum like a down month mid-fundraise. We sandbagged our launch timing to make sure our numbers were trending up during investor conversations.

Hot take: the longer timelines are actually better for founders. The fast 2021 rounds created bad investor-founder matches. Taking time to find the right partner matters more than speed.