We have written the term sheet
you are being handed.
Not a similar one. The same clauses, from the other side of the table, as general partners deciding what a fund would and would not concede. That is the difference between an adviser who can explain a term and one who knows what it is worth.
"This is market standard" is the most expensive sentence in a funding round.
It is usually said with confidence, often by someone who has said it a hundred times, to a founder who has no way to check. Sometimes it is true. Frequently it is true of a different stage, a different geography, or a different quality of company.
A liquidation preference, a ratchet, a veto list, a drag threshold — none of them feel like much on the day. They decide what happens to you at exit, and by then they are not negotiable.
On a raise.
- 01
Before the process
What you are actually raising, from whom, and whether you should. Investor selection matters more than valuation — the wrong partner at a good price is the more expensive outcome. We know how these funds behave after they invest, because we have been them.
- 02
Term sheet negotiation
Economics and control, separated and negotiated on their own merits. Liquidation preference, participation, anti-dilution, option pool sizing and where it sits in the pre-money, board composition, reserved matters, information rights.
- 03
Valuation mechanics
The headline number is rarely the number that matters. We model what the cap table actually does across scenarios — a good exit, a flat one, a down round — so you can see what each term costs you in each.
- 04
Diligence, run for you
Legal, financial and tax diligence is a demand on your team at the worst possible moment. We manage the data room, the request lists and the findings, and we fix what can be fixed before it becomes a price adjustment.
- 05
Definitive documents
Share subscription and shareholders' agreements negotiated rather than accepted. Conditions precedent, indemnity caps, exit mechanics and what happens if the next round never arrives.
- 06
Cross-border structure
Where the money enters, what it triggers, and what it means for a listing later. FEMA and FDI route selection, pricing guidelines, and the reporting chain that follows for years.
- 07
To closing
Conditions satisfied, approvals obtained, funds flowed, filings made. We own the checklist so the round does not drift a quarter because nobody was chasing item forty-one.
We know what the committee will say before it says it.
Having sat on investment committees, we know how a deal is argued internally once the partner leaves your office — what gets questioned, what the fund's own investors will not tolerate, and which terms exist mainly because nobody pushed back on them last time.
That turns a negotiation into something closer to a known quantity. You stop guessing where the line is.
Have a term sheet on the table?
Send it over with the context. We will tell you which terms matter, which are noise, and where we think there is room — usually within a day.