Are you a founder raising capital? These are the top ten questions I ask founders.

I just got off a call. Great founder. Raising a strong Series A. Except, maybe not.

The momentum was not quite there. The investor prospects were starting to dry up. Christmas was approaching (there’s always an excuse for investors wanting to avoid saying “no”).

In fact, I’m having a lot of these calls. Getting towards the end of the year. A lot of founders are trying to close out funding rounds, trying to avoid dragging them into the new year.

Here are the top ten questions I ask founders raising capital right now.

1. Who’s on your fundraising team?

Raising capital is a team sport. It’s not just the CEO on endless Zoom calls. Every successful raise I’ve seen has a clear division of roles and responsibilities across the founding team, board, and advisors.

Your Project Member handles the research—mapping and analyzing investors, doing the first e-mail outreach, keeping the CRM updated, and driving progress through follow-ups and booking meetings.

Your CFO (Strategic) leads the overall funding round and all touchpoints. They take the first calls with investors, handle all inbound conversations, and provide documents, data room access, and track progress through DD, FAQ, securing closing signatures and payments.

Your CEO (Founder) is overall in charge of the funding round. They take calls and presentations with investors beyond initial analysts and scouts, meet and build relationships with senior contacts at potential investors, and spend time on 1:1 relationship building with selected investors.

Your Board Members help design the overall capital strategy and funding rounds. They prepare management for roadshow and investor meetings, join key conversations with advisors, banks, and investor prospects, and actively have 1:1 conversations with selected investors outside of CEO/CFO.

And don’t forget your Advisors and Investment Bankers—CFO-for-hire, fundraising advisors, crowdfunding platforms, and investment banking teams can all play crucial roles depending on your round size and strategy.

If you can’t clearly articulate who does what in your fundraising team, you’re already behind.

2. How many investors have you mapped (long list)?

When I ask founders this question, I often hear “about 50” or “maybe 100.” That’s not enough.

During the Mapping phase—which should begin 12 to 24 months before you need the capital—you should be building an investor database of 200 to 1,000+ investor prospects. You should be analyzing and selecting your Top 100, Top 30, and Top 10. You should be identifying all blocked investors (those who’ve invested in competitors, have conflicting interests, or simply aren’t a fit).

The best founders I work with treat investor mapping like a sales pipeline. Because that’s exactly what it is.

3. How are you using your investor CRM—honestly?

Most founders have some kind of spreadsheet. Few have a proper CRM system for their investors. Even fewer actually use it consistently.

Your investor CRM should track every touchpoint, every meeting, every follow-up.

It should tell you when you last contacted each prospect, what the next action is, and where they sit in your pipeline. You should be updating it continuously throughout the process.

If your CRM is a mess, your fundraise will be too.

The best founders? They give me access to their investor CRM, no questions asked. 

4. How many investor prospects would you count as ‘strong relationships’?

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s one thing to have a long list. It’s another to have developed real relationships with your top prospects.

During the Preparations phase—6 to 12 months before your raise—you should be developing early relationships with your top 100 investor prospects. You should be identifying your top 100 lead prospects and developing targeted investor profiles.

The founders who struggle are the ones who start building relationships when they need the money. The ones who succeed started building those relationships a year ago.

5. Walk me through your key metrics, both absolute and Y-o-Y growth

Investors want to see traction. They want to see momentum. If you can’t walk me through your key metrics—revenue, user growth, unit economics, and critically, year-over-year growth—in under two minutes, we have a problem.

You need to set your KPIs, metrics, and revenue story before you start serious investor conversations. These should be crystal clear in your materials phase.

Know your numbers cold. Investors will.

The best founders can easily articulate, $1,5M ARR, growing at 18% Month-over-Month, with a $14 CAC/forecast $900 LTV, 3% churn, 6.000 SME customers, 14 enterprise customers. Total pipeline of 28.000 prospects. Given our accelerated growth, will hit $100M ARR in 38 months.

6. Can you show me your Outcome Canvas on this round?

What does success look like for this round? And I don’t just mean “we raised the money.”

I mean for your investors, your current lead investors and their probable outcome. This is core to their investment decision – and you need to help them bring their decision to a resounding yes.

Founders who can't articulate their likely investor outcomes often end up with outcomes they didn't want.

7. Where can I find your six decks?

Yes, six. Different investors need different materials at different stages.

You need your one-pager, your pitch deck, your meeting deck, your teaser deck, your full investor deck and your long deck. Each serves a different purpose in the investor journey. During the Materials phase—4 to 6 months out—you should be developing your one-pager plus the five other investor decks, setting up Docsend plus investor FAQ, developing your data room, and recording your pitchdeck Loom. (Read more about the Six decks you need here)

If you’re scrambling to put together materials while in active conversations, you’re already too late.

