TL;DR
- The first 90 days after a raise determine whether the round buys you 18 months of runway or 9 — the difference is almost entirely financial discipline, not product execution.
- Update your financial model within the first two weeks: reforecast cash actuals, budget, and hiring plan against the new balance.
- Set aside a deliberate cash reserve — most funded startups underspend on discipline and overspend on hiring in month one.
- Start investor updates immediately, even before there's major news — monthly or quarterly cadence, set the expectation early.
- Hire in stages, not in a batch — each new hire should close a specific, named gap, not just "grow the team."
Here are 10 Steps to be taken after Raising Funds from Investor
1. Deliver on your Promise
When you pitched your investors, you told them what you intended to do with the funds. Once the funds are in the bank, your top priority should be to keep your promise.
"What steps do we need to take to deliver on our promise?" ask yourself.
Execute your plan, whether you intended to use the investment to build your team, test new acquisition channels, or something else.
2. Set Your Next Goal
You most likely had specific objectives in mind in order to obtain funding. You need to set your next goal now that you've accomplished your previous ones.
Your objectives will most likely be determined by the stage of your startup.
For example, if you recently raised a seed round and have discovered product-market fit, your next goal may be to demonstrate the viability of your revenue model.
If you already have a proven revenue model, the next step could be to develop a consistent acquisition strategy.
3. Re-align the team
There will undoubtedly be a lot of excitement and energy running through your company after you raise a round of funding. While this can be motivating, it is critical to ensure that your team is focused and aligned on what is to come.
Make it clear what the new funding round means not only for the company, but also for your team. This includes ensuring that everyone understands and supports the new objectives.
For example, if your new goal is to reduce customer churn by X%, each department should develop initiatives to assist. Marketing may shift its emphasis to customer marketing. Customer service can increase its efforts to resolve tickets as quickly as possible. Product bugs can be fixed by engineering.
4. Update your Financial Model
We at Jordensky constantly update financial model of our clients. However, we've noticed that many startups only update their model when a major event occurs, such as raising a new round of funding.
It's easy to skip this step, especially if you're a new startup. However, once the money is in the bank, you should update your model.
Your balance sheet, cash actuals, budget, forecast, hiring plan, and everything else should be updated to reflect the new investment and your plans for how to spend it.
Bangalore SaaS company Vantree closed a ₹4 crore seed round in March. The founders didn't update their financial model until June, three months later, by which point ad-hoc hiring and vendor decisions had already pushed monthly burn 40% above what the original model assumed. Runway that should have lasted 20 months was tracking to 13. A model refresh in week two would have caught the drift before it compounded — this is the single highest-leverage 30-minute task in the entire post-funding checklist.
5. Decide how much goes to Reserve
Just because you got $5 million in funding doesn't mean you have to spend it all right away.
If 2020 taught us anything, it's that you never know what the future holds. Having money set aside in capital reserves can help your startup stay in business in the event of an emergency or unexpected expense.
Capital reserves are used for more than just major economic events. What if your growth strategy doesn't go as planned, resulting in slower revenue growth or higher churn than expected? Capital reserves can give you some breathing room to make changes without worrying about running out of money.
6. Avoid Unplanned Purchases
You most likely devised a detailed plan for how you intended to spend your new funds. You knew exactly how much money was going to new hires, marketing, new services, and other expenses.
However, those plans may change for whatever reason once the money is in your account. Having millions of dollars at your disposal can make it very tempting to make unnecessary purchases that weren't planned.
When you're on a tight budget and don't have the funds, it's easy to be fiscally responsible. Companies that truly stand the test of time are those that can maintain control even when their resources are not so limited.
7. Plan for your next Investment Round
Believe it or not, now is the time to start planning your next round.
I'm not saying you should update your pitch deck and start approaching investors. However, you should start thinking about what you want to accomplish between this round and the next so you know when it's time to start raising funds again.
8. Don’t Forget about Investor Updates
How would you feel if you loaned someone a large sum of money and then they disappeared?
Would you be confident that you'd get your money back, or would you be worried?
That's exactly how your investors will feel if you stop communicating with them the moment their funding is approved. Regular investor updates can help to instill confidence and trust among your investors.
