For founders of early-stage and growth companies preparing to raise
Investors don’t reject good businesses. They reject businesses that look unpreparedand most founders don’t find out until it’s too late to fix it.
See exactly what investors see: the financial, strategic, governance and diligence gaps that delay raises, weaken terms or cost founders the deal.
Watch: the three mistakes that stall a raise.
Watch · Capital raising readiness strategy for early stage to mid-growth businesses — Jerry Conti (Legacy Capital Professionals) & Steven Ehlinger (783 Capital Partners)
Built by a former family office allocator and the 783 team, which has helped structure more than $400 million in capital.
75 deals crossed Steven’s desk in a typical week. 74 were passed on.
Not because the businesses were bad, but because they weren’t ready for what serious capital requires.
Free 5-minute self-assessment, with your checklist included
Opens the 783 Capital Readiness self-assessment app.
Three steps to determine fit.
Watch the short video
Learn the three mistakes that commonly delay a raise, and what serious investors expect once they become interested.
Take the 5-minute self-assessment
Get your results and your capital readiness checklist.
Apply for a complimentary call
If there's a fit, we connect you directly with the 783 team.
Free 5-minute self-assessment, with your checklist included
An illustrative scenario, common across companies entering a raise
The pitch went well. The investor was interested, then asked for the financial model, cap table, governance documents, key contracts, projections, and data room. That is when the team realized several materials were incomplete, others contradicted the presentation, and some had not even been created yet.
Instead of keeping momentum, the company started scrambling. Responses slowed. Questions multiplied. Confidence weakened.
This is where many promising raises stall, not because the business lacks potential, but because the company entered the capital raising process before it was ready for what serious interest would require.
This is what happens when the back office is a mess — even for a business the investor already liked.
The 783 Capital Partners Capital Readiness Assessment is designed to find those gaps before an investor does.
Readiness isn’t paperwork. It’s leverage: the difference between negotiating from preparation and negotiating under pressure.
Three mistakes that stall a raise.
Underestimating what capital readiness requires
It is far more than a polished pitch deck. Investors evaluate your financials, governance, operations, legal standing, market, and data room, and the work must happen in the right sequence, with accurate data that tells one consistent business story.
Rushing the raise to hit a business milestone
An upcoming milestone creates pressure to move fast, and going for a raise quickly feels like solving it. In practice, it does the opposite: going out before you’re ready doesn’t speed up a raise, it delays it and increases what the capital ends up costing you.
Losing investor momentum during diligence
A pitch opens the conversation; diligence tests the business behind it. Missing or inconsistent financials, contracts, cap table or data room slow the process, weaken confidence and signal to the investor that the deal is risky. That is how promising raises stall.
Enter serious conversations prepared.
Raise faster
Keep the momentum once an investor gets serious, instead of stalling in diligence.
Raise on better terms
Lower the risk investors price in, and negotiate from preparation, not pressure.
Walk in with confidence
Answer the hard questions before they’re asked, with one defensible capital story.
Build the assets & acquire the leverage to close
Develop and assemble all the materials needed to successfully and efficiently structure capital, while acquiring the skills and insights to confidently attract, engage, and close capital with ideal, aligned capital partners.
- •Dedicated, committed executive engagement throughout the process
- •Cross-functional collaboration across leadership for key deliverables
Why serious founders prepare systematically:
- Systematically & comprehensively prepared for a capital campaign using a proven playbook.
- Confidently begin outreach to targeted capital groups based on a defined capital strategy.
- Reduce the cost of capital by accelerating the open-to-close timeline with capital partners.
Founders who go out unprepared often see term sheets come back at two to three times the dilution they expected. Capital readiness is what protects the number you had in mind.
Experience across real capital transactions.
$400M+
Structured across multiple transactions
$3M
First institutional round, prepared and structured
$15M
Seed plus grants, blended capital strategy
$30M
Private equity close, prep and execution
$111M
Series A, institutional-scale experience
Past transactions reflect the team’s experience. They do not predict the outcome of any future raise.
Recent Case Studies
$3M
First Institutional Round
Structured and closed the first institutional capital raise for an early-stage venture entering market expansion.
$15M
Seed + Matching Grants
Combined seed capital with state and federal matching grants to fund R&D, product development, and pilot commercialization.
$30M
PE Acquisition · 4-Month Close
Facilitated a full private equity acquisition process — from letter of intent through close — in four months.