8. How many investor meetings are you running—every week?

During the active Process phase—which typically runs 1 to 4 months—you should be targeting up to 25 investor meetings per week. Yes, per week.

You need to run all investor meetings over a limited number of weeks, create momentum, and use power questions to balance power dynamics. The goal is to map out your top investors’ decision-making process and timeline while updating your CRM continuously.

Fundraising is a sprint, not a marathon. If you're doing 3 meetings a week, you're not fundraising—you're just having coffee.

9. Talk me through how you are securing five competing term sheets—or more?

One term sheet is not a negotiation. Two is barely better. You need to be targeting five or more competing term sheets.

This means you need to secure multiple possible lead investors. You should be receiving and negotiating on multiple term sheets simultaneously.

The founders with the best outcomes are the ones with the most options. Competition creates leverage.

10. What’s the timeline and probability to close the round?

Finally, I want to know your honest assessment. When do you expect to close? And what’s the probability you actually will?

The Closing phase will take about a month, maybe two. You finalize legal documents, close the round, settle legal documents, receive invested amounts, and potentially combine new equity with debt or soft-funding. It takes time.

Be honest with yourself. And be honest with me. What’s really your timeline?

Now, Prepare for the Next Round

Here’s what most founders forget: the moment you close one round, you’re already preparing for the next one. Media and announcements follow closing, and then the cycle begins again.

The Funding Journey is not a single event. It’s a continuous process that requires deliberate planning, systematic execution, and relentless relationship building.

So, founder—how would you answer these ten questions?

Finally, the most important question, how can I help?

This article is a part of the upcoming report Fundraising Success: a playbook for global founders raising capital. Coming in 2026. Pre-register today.

Just flying back from a week with founders in Dubai, one of the most common questions we received, “what should I put in my pitch deck?”.

Our answer: “you are asking the wrong question. You need to develop all six decks”

By: Christian Rangen, global advisor to VCs, FoF’s & ecosystem builders. Faculty, advisor, investor Sanjana Raheja, advisor to early-stage founders, accelerators, & innovation programs

Don’t bring the wrong tool for the job

Over the last 15 years we have worked with 1000’s of founders on investor readiness and fundraising. Pre-seed health tech, post-IPO energy tech and everything in between. One constant: the pitch deck. Yet, in our experience, this is only a small fraction of the story. Our experience; you really need six different decks.

Too often, we have seen founders send out their pitch deck (which is not designed to be sent out), and equally often we have seen founders try to cramp 21 slides into a 30. Min first meeting call (when a 6-slide meeting deck would have sufficed). Most founders, maybe even 90%, bring the wrong tool for the job. As a founder, make sure you have the right toolkit available to you. In our experience. That means six unique investor decks, each serving its own purpose, each perfect for its own job.

Understand the investors you will meet

As a founder, you can expect to meet three categories of investors. It’s useful to keep this in mind as you build your decks and fundraising process.

Lead

A lead investor will set the terms, set the valuation, give you a term sheet, do the due diligence, structure the round, (often) bring in the co-investors.

In many cases, a lead investor will also set up a 20% ESOP (pre-round), require you to incorporate in places like Delaware and reshuffle management.

These investors care about your decks, but they care far more about your data room, the 20+ customer interviews they are going to do, the legal, team, market and technical due diligence tracks they will run and ultimately the totality of the investment case.

Qualified

A qualified investor understands all the points and work listed above, but does not have the time, bandwidth or size of investment here where they would commit to doing this work. Instead, for the moment, they are happy to take a smaller slice, what we might call a listing post; but might step into a lead investor role in a future round.

A qualified investor might have access to your data room, financial models and years of financial statements, but they are unlikely to spend much time on it. They rely on you, the founding team, the board and often the (even more qualified) lead investors to handle the work that comes with the round. But, they do care about your decks, as this is likely the only documents they will spend significant time on.

Unqualified

An unqualified investor is likely going to be a friend, family, high-net worth or business angel. They are mostly highly competent people, but with limited time and experience with early-stage investment. Often, they would not know how to truly assess a startup, and rely largely on trust and relationships to commit to the deal.

For this group, the pitch deck or full deck is likely the only thing they will actually read. They might have questions, but will usually get these answers from the founders or fellow co-investors, unlikely to ever dig deeply into the case.

