FREE RALLY RAISE PREPARATION CHECKLIST FOR AUSTRALIAN PRE-SEED & SEED FOUNDERS
Avoid the 45 mistakes that impact successful pre-seed and seed rounds
Most early stage raises do not fail because the business is bad. They fail because friction builds across the process: an incomplete investor list, a weak story, unclear terms, poor timing, or preparation that started too late.
Download the Rally Raise Blockers Checklist to help you clear the blockers before investors find them.
Built by Jason Atkins, co-founder of Cake Equity and the Torus Fund. 75% of the founders we work with close a round within six months, averaging $375k at pre-seed and $700k at seed.
THE PROBLEM
You’ve had fifteen coffees and redesigned the deck four times. And you still don’t know whether the problem is the deck, the story, the targeting or the timing.
Nobody tells you. Investors don’t debrief you on a no. Advisors disagree with each other. And every week you spend guessing is a week of runway you don’t get back.
Here’s the uncomfortable part: in almost every stalled raise we see, the founder was doing something specific and fixable but they couldn’t identify what it was. They burned their best five investor relationships on an untested pitch. They built a list of five investors when they needed twentyfive. They spent three months nurturing an “angel” who has never written a check. They signed a term with a clause that made them lose control of their company at the next raise.
None of those are business problems. They’re process problems. And you can fix every one of them before.
THE FIVE BLOCKERS
Five things block and stop funding
1
Poor preparation
The documentation and data room are partly prepared, but not good enough to get investors over the line.
2
Weak pitch
The pitch isn’t strong enough, and the story underneath it isn’t certain.
3
A cold investor list
You don’t know enough investors, and the ones you know aren’t warm enough.
4
Loose round marketing
The process and the pitching aren’t clear and tight enough.
5
Unclear terms
The deal terms aren’t clear, or aren’t aligned with what the market is actually funding right now.
This happens for all sorts of reasons. Mostly because you haven’t done it before, and it’s a hard, long process with a lot of steps.
The checklist breaks all five blockers down into 46 specific mistakes with what each one costs you and exactly what to do instead.
Click here to download it.
WHAT’S INSIDE
What you get
45 specific fixes, not 45 platitudes.
Every item names the mistake, what it actually costs you in time, dilution, control or credibility, and the fix. No “tell a compelling story.”
Built on real conversations.
Sourced from hundreds of hours with Australian angels, VCs, syndicate leads, family offices and founders who’ve been through it.
Australian-specific.
Cap table limits, disclosure exemptions, ESOP timing, and what local investors actually price on. It’s not a US playbook with the spelling changed.
Free. No form-fill maze.
Click here to download it.
Testimonials
What our founders say
“Rally is the ‘Berkus Method’ of capital raising! The report highlighted gaps in my raise prep. I love the Roadmap tool, weekly sessions and how Rally is taking my round to the next level.”
Ali Stokes
Beyond The Clinic
“Jason’s Rally program has been exactly what we needed. We have done accelerators before but didn’t get the particular support we needed on capital raising. Our raise process has been a success.”
Chris Lane
Smart AI Connect