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Investors can tell when you're not ready. Make sure you are.

Privately held companies raising up to $10M rarely get the strategic rigor, structure and preparation that larger transactions take for granted. We build it with you: the strategy, investor materials and lawyer-reviewed documents. Then we support you for 90 days while you raise, all for one fixed fee.

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Not sure you're ready? Take the free 2-minute Raise-Ready Quiz.

30+private placements prepared
30+years in capital markets
17companies taken public

Why raises fall short

They fall short because the founder asks before they're ready: materials that don't answer investors' questions, terms that aren't clear, and no real plan for who to ask and how. And you rarely get a second chance. The people who know you will give you one serious hearing. Or they ask for too much, at too high a price: one founder set out to raise $6 million, raised $1 million in two days, and never raised another dollar.

Unclear story.

Investors can't explain in one sentence what the company does, why it matters and why this is the right time to invest.

Numbers that don't match.

Your deck says one thing, financial model another, and your proposed use of proceeds tells a third story.

No plan for the ask.

You have a list of 150 contacts but no prioritization, outreach sequence, investor materials or process for converting interest into commitments. Every package now ends with that plan written, loaded in your tools, and launched with you on the call.

We get you from unprepared to raise-ready

The goal isn't just better fundraising materials. It's to help you approach investors like a professionally prepared company: a clear strategy, a coherent investment story, investor-ready materials, organized diligence and a plan for running the raise.

Two men reviewing an investment proposal
01

Readiness Assessment

Every engagement starts with a free 20-minute intro call. If we're a fit, the next step is a Readiness Assessment. In 5 business days, you get a report on where your business stands and which package fits your raise, plus Running the Raise, the client-only companion to the free guide. The $1,500 fee is credited in full toward any package if you continue within 60 days.

02

Strategy and materials, built with you

Through structured working sessions over 4 to 6 weeks, we build your strategy, investor deck, executive summary, offering documents and data room, tailored to whether you're running a Network Raise, Growth Capital or Reg CF offering.

03

Your Raise Playbook, and 90 days at your side

The engagement doesn't end when the documents are finished. You leave with your Raise Playbook: a 20-chapter manual built around your company, with your network cleaned and ranked, your messages written in your voice, and your tools set up in your own accounts. Before you launch, you'll rehearse in a mock investor meeting. Then you run your own raise with four working sessions timed to it, starting with the first wave sent with Joel on the call, and Slack access for your reply drafts and weekly numbers.

WHAT YOU WALK AWAY WITH

Everything you need to ask with confidence.

Raise strategy and valuation framing

Investment thesis and story

12-18 slide investor deck

Two-page executive summary

One-page return scenarios

Financial model review

Lawyer-reviewed term sheet and subscription agreement

Investor questionnaire and risk factors

Form D

Organized data room

Mock investor meeting

Your Raise Playbook, and 90 days at your side

Every package delivers three things: your investor materials, your Raise Playbook, and 90 days at your side. Exact deliverables vary by package.See what's in each package

Built for founders who are ready to run their own raise

We work with privately held, founder-led companies, from pre-revenue to $20M in revenue, raising up to $10M. Start with where you are.

Founder preparing raise materials

Raising up to $1M from people who know you

Your customers, suppliers, colleagues and friends already trust you. What they need is a real investment to say yes to, and they'll give you one serious hearing. Who you ask matters as much as how much you ask for. A customer who invests has a reason to send you more business. An industry veteran who invests has a reason to open doors. We help you decide who to ask first, and prepare the materials and lawyer-reviewed offering documents to ask them properly. Then we hand you your Raise Playbook: your network organized and sequenced, your messages written, your tools set up, and the first wave sent with Joel on the call.

A good fit if you:

  • Are raising up to $1M
  • Can name 20 or more people who know you or your business and could invest
  • Expect most of them to be accredited investors
  • Can say in two sentences what the money will accomplish

Network Raise · $15,000 · About 4 weeks, plus 90 days of launch support

Book a Free 20-Minute Call
Founder preparing a network raise

Revenue-stage and raising to grow

You have customers and a track record, and you need $1M to $10M for hires, capacity or new markets. At this size your investors are likely family offices, angel groups, strategic investors and wealthy individuals, many of whom don't know you yet. They'll test your projections against your history and your valuation against comparable companies. We make sure your numbers, story and diligence hold up when they do. Your Raise Playbook adds the chapters on reaching accredited investors beyond your network under 506(c): strategic partners in your industry, likely-accredited professionals in your area, angel groups, and the funds and family offices with a thesis that fits, with the step-by-step method for building the list.