The six decks you need

1.      Executive Summary

Purpose: A strong one-pager that can be widely shared by e-mail

Format: 1-page

Content: High-level overview

Most common mistake founders do: putting in too much information

2.      Teaser Deck

Purpose: A visually strong deck to be shared in advance of the first meeting

Format: 3-8-slides. Send in PDF or via Docsend

Content: Teasing investors on the 3-5 key points on the deal.

Most common mistake founders do: Sharing too much information. Not including a timeline and structure on the round

3.      Short deck A: Your pitch deck

Purpose: The traditional ‘pitch deck’. But beware, this is designed to always have you in the room, giving a voice over. Removing you from the deck often leave it missing vital information.

Format: 6-8 slides. Use for pitches, not for sending out

Content: A visual story to support a founder pitching live on a stage or online

Most common mistake founders do: Three; – Cramming in too much information – Not having a ‘how to invest slide’ (Deal structure, deal timeline, committed investors, timeline to close and how to invest) – Sending it out, when the founder is not doing voice over. 90% of the time, you are better off sending deck 5. Introduction instead.

4.      Short deck B: First meeting deck

Purpose: A short and concise deck for your first meeting. Design it for few slides + key questions you ask so you can steer the conversation.

Format: 4-6 slides, last slide should always contain ‘three questions’. Keep all other slides in the appendix as needed.

Content: Overview on the deal, designed to get a good, two-way conversation started

Most common mistake founders do: Too many slides, no questions to ask. As a consequence, it becomes a ‘too much information pitch meeting’. No good.

5.      Introduction deck: Investment teaser

Purpose: The main deck, designed to be read by investors without you in the room

Format: 10-16 (can go to 20) slides. Send via PDF or share via Docsend

Content: A solid walk through of the business, the future ambitions and the deal terms

Most common mistake founders do: Not putting in an executive summary as slide #2, just after the frontpag

6.      Long deck: Investment proposal

Purpose: This is your extensive, sharing all sensitive detail-deck. This deck is designed to give your investors an honest, detailed analysis of the company and the investment case

Format: 20-100+ slides, regularly 50-60 slides. Only shared to most serious investors, maybe after the first 3-4 meetings

Content: An extensive, incredibly detailed analysis of the business, investment case and future potential.

Most common mistake founders do: Not using an executive summary, not having enough depth on numbers and financials, not including anything on investor liquidity and exit strategy

Time to go to work

Six decks; different purposes. Do not be overwhelmed. These decks are all built on the same platform, your future success narrative. All you need to do is package them for the readers. The number one mistake, not selecting the right deck for the right purpose.

Good luck!

This article is part of the Startup Series at Strategy Tools, helping founders, investors, and ecosystem builders across MENA navigate the journey from startup to scale-up. Read more about Scale Up MENA here.

Written by Chris Rangen, advisor, faculty, investor

Written through the lens of Dr. Layla Al-ha-Mansouri, Founder & CEO, HealthSyncz MENA With insights from: Tariq E. Hassan, General Partner, Desert Capital. The people and companies are fictional for the purpose of this article.

It’s 2:47 AM in Dubai, and I’m staring at my laptop screen, trying to figure out why my board meetings feel like I’m pushing a boulder uphill. We just closed our Series A—$8.5 million from Desert Capital and two regional co-investors. Our digital health platform is processing 50,000 patient consultations monthly across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The business is working. The team is incredible. But somehow, our quarterly board meetings leave me drained rather than energized.

Then it hit me.

I was running a Low-Performing Board while trying to build a world-class company.

The Wake-Up Call at INSEAD

During my MBA at INSEAD, Professor Jeffrey spent an entire module on corporate governance. At the time, buried in case studies about Carrefour and Schneider Electric, I thought: “This is interesting, but I’m building a startup. I’ll worry about boards later.”

That was naive.

What I didn’t realize then—but understand viscerally now—is that your board isn’t just a compliance requirement or a necessary evil that comes with institutional funding. Your board can be your secret weapon. Or it can be the anchor that prevents you from reaching escape velocity.

The canvas sitting on my desk now (courtesy of Chris Rangen, CEO at Strategy Tools) breaks it down into three distinct types: Low-Performing Board, High-Performing Board, and World-Class Board. Looking at it honestly, we were solidly in category one. And that needed to change.

Low-Performing Board: Where Most MENA Founders Start

Let me be brutally honest about where we were six months ago.

Our board had “general interest” in healthtech. One member had worked in telecoms, another in real estate development. Smart people, successful careers, but no specific expertise in digital health, no understanding of two-sided marketplace dynamics, and certainly no experience navigating MENA’s fragmented regulatory landscape for medical services.

