This week were were back in Cairo, but this time the best ever was a series of AI hacks we shared with the founders in the 3-day Scale Up MENA! Masterclass. “This is incredible. best ever”, said one of our participants. I guess history rhymes.

Over the past 3,5 years I have been involved in a number of projects and startups using AI for startups. Some of them works well. Some work really well; but the performance we are starting to see in the latest models this fall, well that’s a whole different level. In our recent Scale Up MENA! Masterclass, in Cairo, hosted by Falak Startups and EBRD we shared our ten ‘best AI prompts’ with the participants, and did a live working sessions with two founders in real-time.

We used Claude, with the latest Opus 4,5 model. Other models are quickly catching up and are likely to be good or maybe even just as good. Personally, having applied these to 100+ startup cases over the last three months, I’m wildly impressed with what Anthropic’ s Claude can do. Regardless of your choice of AI companion, here are the top ten AI prompts we used in Cairo.

LEVEL I

1. Deck evaluation

(Files to upload: Your standard pitch deck)

Imagine you are the world’s #1 startup pitch feedback coach. Review my pitch deck. Give me feedback. Tell me where the deck is strong. Tell me where the deck is still weak. Write your world class suggestions for all the pieces that are missing.

2. Decks x Personas

(Files to upload: Your standard pitch deck)

Read my deck. Develop 5 unique investor profile/Personas (ideal investor personas) Write a unique key message and why each of these should invest. That text goes into a slide called “Why invest” Make this a superbly strong slide!

3. Investment memo

(Files to upload: Your standard pitch deck)

Imagine you are one of the top Venture capital investors in MENA, like 500, BECO capital or MEVP. Write up a detailed, extensive investment memo for how they would view my company and a possible lead investment at my next round. Make sure the memo contains: – Executive summary – outcome analysis – Exit modelling + anything else we can expect. Conclude with a clear invest/no invest decision and also a summary on why. Finish a list of recommendations for “what would need to improve for us to lead an investment”

LEVEL II

4.      Market Map of investors

Build me a list of the 100 most active investors across MENA. Identify networks and collaboration, i.e. who likes to invest and co-invest with whom

5. Build my investor list

(Files to upload: Your standard pitch deck)

Build me a list of 1000 early-stage investors across MENA, focus on angel investors, angel networks, strategic advisors, startup accelerators, HNWI, successfully exited founders and anyone else investing in the early stages. Feel free to include family offices, CVCs and VC firms, but only if they have a proven track record of investing into the venture capital/early-stage space. Based on these 1000, analyze and identify the top 100 most relevant for me. Segment these 100 into different investor categories and groups. Develop a clear messaging for each of these unique groups. Focus on 3-5 key points on ‘why they would want to invest’. For the 1.000 list, please identify the right contact person, and contact details for each of them. Write the file in excel format, to allow me to plug it into my investor CRM

6.      Investment ready – growth strategy

(Files to upload: Your standard pitch deck + all key metrics. Share as much details as possible here + the Rocketship Canvas in .pdf or image)

Review my pitch deck and KPIs. Evaluate our performance vs. ‘best in class’ venture stage companies. Focus on our KPIs. Answer the following questions: – Today: how are we performing on our key metrics vs. our peers? – Next 6-12 months: Which key targets and metrics do we need to hit to really become exciting to a VC investor?

– Next 6-18 months: Write up an aggressive, ambitious growth strategy, focus the strategy on three stages. Use the Rocketship Canvas to structure your recommendation.

Level III

7. Getting to five competitive term sheets

(Files to upload: Your standard pitch deck + your fundraising process, plan, timeline)

Chris Rangen, the Norwegian guy, talks about ‘the triple Olympic gold medal in entrepreneurship is to get five competing term sheets’. Build me a plan for how we best can get to five competitive VC term sheets – and fast.

8. Strategic analysis

(Files to upload: Your best, extensive, detailed investor deck + the ST Investor readiness deck)

Write a short analysis on (insert your company name here). Then, complete the ten Project Work assignments in the ST Investor Readiness Deck. Keep each Project work section to max 5 pages of text. Use any source. (your company URL here).

