Fundraising: It’s a Marathon not a Sprint

<p>Welcome to Grit &amp; Growth’s retrospective on a topic that’s on every entrepreneur’s mind: money! Hear from startup and early stage investors in Africa and South Asia about what investors are really looking for, how to vet potential backers, pitching advice, and more. These experts provide practical guidance and strategies on how to secure funding for your venture.</p><p>Money, money, money. Entrepreneurs can’t stop thinking about it. Which explains why fundraising is such a critical — and ongoing — aspect of their job description.We turned to five experts for their wisdom on all things related to funding:</p><p><strong>Andreata Muforo</strong>, partner at Nairobi-based venture capital firm TLCom Capital</p><p><strong>Ido Sum</strong>, partner at TLCom Capital</p><p><strong>Zach George</strong>, managing partner at Launch Africa Ventures</p><p><strong>Sandeep Singhal</strong>, managing director of Nexus Venture Partners in India</p><p><strong>Pranav Pai</strong>, founding partner&nbsp;of 3One4 Capital in India</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Top Seven Masterclass Takeaways&nbsp;</strong></p><ol><li><strong>Fundraising should be active, not passive. </strong>Andreata Muforo says “It’s something an entrepreneur does, not something that happens to them—which means you can get better with practice.”&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Cast a wide net when looking for investors. </strong>Zach George has a great strategy for getting valuable facetime with busy VCs: “ask for advice and you may get some money, ask for money and you may get some advice.”</li><li><strong>Early on, it’s less about the numbers, more about the people. </strong>According to Sandeep Singh, Seed and Series A funders invest just as much in founders as they do in ideas. “There are many people that want to solve problems, but these are people who are saying, I want to solve a problem at scale. I want to solve a problem with a group of people. I want to have people around me that are equally passionate about building things.”</li><li><strong>Don’t get too