What are some other lessons you've learned during the fundraising process? 
Both your story and the perception investors have of you matter a lot. I mention both, because you absolutely do need a compelling pitch and you need to have done your homework. You have to be ready to answer any and all questions that interested investors may ask you. If you don't have an exact answer, it's okay as long as you have a clear plan or compelling reason why it's something you have not explored or thought about. 

The perception that investors have of you relates a bit more to your sales skills. The best metaphor to explain this is a house for sale. It can be a fantastic house in a booming market, but if you visit it as a potential buyer and the realtor tells you it's been on the market for three months and has had zero offers, your perception of the house changes. Nothing physically changed about the house, but you wonder, "Something must be off, why has no one else put in a bid yet?"

If you were to walk into that same house but the realtor tells you it's been for sale for two days and already has five offers, your perception of the house also changes and is likely to make you want the house badly.

What are your top tips for a successful fundraising round?

1. Set start and end dates for fundraises and create deadlines. If an investor asks when you need the signed note or term sheet and you reply with "Oh, no rush", chances are they may not get it back to you for a while—and they may even delay their decision on whether or not to invest due to the lack of urgency.
2. Do a socialisation phase before the actual raise. Get to know many different investors before you actually open your fundraising round, and get an indication of the cheque sizes they normally invest. At this stage, you're focusing on getting to know them and getting any feedback or questions they may have regarding your startup.
3. Once you're ready to open your round, schedule a week or two filled with investor meetings, of people who were keen to hear back from you when you first met them, or were already willing to invest.
4. You know their approximate cheque sizes, so schedule more meetings than you have space to raise, and certainly mention this to the investors. Once you open the round, it can be powerful to mention that you have more meetings lined up than you have space in this round.
5. Phrasing matters. If you're raising US$1 million, you opened the round on Monday and on Tuesday you have signed notes adding to US$100k, don't tell people you've only raised $100k. Tell people the round has barely been open more than a day and you already have US$100k signed and committed.

With Tang App, this advice helped us raise US$1.5 million in pre-seed funding from angel investors. Of course it matters that you have a strong pitch, traction, a good team and a compelling grand vision, but perception matters.

See also: Meet the Filipino FinTech Leaders on the Gen.T List

Final thought for early-stage entrepreneurs about to start fundraising? 
Firstly, don't over-focus on fundraising if you are just starting out; focus on the problem and try to do as much as you can without outside money. Being obsessed and passionate about a problem is key, as you will be working on it for likely 10-plus years, depending on the venture you are building. Don't jump into a solution without understanding the problem properly. Find cheap, creative ways to test any solution ideas you have. 

Once you are ready to raise funds, and you know how much you need and why, make sure to do your research on the different investors out there and their different investment ethos. There are angel investors, venture capital (VC) firms, corporate investors, family offices, impact funds, non-dilutive grants and more, but make sure you know who you want to raise from and why. Lastly, understand what vehicle of investment you want: non-dilutive, debt, SAFE or convertible notes, or equity taking. 

See more honourees in the Finance & Venture Capital category of the Gen.T List 2021.