(Pssst….. if you want the ST Investor Readiness Deck, you should join our Scale Up! Masterclass series….)

9. Strategic analysis with a focus on GTM

(Files to upload: Your best, extensive, detailed investor deck + your GTM plan + outcome canvas)

Develop a strategic analysis for (Insert your company name here) Make sure to develop: Ideal customer profile, Unique value proposition, beach head market, market expansion roadmap, go-to-market strategy, fundraising, ideal investor profile, write up a list of 1000 most relevant investors and fundraising strategy. Split the investors into different stages. Also develop a outcome canvas for a USD500.000 SEED round, at 5M post (adjust your own numbers). Make sure the investor list is correct and sufficiently detailed.

10. Outcome analysis – to- investor mapping – to- e-mails (Files to upload: Your most extensive pitch deck + outcome canvas in .pdf or image)

Develop a robust Outcome Scenario Memo for this company, use deck + any other sources.

Ok, give me a list of 100 investors that I can bring into this deal over the coming years.

Research each of these investors and write a highly, highly personalized e-mail to get them into the deal. Make sure to reference comparable deals and networks for them. Also write the bump, the follow-up and the nudge e-mails when they don’t respond. Finally, write a great thank you note, with a reminder to lets touch base for the next round.

11. Run my fundraising process for meRun my fundraising process for me

(Files to upload: Your most extensive pitch deck + funding journey)

Study my pitch deck. Study the Funding Journey. Write up a 6-month, detailed workflow and workplan for how we can win the funding journey. My fundraising team is me and my co-founder. We are experts at using AI, so we can automate a lot of stuff here, but of course, we rely on you to guide us as much as possible. Use the max potential in your AI engine, Claude + anything else we need. Use Boardy. Give us a plan, broken down to week-by-week, with clear deliveries to make sure we hit our fundraising targets.

12. The #1 scale up in MENA

(files to upload: everything you got, + your entire data room)

ok, Claude, write me a two-page strategy for how to become the #1 scale up in MENA!. Study our data room and all our materials. Tell us what we need to do to  win!

These ten prompts were what we covered in the Scale Up MENA! Masterclass. Feel free to experiment and find your own path. One thing is sure – everyone will soon be using AI tools to scale.

Big shoutout to Rumbi Makanga , Mohammed Al Rasbi & the entire Falak Startups team! Can’t wait go be back again, Cairo.

It was one of the most intense, exhilarating and engaging Scale Up! sessions we’ve run in Norway (and we’ve run 60+ to date). The 30+ participants were highly capable. Angel investors, accelerator managers, ecosystem builders, founders, early-stage investors; all coming together to work on the ‘scaling up’ part of the ecosystem.

“Are you ready to scale?”, we asked, “do you have what it takes to scale from Bergen, Norway to the world?”, we challenges them. And they stepped up – big time, scaling five tech companies across energy, health, AI and seafood, ultimately ending up with a string of highly successful M&A exit transactions – and a string of zoo animals along the way.

Here are the top differences we observed in the new version of Scale Up! this week.

From financing to all round founder leadership and scaling development

The single biggest difference is the need for world class leadership and team collaboration. The moment the CEO steps back, the team steps down. The moment the Investor Relations Manager zoom out, the investor pipeline dries up in minutes. Leadership, more than ever, matters.

From equity to value

Previous generations of Scale Up! have largely been equity focused. Now, suddenly, ARR, revenue, revenue growth, margin expansion, building out the sales organization and revenue velocity matter. But beware of the famous year 10 hockey stick!

From investor landscape to commercial markets

With 35 markets to choose from, teams need to carefully select their beachhead and growth markets.

From linear to multi-level complexity

Five team members, each with a unique role, responsibility, KPIs, cards, boards and management dashboard.

Why it matters?

Globally, countries are competing on entreprenurship. But too often, the focus is on top-of-the-funnel, early-stage entreprenurship. Incubators filled, not IPO’s realized is often the metric of success. We developed Scale Up! to support more founders, innovation agencies, accelerators, ecosystems and countries in their efforts to scale, to scale up!