A good fit if you:

  • Have historical revenue and financial statements, or can get them reviewed
  • Have a management team investors can meet, not just a CEO
  • Can show what this round funds and the milestone it reaches

Growth Capital · $20,000 · About 4 weeks, plus 90 days of launch support

Book a Free 20-Minute Call
Founder preparing growth capital materials

Raising to buy a business

Your growth plan runs through an acquisition: a competitor, a supplier or a retiring owner's company. This raise is different. Investors are underwriting two businesses and a deal, often against a closing date. We build the case for the combined company, tie the use of proceeds to the transaction, and structure terms that still work if the timeline moves.

A good fit if you:

  • Have a target identified, or a letter of intent in hand
  • Can get the target's financials for diligence
  • Will own and run the combined business
  • Have 4 to 6 weeks to prepare before you need to start raising

Growth Capital · $20,000 · About 4 weeks, plus 90 days of launch support. Acquisition raises use the Growth Capital package at any size, because diligence on two businesses takes more work. Your Raise Playbook covers the same ground as a Growth Capital raise: your network first, then accredited investors in your industry and area under 506(c), with the list-building method and the 90-day calendar.

Book a Free 20-Minute Call
Founder preparing a Reg CF offering

Raising from your customers and community

Your strongest supporters are customers, fans or members, and many of them aren't accredited investors. Reg CF lets anyone invest through a registered funding portal, up to $5M in a 12-month period. Done well, it turns your customers into owners with a stake in your success. We prepare your Form C, campaign content and a launch plan that starts with the people who already know you. Your Raise Playbook adds the community campaign chapter: your own customers and audience in waves, testing the waters, the portal's thresholds, and every message written to the Reg CF communication rules.

A good fit if you:

  • Have an engaged audience: a customer base, an email list or a community
  • Are comfortable with public disclosure and annual reporting
  • Prefer many smaller investors over a few large ones

Reg CF · $25,000 · About 6 weeks, plus 90 days of launch support

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Probably not a fit if:

  • You want someone to solicit investors for you
  • You want to hand off the fundraising process entirely
  • You're unwilling to participate in building the investor story
  • You're simply looking for a pitch deck or PPM
  • You aren't ready to engage with investors yet

We're designed for founders who want to run their own raise but don't want to figure out the process alone. You bring the business and the vision. We bring the capital-markets perspective, structure, preparation and experience to help you approach investors as a professionally prepared company.

Not sure which describes you? The $1,500 Readiness Assessment tells you, and it's credited in full toward any package within 60 days.

ALREADY HAVE A SECURITIES LAWYER?

Good. Here's the half they don't do.

Your lawyer makes your raise legal. We make it investable: the strategy, the story, the numbers and the plan for who to ask. Many clients use their own counsel alongside us.

See how we compare

One assessment. Four packages. Fixed fees.

Not sure which fits? Find your raise path in 1 minute.

Readiness Assessment

A written report on where you stand and which path fits your raise, delivered within five business days. $1,500 - credited in full towards any package within 60 days. Includes Running the Raise, the client-only companion to the free guide.

Discuss Readiness Assessment

Network Raise

For raising up to $1M from accredited investors who know you or your business. Materials, lawyer-reviewed documents, and your Raise Playbook: your personal and professional network organized and sequenced under 506(b) or 506(c), your messages written, your tools set up. Priced at $15,000.

Discuss Network Raise Service

Growth Capital

For companies raising up to $10M. Diligence review, capital strategy, institutional-grade materials and management rehearsal. Priced at $20,000.

Discuss Growth Capital Service

Reg CF

For raises that include non-accredited investors. Form C preparation, campaign content and a community-first launch plan, plus your Raise Playbook with the community campaign chapter: your own customers and audience in waves, written to the Reg CF rules. Priced at $25,000. Your crowd investors will ask how they ever get their money out. There is an answer worth knowing before you set your valuation.

Discuss Reg CF Service

Founder Launch

For experienced operators starting a new company and raising up to $10M. We form the company, build the raise and support your outreach, so you're raising within six weeks. $10,000 to launch, then monthly fees. No percentage of what you raise, and no equity.

Discuss Founder Launch
WHY PREPARE BEFORE YOU RAISE

Why pay before you raise a dollar?

The people who know you will give you one serious hearing. If the story is unclear or the terms are confusing, "let me think about it" quietly becomes no, and that conversation is hard to reopen. Preparation moves the number more than the size of your network does.

Our fee is fixed and small next to the capital you're raising, and it never grows with your raise. That's often about what a securities law firm charges to draft a PPM on its own. You get the strategy, materials, diligence and 90 days of support around it, and you still keep your own counsel.

Hi, I'm Joel Arberman.

I help founders get ready to raise capital.

I've spent more than 30 years in capital markets: as an analyst at multi-billion-dollar asset managers, in institutional sell-side equity research, and as a partner at a 700-person investment bank.  I've seen capital raises from three perspectives: how investors evaluate opportunities, how financial professionals structure them, and how management teams actually execute them.

I've taken four of my own companies public and taken a total of 17 companies public. I founded Meraki Partners and launched Prepared to Raise to bring that same institutional rigor to founders getting ready to raise capital.

