Jeffrey Fidelman is building Fidelman & Co to help founders streamline the fundraising process

Any founder knows that fundraising is a full time job. Finding investors and managing multiple conversations is a highly manual process, and rolodex-based introductions can lead to uncertain outcomes. 

Having spent over a decade in investment banking, Jeffrey Fidelman saw first-hand that the best fundraising results come from a consistent, data-driven approach—not from hail marys. So he set out to build Fidelman & Co, a Fundraising As A Service platform that helps founders and emerging managers structure and streamline their fundraising process.

Introducing Fidelman & Co: Fundraising As A Service

Many founders rely on traditional advisors to introduce them to potential investors. But this approach is misaligned, Jeffrey explains. “Traditional advisors build relationships with investors across multiple clients, but economics are tied to individual companies, leading to ‘throwing spaghetti at the wall’ approaches.”

Fidelman & Co enables founders to take a more methodical approach. The organization integrates real-time data from PitchBook and ZoomInfo into Fundex, an intelligent CRM for raising capital. It then automates outreach to target investors and tracks email open rates, response rates, and call connectivity rates so that founders can monitor progress and optimize investor targeting throughout the fundraising cycle. 

The firm also helps prepare resources such as pitch decks, financial models, valuation analysis, business plans, and due diligence documents so that founders can communicate to investors effectively. 

Thus far, Fidelman & Co is supporting businesses ranging from pre-seed ($1M) to Series B ($50M) and emerging managers ($50M-$300M). And by deploying the platform’s structured approach, customers are booking an average of 1-3 new investor meetings per week.

Jeffrey’s Journey to Fidelman & Co

Jeffrey began his career in investment banking, working first at Morgan Stanley and later at HSBC. After nearly a decade at large firms, he was recruited to help a family office set up a venture capital fund focused on early-stage tech. 

As Jeffrey became familiar with early-stage funding cycles, he recognized that many founders were following haphazard processes, reliant on personal networks rather than scalable systems. So in 2015, he founded Fidelman & Co, an investment bank helping early-stage companies and emerging managers raise capital, prepare for the sale of a business, or acquire a company.

Having served founders and emerging managers now for nearly a decade, Fidelman & Co recently expanded its offering with Fundex, which combines CRM, investor intelligence, and process automation into a single solution for founders.

Jeffrey’s 3 Fundraising Tips for Founders and Emerging Managers

Jeffrey has helped hundreds of founders raise capital and has seen exactly what gets deals closed—and what doesn’t. Here are his three fundraising tips for founders and emerging managers:

1. Show forward progress
   VCs will rarely agree to invest after the first conversation. If they’re interested, they’ll want to see that the business is continuing to progress before they deploy capital.
   
   “If and when an investor says they want to see forward progress, don't brush that off,” Jeffrey explains. “Make sure that at least on a monthly basis you email them with what you did last month, what you’re doing this month, and what you plan to do next month. It's important to stay in touch and prime them to actually reach out when your round is open or closing.”
   
   
2. Be methodical
   Helping founders and emerging managers design a more methodical fundraising process is the core mission of Fidelman & Co.
   
   Many founders rely on advisors to introduce them to potential investors. “You have a lot of advisers trying to sell you their rolodex, saying that I have this many family offices or connections to VCs where they'll make an introduction to you, but invariably they end up running through those contacts and connections.”
   
   Instead, founders must follow a structured process for engaging investors, building relationships with them. "The reality is that there is no silver bullet,” Jeffrey notes. “It’s about consistency, effort, and structure ultimately in terms of reaching out to investors building the relationship"
   
   
3. Ask for money
   It’s the most obvious, but also the most important. At the end of every investor call, allocate three to five minutes to ask the investor whether or not they are interested in participating in your round and what their next steps would look like. By speaking about money directly, you can get a clear picture of whether the investor is interested or not.
   
   “A lot of founders feel uncomfortable about doing that,” Jeffrey acknowledges. “But the reality is that if you've gone through all the trouble of having that conversation with that investor, you should at least ask them whether or not they want to participate in your round. Because if the answer is no, then that's at least closure and you can move on to the next investor. And if the answer is yes or maybe, then that's an opportunity to dig deeper and discuss next steps, process, and timeline.”
   
   

To learn more about Jeffrey’s journey, you can follow him on LinkedIn and visit fidelmanco.com/.