Raise User Interviews: Key Takeaways

--- tag: Research --- # Raise User Interviews: Key Takeaways This document is a colation of the user interviews conducted for the analysis and quality assesment of Raise's success journey. Interviews 1-4 have a particular focus on the Digital Transformation stage. **This journey is divided into 3 stages:** #### Stage 1: Digital Transformation 1. **Sign Up** 2. **Complete Company Profile** (Required Fields + Incorp. Docs) 3. **Build Company Cap Table** 4. **Verification** ✅ #### Stage 2: Fundraising 🚀 ✅ 4. **Build a Scenario** 5. **Build Your Deal Room** 6. **Request Company Valuation Report** (Optional) 7. **Invite Investors** 8. **Launch Deal Room** #### Stage 3: Managing Deal Flow 🤝💸 9. **Analysing Investor Insights** 10. **Closing Deal & Gathering Commitments** --- ## Brian (Kotani Pay) #### 1. Educational Info on Cap Table > Initially I didn’t know what a Cap Table was, but once we figured it out it was pretty straight forward. #### 2. Documents Needed Uploading Multiple Times > I had to upload them again in the Deal Room, which was kind of annoying #### 3. Dark Mode Desired --- ## Kiiru (Fingo Africa) ### Digital Transformation #### 1. Clean, visual sign up > I think one thing I liked is that the process is very visual (half the screen was visual... good for look and feel). I liked moving from one thing to the next, I knew why I was gonna be there. It was fast and easy... so it was really good! Didn't need to get help, I grasped it intuitively. I also really liked the use of graphics and rewards (congrats! Etc) #### 2. Felt Like a Personalised Service > I think the questions provide context for the startup... at the time of starting we were ready to raise funds and get going...Wasn't 100% sure why, but I presumed the service might be impacted depending on the answers I give! Gave an incentive to show our own urgency so Raise might help us out a little more... #### 3. Onboarding Q's Gave Good Hints > At point of raising, all we had were co-founders, so the other options made us have a think about "who else do we need in our company to succeed? (e.g Company secretaries) #### 4. Due Diligence Tasks Gave Us Great Direction as Founders > ...this part gave me the sense that it was clear, and intuitive. It was pretty clear what I had to do next! The part of company profile, incorporated docs and cap table gave us a really good idea of what due diligence we needed to do first as a company! [...] I think as well the hierarchy, the step by step thing kind of intuitive and very useful. #### 5. Glitchy Task List > The system got kind of glitchy when submitting for approval! The task list showed a green tick, then a red tick, and then a green tick again when I would log in and log out... so that was a little bit confusing! #### 6. Cap Table Required Some Research > The one thing I needed to do some research on was probably the Cap Table... what does it look like, what does it need? I remember we had discussions with the Raise team who refered me to artciles on the website which was really helpful! > > I went online and downloaded a template and then modelled ours on that! It took a day or two to understand that process... > > Everything else in terms of shareholding and classes came into place as I got to grips with what a Cap Table was... > > I found all the articles SUPER useful in terms of understanding SAFEs, Post Money Agreements, etc. Maybe all I'd say is incorporate some sort of journey (start here and end here) otherwise you can get quite lost in the process... They were well written though and dumbed down which was great! **IDEA:** Providing some sort of learn repository of step by step articles... perhaps these could also be condensed into a short onboarding modal (product overview/onboarding feature tour) #### 7. Onboarding Team Provided Great Confidence > I think everything went super well, and because the Raise team were so responsive i was really confident. I even knew the team would pick up on any mistakes if I made them! I felt really confident despite not being an expert on building cap tables... #### 8. What Do Certain Permissions Entail? > The only thing I'd say is that adding and removing different co-founders onto the platform was quite tricky! I didn't understand the "Rights" that I gave to my co-founders, e.g "can they change the cap table? **IDEA:** Perhaps some way of providing definitions for different permissions and roles within a company so founders have an idea of what they are letting Team Members do... --- ### Fundraising #### 9. Scenario Modelling Was Fun and Useful > That process was FUN! I liked being able to model different scenarios and figuring out what the consequences would be! #### 10. Until it got Cluttered... > One thing was it got quite cluttered after a lot of playing around, so I wanted to figure out how to delete a few to clean it up! #### 11. Editing a Live Scenario Required Assistance > I had trouble changing the amount during a live round myself, but the Raise team helped me with that. We were oversubscribed so we just wanted to extend the round! For