Investors are never just capital providers – they are key stakeholders in your success. Once the deal is done and the funds have flowed, managing your ongoing relationship with investors becomes a priority. We’ve interviewed entrepreneurs and investors to find the best tips on how to manage relationships successfully with your investors, including guidance on:

1. Being proactive
2. How to communicate when something goes wrong
3. How to handle missing a major milestone.

Download Managing Investors Through Good Times and Bad to get started putting good investor management practices into place and to prepare yourself now for any challenges you may face down the road.

Some of the methods of keeping potential investors engaged that you learned about in Module 8 can be applied to your current investors now that they’ve committed capital to your venture.  In particular, it may be useful to revisit the guidance on writing investor update emails and developing dashboards in the Keeping Investors Engaged guide.

The Deal Terms
Many entrepreneurs come into negotiations with a hyper-focus on just one or two terms, often to the detriment of others that are equally important.  And, you don’t want to agree to key terms that you don’t understand.  So which terms can you leverage for negotiation on others, and which do you not even realize are on the table?  Use our Term Sheet Buckets guide for a simple way to navigate the most common terms for each vehicle, as well as general impact deal terms.  Be in the best position to negotiate the terms that matter most for your business’s growth and impact.

The Flow of Due Diligence 
What does the due diligence process look like – both on the entrepreneur and investor side?  And what are the major decision points, or gates, where both sides must decide together to move to the next phase?  Our Due Diligence Flow Chart lays out the process so you can know what to expect and get prepared.  But remember that the due diligence process will vary by investor and impact enterprise, so your experience may differ a bit from this flow chart.

Due diligence should NOT be a one-way street where you simply provide information and comfort to potential investors.  Instead, take this opportunity to conduct your own due diligence on potential investors.  After all, you may be agreeing to a long-term relationship, so you should try to mitigate any risks to your business before entering into a partnership. Use the Entrepreneur’s Due Diligence Checklist to guide you through what information to ask for, from whom, and when.

If you don’t already have a lawyer, you’re going to need one during due diligence.  Yes, lawyers can be a significant expense during capital-raising, but the right lawyer can be a valuable advisor, a power ally, and can help you ensure your long-term vision for the business are protected.  We know entrepreneurs have many questions about how to engage and work with lawyers, so we’ve asked five lawyers with expertise in social entrepreneurship and impact investing to give us their take on finding the right lawyer, making sure your engagement letter covers all bases, negotiating on cost, and working effectively with your counsel.  Download the Working with Lawyers during Due Diligence guide for this and more.

You’ve met and pitched the investor.  There are three main answers you could hear: “Yes, I’m interested.”  “Not until…” or “No.”  Don’t just take those answers at face value though.  The Deciphering Investor Answers flow chart tells you what these investor answers actually mean, and exactly what you need to do next.  This guide also helps you figure out how to nudge an investor to make sure you’re getting a clear answer you can do something with.

Your work isn’t done when the pitch is over!  Even after a great first meeting or a fantastic pitch, it’s rare for an investor to give you a “yes” right away.  You are still early in your relationship with the investor, and you need to be strategic about how you continue to keep that investor engaged with your venture.  The Keeping Investors Engaged guide gives you tips and templates for successful follow-ups with investors.  We also include example investor update emails and dashboards you can customize to your venture, and we provide a list of the best additional resources we could find.

Now that you’ve prepared your investor pitch documents and connected with your investor targets, you’re ready for the pitch, right?  Not so fast!  You still have some preparation to do before you actually deliver your pitch to the next investor and make the most of this face-to-face time.  Use our Pitch Prep & Delivery Tips guide to prepare for effective pitch delivery.  We give you tips on knowing your audience, preparing your script, analyzing your delivery, and more.

Investors are guaranteed to toss questions at you during the pitch, so don’t be caught off-guard!  Our Managing Investor Q&A guide explains the three buckets investor questions generally fall into, and tips for your responses for each bucket.  We also list the most common questions you’re likely to hear, so you can practice answering clearly and confidently ahead of the pitch.

There are a number of key business and impact metrics that investors could ask you about, and they’ll expect you to be able to produce those answers immediately – as though they are sitting right in your back pocket.  Our Back-Pocket Metrics lists over 20 of the most common metrics you’ll be asked about, with an explanation of what each one really means, and links to resources to calculate them for your own venture.  Use this guide to calculate and memorize your venture’s key metrics before you walk into the pitch.

There are 5 documents you should prepare before you reach out to investors – an introductory email, executive summary, short pitch deck, long business deck, and financial model.  Preparing these ahead of time allows you to tell a consistent investment story, and be ready to respond right away with any information an investor asks for.  Download the 5 Investor Outreach Documents guide (PDF) for clear and thorough steps to create your own – customized for your investment story.

Be sure you have the right elements in your pitch deck and that they consistently tell your investment story.  Use our Short Deck Tool (Excel) to outline your 8- to 10-slide pitch deck, customized to your investment story.  Already have a pitch deck?  Use the tool to assess your deck and make sure the most important messages for your story are covered.  The tool lists the slides to include, explains key points to cover, and provides space to draft your messages.

You’re ready to reach out to investors, now that you have a compelling investment story and key outreach documents prepared.  Use our Pro Outreach Email Templates (PDF) to avoid mistakes often made by entrepreneurs communicating with investors and have the greatest chance of success.  Find templates, tips, and examples of different types of emails you will use.  Ideally you’ll find a warm lead (a mutual connection between you and the investor) to introduce you – we give the most effective steps to get that warm lead.  If you must reach out to an investor cold, we give an effective template for that too.  We also have examples of a “polite nudge” email and how to send materials ahead of an investor meeting.

Resource: Accelerator Selection Tool

Spend less time finding the right support program to take your idea or venture to the next stage by searching the Accelerator Selection Tool. A collaboration between Conveners.org, Sphaera, ImpactSpace, and other network partners, the Tool is a comprehensive, searchable listing of impact-focused accelerators, incubators, business plan competitions, and fellowship programs around the world.

Find the details of each of the four investment stories, along with the characteristics of the investors that prefer them, in our Choose Your Investment Story guide (PDF).  Once you’ve chosen a story, you can move on to the next step – preparing materials (including pitch decks) that consistently and persuasively tell that investment story.