Board meetings? We’d send out papers the morning of the meeting—sometimes during the meeting. I’d spend 90 minutes presenting (read: defending) every decision we’d made in the previous quarter. The board would listen politely. Management did most of the talking. We’d wrap up in 90 minutes, no clear action items, no minutes circulated.

And critically: the board wasn’t involved in fundraising. When we started our Series A process, I was on my own, cold-emailing VCs across the region, getting introductions wherever I could find them.

Sound familiar?

Tariq’s perspective (Desert Capital):

“When we see this pattern during diligence, it’s a red flag. Not a deal-breaker, but a signal that the founder hasn’t built the infrastructure for scale. A Low-Performing Board indicates one of two things: either the founder doesn’t understand governance, or they’re afraid of accountability. Both are fixable, but they need fixing before we write the check.

The MENA ecosystem has a specific challenge here. Many first-time institutional investors—family offices transitioning to venture, successful entrepreneurs doing angel investing—bring capital but not operational board expertise. They’ve never been on a high-performing board themselves, so they don’t know what good looks like.”

The Turning Point: Building a High-Performing Board

The shift started when Tariq joined our board post-Series A. His first question wasn’t about our burn rate or CAC/LTV. It was: “Who else is on this board, and what does each person bring?”

That question forced me to audit not just our board composition, but our entire board operating system.

Here’s what we changed over the following quarter:

1. Recruited for Solid Expertise

We brought on Dr. Fatima Al-Rashid, former Chief Medical Officer at Saudi German Health, who’d built integrated care networks across three countries. Suddenly, we had someone who understood DHA licensing in Dubai, CCHI requirements in Saudi, and the political dynamics of hospital partnerships. Solid expertise in the industry.

2. Created Clear Responsibilities

We established three board committees: Finance & Risk, Product & Clinical Governance, and Compensation. Each board member now owns specific areas. No more diffusion of responsibility.

3. Instituted Pre-Read Discipline

Board papers now go out 72 hours in advance. Not “papers”—a proper board pack: financial dashboard, operational KPIs, strategic decision items, and a clear agenda developed by myself and our Board Chair. Each agenda item specifies whether it’s for information, discussion, or decision.

4. Got Active on Fundraising

This was transformative. When we started exploring our Series B plans, our board members made introductions to three Gulf-based VCs and two international funds with MENA practices. These weren’t cold intros—they were warm connections where our board members had invested personal credibility. The board became involved in fundraising.

5. Implemented Some Compensation

We introduced equity grants for board members. Not life-changing amounts, but enough to create meaningful alignment. When board members have skin in the game, the dynamic shifts.

Our board meetings now run 2.5 to 3 hours. The board asks real questions. They challenge assumptions. They hold management accountable. And critically: we circulate minutes within a week, with clear follow-ups and owners.

The difference? I leave these meetings energized. We make better decisions. We move faster because we’ve pressure-tested our thinking with people who’ve been there before.

Tariq’s perspective:

“The transition from Low-Performing to High-Performing Board is where we see founders level up. Layla didn’t just accept our board seat—she took the initiative to reshape her entire governance structure. That signal alone gave us confidence for follow-on investment.

In MENA, we’re still building these muscles. In Silicon Valley, founders often have board members from previous companies who model good governance. Here, we’re creating these patterns from scratch. That’s why Desert Capital runs a ‘Board Readiness’ workshop for all our portfolio CEOs within 90 days of investment. We can’t assume founders know this instinctively.”

The World-Class Board: The Aspiration

Looking at the canvas, I can see where we need to go. A World-Class Board operates at a completely different altitude.

The board members have deep experience and networks from different parts of the industry—not just clinical expertise, but regulatory affairs, government relations in multiple MENA markets, experience scaling tech platforms in emerging markets, and exits under their belt.

They’re actively using their networks to co-lead fundraising, making the critical introductions that unlock Series B and Series C rounds. When you’re trying to raise $30M+ in a region where that’s still a large round, having board members who can get you in the room with Mubadala, STV, or international funds makes all the difference.

There are clear roles and committees for all board members—no passengers, everyone contributing. Board papers go out 5-7 days in advance with extensive documentation, numbers, and reports. Meetings run 4 hours to 2 days depending on the strategic importance.

The board is actively discussing and probing deeper into key items, challenging management constructively. Minutes are circulated within 48 hours for signature, and there are clear action items with deliverables that actually get tracked quarter to quarter.

Most importantly: the board is pushing, challenging management, with clear expectations. They’re not there to rubber-stamp decisions. They’re there to make us better.

And they use a proper board management platform where all documents live, all discussions are tracked, and institutional knowledge is preserved.