We prepare; you raise. We don't introduce investors or contact them on your behalf, and you own your investor relationships from day one. The result is an offering that's genuinely ready to present, for a fixed fee, with no equity, warrants or percentage of what you raise. And you leave with your Raise Playbook in hand: your list ranked, your messages written, your tools set up, and me beside you for the first wave.

Joel Arberman, founder of Meraki Partners

Founders raised millions of dollars on their own terms, with our preparation behind them.

One founder planned to raise $1 million. When he listed the people he knew and what each might invest, the total came to less. After preparation he raised more than $3 million. We've prepared offerings for each of these companies:

Founder reviewing capital raise materials
  • Healthcare Business Resources
  • Freedom Internet Group
  • SMTP
  • Ideal Restaurant Group
  • Mister Goody
  • American Realty Funds
  • InnerSpace
  • PR Specialists
  • Maxim Mortgage
  • CDbeat.com
  • Hojo Holdings
  • Onfolio Holdings
  • GenFlat Holdings
  • Redefy
  • Nico Ventures
  • Industrial Sustainability
  • Wildeye
  • Metro Business
See client results
Cover of the Before You Raise guide

Not ready to talk yet? Take the quiz or get the free guide.

The 2-minute Raise-Ready Quiz shows where you stand. Before You Raise walks you through what to get right before you ask anyone for money, from someone who has prepared 30+ private placements.

Get the Free GuideTake the 2-Minute Quiz

Frequently asked questions

Do you raise the capital for us?

No. We prepare you to run your own raise. We never introduce or contact investors on your behalf, and you own every investor relationship. Be careful with anyone who promises otherwise: anyone who promises to raise capital for a start-up or pre-revenue company is almost certainly lying. What we do instead is make the asking easy to start and hard to avoid: your network organized and ranked, your messages written in your voice, your sending and booking tools set up in your own accounts, the first wave sent with Joel on the launch call, and 90 days at your side after that: four sessions timed to the raise, with reply drafts and weekly numbers reviewed on Slack within 24 business hours. That is your Raise Playbook, and it comes with every package.

How much does it cost, and are there success fees?

Every package is a fixed fee, from the $1,500 Readiness Assessment up to $25,000 for a Reg CF Package. We never take a success fee, equity, warrants, or a percentage of the capital you raise.

What is the Readiness Assessment and do I need it?

It's the first paid step, after a free 20-minute intro call. In one working session, we review where you stand, and you receive a written report within 5 business days on which package fits your raise. The $1,500 fee is credited in full toward any package if you continue within 60 days.

Which package is right for my raise?

Network Raise fits raises of up to $1M from accredited investors who know you or your business. Growth Capital fits up to $10M raises for revenue-stage companies. Raises to fund an acquisition usually fit Growth Capital. Reg CF fits raises that include non-accredited investors. The Readiness Assessment will confirm the right fit.

Should I mention plans to go public in my raise?

If a public listing is genuinely in your plans, yes, say so. A credible path to liquidity changes how investors see the deal: they can picture how and when they might sell. We have seen companies that struggled to raise privately succeed once they could show that path. If a listing is something you are weighing, our sister firm, Public Financial, helps companies plan for it.

What kind of companies do you work with?

We work best with privately held, founder-led companies, from pre-revenue startups to $20M in revenue, raising up to $10M. That includes non-US companies raising from US investors.

What support do I get after the materials are ready?

Every package ends with your Raise Playbook and 90 days at your side. The playbook is a 20-chapter manual built around your company: your network cleaned and ranked, your messages written in your voice, your tools set up in your own accounts, the questions investors ask with your answers, and a 90-day calendar. The 90 days are four working sessions timed to the raise (launch, first replies, second wave, close and chase), starting with the first wave sent with Joel on the call, plus your reply drafts and weekly numbers reviewed on Slack within 24 business hours. Before you launch, you'll also rehearse in a mock investor meeting.

Do I still need a lawyer if I work with you?

Yes. Every securities offering should involve securities counsel. Prepared to Raise isn't a law firm and doesn't provide legal advice. Our offering documents are reviewed by securities counsel, and if you already have a lawyer, we'll coordinate with them.

How are you different from a PPM law firm?

A PPM law firm makes your offering compliant. We make it investable: raise strategy, valuation framing, the investment story, your deck, a review of your model, a plan for who to ask, and a rehearsal before your first meeting. Many clients use their own lawyer alongside us. See the full comparison at preparedtoraise.com/compare.

I've already started raising. Is it too late?

No. Many founders come to us after early conversations stall. We'll review what investors have seen, fix what's holding them back, and help you decide who is worth a second conversation. Start with the free 20-minute call.

Still have questions?

Find out if you're ready to raise.

Tell us about your raise. Joel reads every message personally and replies within 2 business days. No cost, no obligation.

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