tracking purposes we wanted to do it through Raise, it also gave us a certain sense of professionalism - the investors loved it and one said it was one of the reason why he trusted the investment! The visuals and due diligence made all the difference #### 12. Previewing the Investors Side of the Deal Room was Eyeopening > One of the reasons I filled them [the components] out was because I wanted to see it from an investors perspective! It looks much more sparce from the investor side and the blank components didn't look good!! So previewing the other side of it really gave me a good incentive of why we needed to include all the data we could! #### 13. Character counts provided precise incentives > So super useful [components] were the mission, vision, company overview part! The space below the logo as well was really useful! Even stuff like character count was really useful because it forces founders to be really precise the language and descriptions to use... *Too many pitch decks and not enough time, precision is underrated* #### 14. Inviting Investors was a solid feature, particularly access toggling > Really like this section, particularly inviting multiple people at once. Also found being able to toggle access was really interesting, something he used a lot when making edits #### 15. Analytics were Key > We ysed the analytics, they were MASSIVELY useful! Especially giving us a sense of which documents to focus on! **IDEA:** Implementation of document views table seems like it would be a very suitable upgrade to this feature... --- ## Ropha (Kweza) ### Digital Transformation #### 1. Sign Up Link Didn't Work > the sign up link didn’t work and I had to go back and forth with the onboarding team to help me get set up! #### 2. Worry about Data Protection > I had a few questions around data protection, as I wasn’t sure how that worked! Maybe that information would have been good to get upfront so I felt more secure using the platform. #### 3. Checklist Item Was Useful > I found the checklist item really useful, it kept me really on track of what I needed to do and where I needed to be [...] the company profile section was fairly easy, due to the task list. #### 4. Naming Documents Correctly (Location) > I know you're supporting companies across the continent, and so I wasn't sure which documents were relevant due to where I was e.g Memorandum and Bylaws (CAC/CR-12) #### 5. Could have used some info on Cap Tables > For someone whos not clued up on Cap Tables and finance, the platform could involve and lot of new learning points #### 6. Cap Table Build could be Premium feature > So to be honest I realised a lot of this requires specialised knowledge… and I tried to build my own financial model but got to a point where I just wanted to pay someone to do it. This would definitely be a valuable added feature... > I had no idea about the calculations and maths behind it all - it’s hard and I was super glad to have that information available and someone could also do it for me. ### Fundraising #### 7. Model Scenarios, Fundraising Templates and Benchmarks > I think the one place I got stuck was the Discount on the convertibles… The question I had was “what value do I put?”... Example scenarios that are commonly used by founders, or benchmarks would be really useful. ### Other #### 8. Credibility as a Platform for Valuations > It gives me peace of mind to know I can present stuff to investors as my valuation is done by a credible third party. #### 9. Target Very Early Stage Companies > I feel like you’d provide so much value by targetting companies that are at the very first stages of building their company. It would save so much time and repetition. --- ## Selman (Pariti) ### Digital Transformation #### 1. Repetition of Data during Sign Up > Why am I inputting the same information twice? E.g Company Name, my Name, … just need to give this data once surely? #### 2. Too Many Links in Email Verification > Are there too many links on the email verification? The multiple links aspect threw me off a little bit… I don’t need steps 2-4, just give me step 1! These links come across as action items not educational resources… #### 3. Relevance of Onboarding Qs > Investor Interest sounded a little bit vague… also, do a lot of companies have Corporate Secretaries? Why is this information needed? > Why are you asking if I have Co-Founders and investors if I end up inviting them later? Unless it’s going to prompt an action, I’d ditch the questions… #### 4. Raising Timelines are Vague > For the “When are you Raising” Q’s, maybe adjust the timelines… what do I select if I want to raise in 3 months, it seems a bit vague! Now feels urgent, Soon feels too far away (subtext), Next Year is somewhat out of the question (subtext says 12+ YEARS!!)… #### 5. Do you need a Subsidiaries Tab? > How many companies have subsidiaries? I’d be interested to know and whether or not that warrants its own tab in particular… #### 6. Task List Action Links > Yeah it seems useful, but perhaps being able to click on the tasks would be super useful… being able to be taken there! ---