Are we there yet? No. But we have the roadmap

The MENA Context: Why This Matters More Here

The MENA startup ecosystem is at an inflection point. We’re seeing larger rounds, more international capital, and rising expectations for governance and professionalism. But we’re also dealing with unique regional challenges:

Regulatory Fragmentation: Healthcare regulations vary dramatically across GCC markets. A World-Class Board with regional expertise helps navigate this.

Capital Scarcity at Growth Stage: Series B and beyond remains challenging in MENA. Having board members who can actively fundraise and make introductions isn’t nice-to-have—it’s existential.

Limited Depth of Operational Expertise: We don’t yet have the depth of experienced operators that Silicon Valley has. Building a High-Performing or World-Class Board means being creative—bringing in advisors from adjacent industries, recruiting board members from international companies with MENA experience.

Cultural Dynamics: Board meetings in MENA can sometimes default to extreme deference to founders or senior members. A High-Performing Board requires creating a culture where respectful challenge is not just acceptable but expected.

Tariq’s perspective:

“At Desert Capital, board quality is one of our key evaluation criteria during diligence. We look at: Who’s on the board? What do they bring? How do they operate? And critically—is the founder coachable on governance?

We’ve passed on deals where the business fundamentals were strong but the founder was resistant to board professionalization. That’s a massive risk at scale. Conversely, we’ve backed founders who had weaker initial traction but demonstrated exceptional ability to build governance infrastructure. Those founders tend to be the ones who successfully navigate Series B and beyond.

The MENA region is producing world-class founders. Now we need to produce world-class boards to match. That’s how we build enduring companies, not just exciting startups.”

The Practical Roadmap: Moving Up the Ladder

If you’re a founder reading this and recognizing yourself in the Low-Performing Board description, here’s how to start moving up:

Phase 1: Audit Brutally (Month 1)

• Map what each board member actually brings to the table
• Assess your current board operating system honestly
• Identify the gaps in expertise and experience you need

Phase 2: Professionalize the Basics (Months 2-3)

• Institute the 72-hour pre-read rule
• Create a standard board pack template
• Start circulating minutes within one week
• Establish clear agenda-setting with your Board Chair

Phase 3: Upgrade Composition (Months 4-9)

• Recruit one board member with deep industry expertise
• Consider creating an Advisory Board if you can’t immediately change Board composition
• Be willing to have difficult conversations with board members who aren’t contributing

Phase 4: Activate Your Board (Months 6-12)

• Create formal board committees with clear mandates
• Get your board actively involved in your next fundraising process
• Implement board member equity compensation if you haven’t already
• Start using a board management platform (we use Carta, but there are several options)

Phase 5: Build Toward World-Class (Year 2+)

• Extend board meetings to 4+ hours with deeper strategic discussions
• Institute the 5-7 day pre-read discipline
• Recruit board members with networks across multiple MENA markets
• Create a culture of constructive challenge and accountability

This isn’t quick. But it’s essential.

The Bottom Line

Nine months ago, I would have said board meetings were a necessary tax on my time. Today, I see our board as one of our most important competitive advantages.

The businesses that will win in MENA over the next decade won’t just be the ones with the best product-market fit or the strongest unit economics. They’ll be the ones with the governance infrastructure to scale through multiple funding rounds, navigate complex regulatory environments, and build institutions that outlast their founders.

That starts with your board.

So here’s my challenge to every founder reading this: pull up the Three Board Types canvas. Be honest about where you are. Then commit to moving up the ladder.

Your Series B investors will thank you. Your management team will thank you. And most importantly, your future self—exhausted from building a regional champion—will thank you.

About the heroes of this story:

Dr. Al-ha-Mansouri, is the Founder & CEO of HealthSyncz MENA, a digital health platform connecting patients with healthcare providers across the GCC. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and previously worked in healthcare strategy consulting. HealthSyncz has raised $12M to date and operates across UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

Tariq E. Hassan is a General Partner at Desert Capital, a Dubai-based venture capital fund focused on Series A and B investments in MENA technology companies. Prior to Desert Capital, Tariq was VP of Corporate Development at Careem and an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company. Desert Capital has invested in 24 companies across fintech, healthtech, logistics, and enterprise SaaS.

Written by:

Chris Rangen, global strategy advisor to startups, scale ups, CEOs, VCs, Fund-of-funds and national ecosystem builders.

Want to level up your board governance?

Download the Three Board Types canvas and other governance tools at strategytools.io

Join founders across MENA who are building World-Class Boards for their scale-ups.

This article is part of the Startup Series at Strategy Tools, helping founders, investors, and ecosystem builders across MENA navigate the journey from startup to scale-up. Read more about Scale Up MENA here.