In the spirit of the new economy, you have started the company you’ve always dreamed of launching – or you simply found a great opportunity in an underserved market – and you are now the CEO of a fast growing start-up company. Investors have put money into your company, and you’re rolling toward meeting your first milestones.

That’s great, because it will bring the opportunity to tell your story to new investors to raise that all-important next round of financing. You ask your Board to find additional prospective investors, and you look to your CFO or financial advisor for support in doing the projections and developing the road show presentation. Then you go back to work in your company – hiring people, monitoring R&D developments, guiding the marketing program, keeping morale high among the troops, and waiting for the term sheet to arrive. Everything is working fine, right?

Uh, maybe not.

The problem is, you’re not doing a key part of your job! You are in charge of raising that next round!

No matter how much you rely on the skills and reputation of your experienced Board, and your high-powered CFO (part-time or full-time), they can never be more than the support team. You must lead the team, and you must be the primarily contact point when those potential investors appear. They want to talk to the chief, the person with the vision, the person who is making this all happen. You are the person they want to get excited about, and the person they want to hear from about the exciting new product or service you will be offering the world. You can’t delegate that role to anyone else, even though you can’t imagine how you’ll get it all done and still run your company. It helps if you diligently delegate to your team those fundraising steps that they can carry out for you, such as: