A startup founder talking to investors has the same problem as a founder selling, which is too many open conversations to hold in one head. One investor asked for your numbers on Tuesday, another said to come back after the next release and a third still owes you an intro.
An investor pipeline is how a startup founder tracks every investor in a raise, sorted by stage from on the list to committed or passed. Each investor gets one row or card with who introduced you, what they last asked for, the next step and its date. A spreadsheet or Fluid CRM can hold it.
What an Investor Pipeline Is and Why a Startup Raise Needs One
An investor pipeline is a sales pipeline with investors in it. Each investor sits in one stage, and a stage is a fact about what has already happened, such as a call that took place or a document you sent.
A raise needs one because the conversations overlap. Paul Graham put the reason plainly in his essay How to Raise Money: “You should always talk to investors in parallel rather than serially.” Many conversations at once means many open promises at once.
If you already keep customer deals on a board, this is the same habit, and it is why a CRM for startups often holds two pipelines, one for customers and one for investors. Business brokers use the same two-board idea for listings and buyers, as our guide to the best CRM for business brokers shows.
The 8 Investor Pipeline Stages From First List to Committed
The eight stages are On the list, Intro requested, First call, Follow-up material sent, Partner meeting, Diligence, Committed and Passed. A card moves only when something happened, which is the same rule I use for sales pipeline stages.
| Stage | What it means | What moves the card forward |
|---|---|---|
On the list | You wrote down the investor and why they fit | You asked someone for an intro, or wrote to them yourself |
Intro requested | You asked and you are waiting | The investor replied and a call is in the calendar |
First call | The first call is booked or has taken place | They asked you for something after the call and you sent it |
Follow-up material sent | You sent what they asked for | They invited you to meet more people at the firm |
Partner meeting | That wider meeting is booked or has taken place | They sent questions or asked for documents to check |
Diligence | They are checking details and you are sending each thing they ask for | They told you yes |
Committed | They told you yes and you wrote down their exact words | Nothing, the card stays here |
Passed | They said no, or said not now | Nothing, the card stays here with the reason |
Angel investors often have no partner meeting, so their cards skip that column. A card can also move to Passed from any stage.
Graham’s essay has a second line that fits this table well: “Never leave a meeting with an investor without asking what happens next.” The answer to that question is what you write on the card before you close the laptop.
Eight stages is the detailed version. If that feels like too much for a small raise, four stages also work, and they are Target, Intro made, Meeting and Committed.
What to Record for Each Investor
Record what you would need if you opened the card cold in two weeks. That comes down to four things, which are who introduced you, what the investor said about their own fund, the last thing they asked for and the next step with its date.
Write the fund stage and the amount in the investor’s own words. If a partner says they come in early with small cheques, write down that sentence and leave your own guess out.
The last thing they asked for is the easiest field to leave empty, and it is the one you act on. Can you say right now what every investor you spoke to last week is waiting on from you?
Keep opinions and scores out of it. A column for how much you like your chances is a guess that goes out of date, while a column for what they asked for is a fact you can act on.
When an investor asks to be kept posted, you send that email from your own inbox. If the pipeline lives in Fluid CRM, adding your BCC address logs the email on their card, and Fluid CRM does not send email itself.
An Investor Tracker Template You Can Copy
The investor tracker has 11 columns, and this is what goes in each one.
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
Investor | The fund or the angel’s name |
Contact | The person you talk to |
Introduced by | Who made the intro, or “direct” |
Fund stage | The stage they say they invest at, in their words |
Amount they mentioned | Any figure they said out loud, or blank |
Stage | One of the eight stages |
Last contact | The date you last spoke or wrote |
Last thing they asked for | Their request, in one line |
Next step | The one action that comes next, blank once they passed |
Next step date | The day that action is due |
Why they passed | Their reason, in their words, blank while open |
Here is the tracker with its header row and three rows filled in. All three investors and every detail in them are made-up examples.
| Investor | Contact | Introduced by | Fund stage | Amount they mentioned | Stage | Last contact | Last thing they asked for | Next step | Next step date | Why they passed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example Ventures | Anna Example | Sam, a founder you know | “First cheques, before revenue” | “Usually 100 to 250k” | Follow-up material sent | 12 March | Customer list by segment | Ask if the customer list covered it | 19 March | |
| Sample Fund One | Ben Sample | Direct | “Seed, after first customers” | First call | 14 March | Nothing yet | Hold the first call | 21 March | ||
| Made-Up Capital | Chris Madeup | Your advisor | “Pre-seed and seed” | “Up to 500k” | Passed | 10 March | Monthly numbers | “Too early for us” |
Copy the table into Google Sheets or Excel, replace the three example rows with your own and sort the sheet by Next step date so the oldest date is at the top. The steps for dropdowns and for turning overdue rows red are in my sales tracking spreadsheet post, and they work the same way here.
The people who introduce you deserve their own list, and I showed how to track them in how to ask for referrals.
The Weekly Routine That Keeps a Fundraising Pipeline Moving
The rule is that every open investor has one next step and one date.
A fundraising pipeline needs one pass a week, in this order.
- Open everything with a
Next step datein the past, then either do the step or set a new date. - Read
Last thing they asked foron every open card and send whatever you still owe. - Find every open card with an empty
Next stepand fill it in. - Move each card whose stage changed during the week.
- Write the reason on anything that moved to Passed.
If an investor gave you a date, use their date. If they gave none, pick a date yourself and write it down, so the card still comes up in a weekly review.
Selling and raising often happen in the same months, so do this pass straight after the one for your founder-led sales pipeline.
When a Spreadsheet Is Enough and When a Pipeline Tool Helps
A spreadsheet is enough for many raises. The test is whether you still see every dated next step without searching for it.
For a raise you track alone: Google Sheets or Excel
Use the template above when you are the only person updating it and the open rows fit on about one screen.
Move on when dates start passing without you seeing them. A spreadsheet never reminds you, so it only works on the days you open it.
For a raise you track with a co-founder: a pipeline tool
A pipeline tool helps once two people are updating the list, or once you want a reminder to arrive instead of having to look for it. A dedicated investor CRM adds fundraising extras on top, such as an investor database and deck tracking.
A plain sales CRM also does the job. In Fluid CRM you create a second pipeline next to your sales one with the stages above, where each investor is a card with notes, an activity history and one dated reminder. Due reminders also arrive in a daily email digest.
Leave the card’s value empty, since that field is built for sales revenue, and keep Amount they mentioned and Introduced by as custom fields that you can star to show on the card. You can also bring the spreadsheet in by CSV import with each row’s stage, notes and reminder date.
Fluid CRM is a sales CRM, so it has no data room, no cap table, no investor database and no deck tracking. A card also holds one contact, which means one card per firm with your main contact on it.
It costs $16/seat/month or $144/seat/year with every feature included. I compared the wider field in best CRMs for startups, and the startup CRM page shows the investor pipeline next to the customer one.
FAQ
An investor pipeline is the list of every investor a startup founder is talking to during a raise, sorted by stage. Each investor has one row or card showing who introduced you, what they last asked for and the next step with its date.
An investor tracker should include the investor, your contact, who introduced you, the fund stage and amount as they stated them, the current stage, the last contact date, the last thing they asked for, the next step, its date and the reason if they passed.
An investor CRM is software for tracking investors through a raise, usually with extras such as an investor database. You do not need one to raise a round, because a spreadsheet or a plain pipeline tool with a separate pipeline holds the same stages and next steps.
Set Up Your Investor Pipeline Before the First Intro
Build the investor pipeline before the first intro goes out, because details get lost once several investors reply in the same week. Copy the 11 columns, pick eight stages or four and give every open investor one next step with a date.
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