$111M
Series A Close
Led a Series A capital campaign across institutional investors, closing the round within the targeted timeline.
FROM STRATEGY TO READINESS
The Process
Once we align on your capital strategy → we launch into Capital Readiness.
Built around your company, not a template.
Unlike generic fundraising programs that begin with pitch-deck development, 783 begins by evaluating the company behind the deck — the same financial, governance, operational, strategic, and diligence areas serious investors will examine.
The Capital Journey Assessment.
Take the 5-minute self-assessment and get your checklist with your results.
Free 5-minute self-assessment, with your checklist included
Apply for a call to get a senior-led assessment that determines where your company stands today, what could interfere with your raise, and what should happen next — with an opportunity for an in-depth Capital Raising Audit including the following:
- Review of your intended raise and capital strategy
- Evaluation of financial, structural, operational, governance, market, and fundraising readiness
- Identification of diligence risks and priority gaps
- Written assessment report
- Prioritized, phased roadmap
- Senior-partner recommendations
If you proceed with the recommended first phase, the assessment fee applies toward that engagement.
Already know you need help? Apply for a complimentary call.
Why should you trust the 783 Capital Partners team?
At 783 Capital Partners, we bring structure to the flow of capital in all its forms. We foster alignment in our engagements to grow collective capacity across stakeholders and support the innovations that they serve.
Steven Ehlinger, managing director at 783 Capital Partners, has spent 30 years in the capital markets — on both sides of the table. He’s been an allocator and sat on an investment committee, so he knows exactly what a deal has to prove to get a yes. He’s also been the founder: he took a company from ideation to exit, structuring five rounds of capital along the way at the lowest possible cost of capital. 783’s readiness process is built from both sides of that desk.
As managing director of one of the largest family offices, Steven saw firsthand how selective that process really is: 75 deals crossed his desk in a typical week, and 74 of them went straight in the trash — not because the businesses were bad, but because they weren’t ready for what serious capital requires. That’s the side of the table the Capital Readiness Assessment is built to prepare you for.
The thirteen steps
A proven sequence built one step at a time — structural, operational, market, and financial readiness. By the end of the roadmap your business is institutional-investor ready, with a defensible model, a complete data room, and a live pipeline of conversations.
Preparation
Evaluate foundation of current capital readiness, setting clear expectations for accountability.
Research
Conduct thorough research to understand market, competitors, and pricing strategies.
Organization
Evaluate governance relative to capital structuring. Review company vision, mission, and values.
Business Model
Evaluate company business model, focusing on target market, revenue streams, and cost structures.
Product/Service
Evaluate product/service fit, product roadmap, differentiation, and go-to-market strategy.
Operating Strategy
Evaluate scalability of the operating strategy by focusing in on workflows, systems, and staffing plan.
Financial Model
Evaluate Pro Forma Financial Model to ensure core strategies are effectively captured and defensible.
Impact Strategy
Evaluate impact strategy and associated measurable KPIs to deliver social and environmental goals.
Capital Strategy
Evaluate capital strategy, targeted funding stages, and approach to debt, equity, royalty and investor engagement.
Campaign Design
Design fundraising campaign including outreach strategy, targeted terms, and investment type.
Fundraising Materials
Prepare key materials including 1-pager, pitch deck, term sheet, and data room.
Pipeline Process
Establish campaign pipeline process from targeted prospects to qualifying and closing on funding.
Capital Ready
Completing open items and celebrating completion of capital readiness engagement. Pipeline + close happen in Capital Structuring.
Who is This For
783 Capital Partners is the ideal fit if you are a revenue-generating early- or growth-stage business with established product-market fit, or a late-stage startup.
- Founders planning a first institutional round
- Companies blending seed capital and grants
- Growth companies heading toward private equity
- Teams preparing for a Series A
- Founders who've raised before and stalled in diligence
Founders begin their capital readiness 13-step process with 783 Capital Partners when they are:
- About to begin or in the middle of an active capital campaign
- Need to build (or rebuild) a data room that meets institutional standards
- Leadership team needs to be aligned on the capital story before going to market
- Want to reduce time-to-close with each capital partner
FAQs
Find out where you stand.
Take the 5-minute self-assessment and get your capital readiness checklist with your results. From there, you can apply for a complimentary call with a senior capital-raising expert from the 783 team.
Free 5-minute self-assessment, with your checklist included