Raise Customer Interview #2

# Raise Customer Interview #2 ## Fingo Africa Fingo is a Financial Technology platform... They are active on the platform and are currently fundraising. They plan to close their deal by the end of this month. They have built out a scenario and have invited 12 investors to their deal room. ### Persona Type Which category do they fit into? - [x] 1. Raising Now - [ ] 2. Raising Soon (4-12 Months) - [ ] 3. Raising in the Future ### Success Timeline How far have {Company Name} got in the success journey? #### Stage 1: Digital Transformation ✅ (Company Verification) 1. **Sign Up** 2. **Complete Company Profile** (Required Fields + Incorp. Docs) 3. **Build Company Cap Table** --- **Stages 1+2+3 = Verified** ✅ --- #### Stage 2: Fundraising 🚀 ✅ Once verified, companies begin the second stage of their journey to success... 4. **Build a Scenario** (+Attach to Deal... first scenario created automatically attaches?) ✅ 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** --- ## Feedback Gathering feedback up to the stage (inclusive) companies have reached ## Stage 1: Digital Transformation ✅ ### 1. Sign Up How did the company get on during this part of the process? #### Questions **1. What were your initial thoughts of the sign up process?** A: I do remember bits of the process... 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. Did you find the email verification worked smoothly?** A: I don't recall any issues **3. Did you think we were asking relevant sign up questions?** A: I think the questions provide context for the startup... at the time of starting we were ready to raise funds and get going. I'm glad there weren't too many questions as we wanted to 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... 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. Any extra ideas on the Sign Up process and how it could have been improved?** A: #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) If you had rate the sign up from 1-10, what would you give it? A: Solid 8 as loved the visuals --- ### 2. Company Profile How did the company get on during this part of the process? #### Questions **1. What were your initial thoughts of the Company Dashboard (Profile)?** A: Yeah 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! Note of improvement: 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! I think as well the hierarchy, the step by step thing kind of intuitive and very useful. **2. Did you find the Task List component useful?** A: **3. Were there any tasks you found hard to complete? (e.g Incorporation Docs)** A: 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! **4. Were there any parts of this process you struggled with?** A: **5. Does your company has subsidiaries?** A: **6. Were there any extra documents you had to upload?** A: #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) Type any notes here and add screenshots... --- ### 3. Build Company Cap Table How did the company get on during this part of the process? #### Questions **1. What were your initial thoughts of the Company Cap Table?** A: 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! Lots of confidence 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?". **2. How did you find the process of creating shareclasses?** A: **3. How did you find the process of adding shareholders?** A: **4. Has your company currently got Employee Stock Options?** A: **5. Have you had to create any vesting schedules?** A: **6. Were there any parts of the Cap Table build you found particularly easy/challenging?** A: #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) Type any notes here and add screenshots... --- ## Stage 2: Fundraising 🚀 ### 4. Build Scenario(s) How did the company get on during this part of the process? **1. Have you tried building a scenario yet?** A: Yes! **2. If YES, how was it? / If NO, why not?** A: That process was FUN! I liked being able to model different scenarios and figuring out what the consequences would be! 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! **3. If YES, did you find the preview tool useful?** A: Yes super useful! **4. Did you build and preview multiple scenarios, or just one or two making continuous changes and edits?** A: 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 #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) Type any notes here and add screenshots... --- ### 5. Build Your Deal Room How did the company get on during this part of the process? Which components did they use? - [x] Company Overview - [x] Team ... - [x] Financial Performance - [x] Pre-Money Valuation - [x] Key Driver Metrics - [x] Use of Proceeds - [x] Burn Rate ... - Cap Table - [x] On - [ ] Off ... - [x] Funding History - [x] Milestones + Highlights ... - [x] Documents ... One of the reasons I filled them 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! So yeah, we used all the components I think we showed our Cap Table, but I don't remember specifically! I think the upgrade might have been released as we were in the midst of raising! Although investors already had all the legal documents, so there wasn't a reason not to show it... #### Questions **1. Have you started building your Deal Room?** A: **2. If YES, how has your experience been so far?** A: **3. Are there any components you've found particularly useful/unuseful?** A: So super useful was 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 **4. In terms of the layout/navigation, how did you find UX?** A: #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) Type any notes here and add screenshots... --- ### 6. Inviting Investors How did the company get on during this part of the process? Did they find the invite section easily enough ("Who Has Access" in Analytics) - [x] Yes - [ ] No ... #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) 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 --- ### 7. Launching Their Deal How did the company get on during this part of the process? ... #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) Type any notes here and add screenshots... --- ## Managing Deal Flow 🤝💸 ### 8. Analysing Investor Insights How did the company get on during this part of the process? ... #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) We ysed the analytics, they were MASSIVELY useful! Especially giving us a sense of which documents to focus on! --- ### 9. Closing Deal & Gathering Commitments How did the company get on during this part of the process? ... #### Notes (Motivations + Pain Points) Type any notes here and add screenshots... --- ## Additonal Questions **1. On a scale of 1-10, how useful have you found Raise?** A: Honestly, I'm gonna give it an 8.5/10 **2. If Raise were to dissapear, how would you feel?** - [ ] Not Bothered - [x] Very Bothered (Inconvenience) A: I think the biggest inconvenience would be the vision and the need, its so pressing and the value creation Raise could have for founders and investors is HUGE and the platform will be criticial in developing ecosytems on the continent! --- ## Key Takeaways ### 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...