You just raised a round… now what? Here’s what I recommend founders do immediately after raising capital to prepare the team, strengthen their strategy, and redesign their role before the next chapter begins.
Key Takeaways
- Move fast on team changes you’ve been putting off: especially underperformers in leadership positions.
- Rewrite your strategy from scratch: to reflect learnings that emerged during the fundraise.
- Use your first board meeting to reset roles: you need to stop selling and start leading.
- Redesign your role to align with your leadership style: not just follow standard advice that often fails.
- Celebrate with your team and your family: they’ve earned this moment too.
Congratulations! You just went through six months of pain—signing term sheets, surviving due diligence, and difficult negotiations—and finally, the money’s in the bank.
The hard work is finally over!
Wait, no—it’s just starting.
Here’s a quick guide on what to do immediately after a funding round… (and they might not be what you’re expecting).
1. Fire Your Underperformers
In the run-up to closing the round, you didn’t want to make team changes for fear of spooking investors.
So you turned a blind eye to underperformers in the leadership team who aren’t scaling as fast as the business. Often it’s a VP who joined early on and doesn’t have the skills to progress in the next stage.
Occasionally, it’s even a co-founder who now feels out of their depth.
Now is the time to make your move.
The relief of closing the round feels like an endorphin high, and it can make hard people decisions feel wrong.
However, you need to be proactive and intentional about forming your team, and removing people who aren’t a fit will increase both talent density and culture density.
You don’t want to scale a low-performing team.
As with any people decision, approach it with care and compassion—but don’t delay.
2. Rewrite the Entire Long-Term Strategy
Pitching to hundreds of smart investors often changes how you think about the business.
You should leave the process with more clarity about how you want to deploy your hard-earned capital. In some cases, you may even have raised a different amount to what you planned—particularly if you created a competitive round.
Whatever the case, it’s worth reworking your strategy after a round from the ground up. Even if you told the investors you already have a plan, you need to make sure it makes sense after the dust settles.
Give yourself permission to take your time and let some fires burn when making long-term decisions. New investors may push for quick decisions, but I’ve often found that taking a month or two to stabilise puts you in a better mental state to place wiser bets.
When it comes to strategy, I recommend you make it as simple as possible. In about 6–9 months, you’ll inevitably realise you took on too much and end up cutting initiatives that never really mattered.
As a founder, you’re the editor of the company. And the secret to editing? Cut what’s not necessary.
In the run-up to the fundraise, you may have been incentivised to play short-term games to inflate your growth rate to close the round. This is your chance to place a small number of long-term bets that will take 6–12 months to pay off.
There’s never a better time to think and act long term than after a fundraise.
3. Reset Your Board Dynamics
You might assume every startup board has the same remit. They do not.
When welcoming new members to the board, take the opportunity to run a Board Reset.
Take 30–60 minutes in the first board meeting to set the new board up for success. Without this, unhelpful dynamics can start to take hold.
Once bad board dynamics form, they’re incredibly hard to change.
Here’s what to do:
- Get all members to reintroduce themselves. Not just bios, but sharing their strengths and weaknesses. This forces a bit of vulnerability which builds trust and connection.
- Clarify the different roles of the board and the CEO. Discuss who sets the strategy, and how you’ll resolve inevitable disagreements (before they happen).
- Define a feedback mechanism. This can be as simple as a two-question survey after each board meeting: What went well? What didn’t? Remember: no feedback means no learning, so all board members need to commit to feedback.
When you were fundraising, you were the seller. But now that they’ve invested, you need to stop selling and start ‘buying’ their input.
Your job isn’t to impress, it’s to assess if you’re making the right decisions for the business, and if the board’s feedback is useful or not.
4. Redesign Your Role For the Next Stage
The way you spend your time will change after a fundraise. Don’t rush into business as usual.
This is your opportunity to create the role you actually want.
Common advice would have you ask, “How does the company need me to lead?”
In my experience, this can lead you to try to please other people.
Instead ask yourself, “How do I want to lead?”
Many founders start working with coaches immediately after a raise to try and clarify this question. If you get this right, you’ll end up with more leverage, more energy, and more time. Get it wrong, and you’ll create a job you end up hating.
I did this once, and I don’t recommend it.
Visualise your ideal week. Level up your team meetings and accountability. Make a commitment to yourself not to resist old habits and transform yourself.
Future you will thank you.
5. Invest in Your Personal Relationships
Every company has silent co-founders. You won’t read about them in the press or hear their names in board meetings.
They’re the romantic partners… the husbands and wives who often sacrifice just as much as the founder.
During the fundraise, they barely saw you (except when helping you hold it together) and they kept things running while you were out pitching.
I hope it’s obvious that you need to celebrate with your team.
But also take a week and celebrate with your friends and family.
They’ve likely shared the sleepless nights and emotional strain. Don’t let this milestone pass without honouring their part in it.
It Starts with Reflection
There’s more to be done, but I hope this post has made you reflect on some of the areas founders tend to overlook.
If you want a more structured way to define your focus, take my 5-minute Founder Assessment.
And if you want some coaching to become the best founder you can be, reach out.
Good luck—you’ve earned this moment. Make the most of it.
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Originally published on June 25, 2025.