You are not required to send them daily emails informing them of your financial activities or to seek their advice on every decision. Monthly or quarterly updates, on the other hand, let investors know that you're making progress and that their money isn't going to waste.
When it comes time to raise your next round, you can reach out to your existing pool of investors, and they will gladly write another check.
It's also a good idea to establish expectations for when you'll update investors early on. If you inform your investors that you will send out monthly updates, you will be less likely to be inundated with emails from them every week checking in.
As for what should be in your investor updates, keep it simple:
- Major victories and accomplishments (new customers, revenue growth, etc.)
- How far have you come since the last update?
- Current financials and any adjustments to your forecast
- They can assist you with any major obstacles or hurdles.
- To summaries, do not abandon your investors.
9. Start Hiring
Hiring is frequently one of the most common reasons for startups to raise funds. What makes it even more difficult is that you're usually hiring for completely new roles that don't exist in your company. That is why hiring in stages may be preferable to hiring in waves of new positions you believe you require all at once.
This allows you to assess the impact of new roles and identify gaps.
Over-hiring is one of the most common mistakes I've seen startups make after receiving funding. As a result, they have a lot of employees they don't need, an insane burn rate, and unfortunate layoffs.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you should begin the recruiting process as soon as you know you're about to receive a new round of funding.
The hiring process, as we mentioned in this guide, can take months. Consider all of the steps involved in hiring a single new employee:
- Creating job listings
- Reviewing resumes
- Interviewing
- Sending offers
- Onboarding
- Ramp time
Now multiply that by however many employees and departments you’re hiring for. You also need to consider the fact that not every new hire will work out, which means you’ll end up repeating this process for certain positions.
That’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of time. The sooner you can get the process started, the better.
10. Measure Growth from your Benchmarks
Every time you raise funds, you now have new targets for the next round. Your current and prospective investors will want to see what you've done in between fundraising rounds to determine whether it's a good investment(a.k.a. does this company know what they're doing?)
Begin by determining which metrics are the most important indicators of your progress and making them your top priority. These are the metrics you will report on to your investors and your team.
The Mistake That Undoes All of the Above
The single most common failure pattern across these ten steps isn't skipping any one of them individually — it's treating financial tracking as a monthly afterthought instead of a weekly discipline in the first two quarters after a raise. Runway math compounds fast; a burn rate that's 20% higher than modeled doesn't show up as a problem until month six, by which point it's a much harder problem to fix than it would have been in month one.
About Jordensky
Jordensky works with newly funded startups to rebuild the financial model within the first weeks of a close, set up the monthly MIS and investor-update cadence, and keep burn rate visible against plan — so the round buys the runway it was supposed to, not less. This is one of the most reason why business needs outsourced CFO Support: right after the money lands, when the financial complexity jumps but the team hasn't grown into it yet.
At Jordensky, we are committed to providing an experience of the highest caliber while specializing in accounting, taxes, MIS, and CFO services for startups and expanding businesses.
Talk to Jordensky about setting up post-funding financial discipline before month-one hiring decisions get made
Frequently Asked Questions
What should founders do first after a funding round?
Update the financial model to reflect the new capital and burn rate, set a deliberate cash reserve, and re-align the team around the specific next milestone the round is meant to fund.
How much should go into cash reserves after funding?
There's no universal percentage — it depends on runway target and risk tolerance — but the discipline matters more than the exact number: reserves should be set aside deliberately, separate from operating budget, not left as "whatever's left over."
How soon should investor updates start after closing a round?
Immediately — set a monthly or quarterly cadence in month one, even before there's major news to report. It's far easier to maintain a habit you started early than to introduce one after investors have gone quiet on you.
Should we hire immediately after raising funding?
Hire in stages tied to specific, named gaps rather than a single hiring batch. Mass hiring right after a raise is one of the most common ways funded startups burn cash faster than planned.
Can a virtual CFO help right after a funding round closes?
Yes — this is one of the most common trigger points for bringing in outsourced CFO support, specifically to rebuild the financial model, set the burn-rate tracking cadence, and prepare for the next round from day one.
What compliance steps come right after a funding round in India? Post-funding compliance typically includes updating statutory filings for the new capital structure, board resolutions, and cap table changes — consult your CA or company secretary for the specific filings triggered by your round structure.
