Fundraising, Flailing & Figuring It Out

🧷 Before we get into it...

Let’s call it what it is:
Raising your first fund is one of the hardest, weirdest jobs you can take on.
You’re building trust out of thin air. Trying to convince people to wire millions when they won’t even respond to your calendar invite.

You’re not imagining it—it really is this hard.
You’re not behind. You’re not broken.
And you’re definitely not alone.

So whether you’re closing LPs or just closing your laptop in defeat, give yourself some extra grace today.

This newsletter exists to say: we see you. And we’re in it with you.

🔍 10 Brutally Real Challenges First-Time Fund Managers Face (And Things That Might Help)

You’ve got the deck, the dream, and maybe a Delaware entity.
But Fund I hits different. Let’s talk about what makes it such a wild ride:

1. Fundraising: AKA “Professional Rejection Collecting”

• “Come back when you have a lead investor” = the new sleep paralysis demon.

• LPs want a pipeline, but you need capital to build it. Chicken meet egg.

2. Legal & Regulatory Minefield

• Hiring lawyers is expensive. Not hiring lawyers is... also expensive. Just later.

• You start reading your LPA and wake up three days later in a compliance nightmare.

3. Operations: The “Nobody Told Me This” Stuff

• Choosing vendors feels like betting your whole fund on… QuickBooks.

• “Send wire instructions” sounds simple until it isn’t.

4. LP Relations: Available but Not Needy™

• Every LP wants custom reporting, preferably yesterday.

• You're writing more updates than your portfolio companies are.

5. Deal Flow Desperation

• You’re bidding against funds with 10x your AUM and actual golf skills.

• “Proprietary deal flow” = your college roommate’s cousin’s startup.

6. Team Drama & Talent Gaps

• You can’t afford the person you need. So you become that person.

• Co-GP convos sound like prenup negotiations.

7. Deployment Pressure

• Invest too slow: LPs get antsy.

• Too fast: LPs get scared.

• Basically, don’t mess up. Cool cool.

8. Emotional Whiplash

• Monday: “We’re building Sequoia 2.0”

• Tuesday: Googling “how to dissolve an LLC”

9. Brand Building in a Noisy Market

• Tweeting daily so LPs might notice you exist.

• Risking cancellation for every podcast take.

10. Tool Overload

• Juggling 8 platforms and 42 tabs to track one deal.

• Subscription regret is real. “Did I really need Superhuman and Streak?”

If your eyebrow twitched at least once, congratulations—you’re doing it right. Every GP has their own version of “What the…?” but most don’t talk about it until Year 3.

Let’s not wait that long. Here are a few tools, tips, and lifelines to help you navigate the flailing with a little more grace (or at least fewer existential 3AM Slack rants).

1. Managing Yourself (Without Fully Spiraling)

• Time-block “emotional flailing” hours. Seriously—schedule the doom spirals after outreach sprints. Vent, journal, then move on.

• Create a “Done List.” Tracking what did happen each week (no matter how small) combats the “I’m doing nothing” illusion.

• Set a rejection goal. Like sales pros, aim for a number of “no’s” per week. It reframes the grind into a game—and gets you closer to that “yes.”

• Implement Focus Systems: Use Brian Beer’s 12 Simple Secrets to Triple Your Time 

2. Accountability > Isolation

• Fundraising Buddies. Pair up with another fund manager. Weekly 30-min check-ins: what you did, what’s next, how you’re feeling. Therapy meets KPI tracking. Sounds silly. Actually works.

• The ‘Fundraising Cave.’ Carve out weekly focused hours with other fund managers (IRL or virtual). Think: Zoom co-working but everyone’s DMing LPs and suffering silently together.

3. Cohorts & Communities to Plug Into

• Mcguire Woods Emerging Manager Program/Conference - building community & hosting events for emerging managers. Promotes their law firm.

• Raise Global - community for emerging fund managers and forward-thinking LPs.

• Bridge Funding Global - Building the world’s largest ecosystem for women and diverse emerging managers.

• VCI - Fellowship for Impact Fund 1 Managers.

• Emerging Allocators Association (EAA) - The Emerging Allocators Association is a community built to support the next generation of global LP investors.

• Emerging Manager Circle - community for new VC fund managers.

If today’s feeling like a ‘what did I sign up for’ kind of day... you’re not alone. YOU CAN DO THIS.

Till next time,
— Fund1 Frank
Currently trying to get someone to view my DocSend

💬 Let’s build this club together.

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