To date, nearly 4.500 people across 50 countries and 300+ programs have been through Scale Up! Globally, 50+ people are trained and certified to deliver Scale Up! programs. This month, we are training another 40 future facilitators.

This month, we are also rolling out Scale Up MENA! (from idea to exit in the Middle East) and getting ready to launch Scale Up Africa Rising! (from idea to exit in Africa). Next year, we are working on another two new outlines…..

Tomorrow, we’re off to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, where we will be running five Scale Up MENA! Masterclasses.

Read more and meet us in Dubai.

Written through the lens of Dr. Layla Al-ha-Mansouri, Founder & CEO, HealthSyncz MENA With insights from: Tariq E. Hassan, General Partner, Desert Capital. The people and companies are fictional for the purpose of this article.

It’s 2:47 AM in Dubai, and I’m staring at my laptop screen, trying to figure out why my board meetings feel like I’m pushing a boulder uphill. We just closed our Series A—$8.5 million from Desert Capital and two regional co-investors. Our digital health platform is processing 50,000 patient consultations monthly across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The business is working. The team is incredible. But somehow, our quarterly board meetings leave me drained rather than energized.

Then it hit me.

I was running a Low-Performing Board while trying to build a world-class company.

The Wake-Up Call at INSEAD

During my MBA at INSEAD, Professor Jeffrey spent an entire module on corporate governance. At the time, buried in case studies about Carrefour and Schneider Electric, I thought: “This is interesting, but I’m building a startup. I’ll worry about boards later.”

That was naive.

What I didn’t realize then—but understand viscerally now—is that your board isn’t just a compliance requirement or a necessary evil that comes with institutional funding. Your board can be your secret weapon. Or it can be the anchor that prevents you from reaching escape velocity.

The canvas sitting on my desk now (courtesy of Chris Rangen, CEO at Strategy Tools) breaks it down into three distinct types: Low-Performing Board, High-Performing Board, and World-Class Board. Looking at it honestly, we were solidly in category one. And that needed to change.

Low-Performing Board: Where Most MENA Founders Start

Let me be brutally honest about where we were six months ago.

Our board had “general interest” in healthtech. One member had worked in telecoms, another in real estate development. Smart people, successful careers, but no specific expertise in digital health, no understanding of two-sided marketplace dynamics, and certainly no experience navigating MENA’s fragmented regulatory landscape for medical services.

Board meetings? We’d send out papers the morning of the meeting—sometimes during the meeting. I’d spend 90 minutes presenting (read: defending) every decision we’d made in the previous quarter. The board would listen politely. Management did most of the talking. We’d wrap up in 90 minutes, no clear action items, no minutes circulated.

And critically: the board wasn’t involved in fundraising. When we started our Series A process, I was on my own, cold-emailing VCs across the region, getting introductions wherever I could find them.

Sound familiar?

Tariq’s perspective (Desert Capital):

“When we see this pattern during diligence, it’s a red flag. Not a deal-breaker, but a signal that the founder hasn’t built the infrastructure for scale. A Low-Performing Board indicates one of two things: either the founder doesn’t understand governance, or they’re afraid of accountability. Both are fixable, but they need fixing before we write the check.

The MENA ecosystem has a specific challenge here. Many first-time institutional investors—family offices transitioning to venture, successful entrepreneurs doing angel investing—bring capital but not operational board expertise. They’ve never been on a high-performing board themselves, so they don’t know what good looks like.”

The Turning Point: Building a High-Performing Board

The shift started when Tariq joined our board post-Series A. His first question wasn’t about our burn rate or CAC/LTV. It was: “Who else is on this board, and what does each person bring?”

That question forced me to audit not just our board composition, but our entire board operating system.

Here’s what we changed over the following quarter:

1. Recruited for Solid Expertise

We brought on Dr. Fatima Al-Rashid, former Chief Medical Officer at Saudi German Health, who’d built integrated care networks across three countries. Suddenly, we had someone who understood DHA licensing in Dubai, CCHI requirements in Saudi, and the political dynamics of hospital partnerships. Solid expertise in the industry.

2. Created Clear Responsibilities

We established three board committees: Finance & Risk, Product & Clinical Governance, and Compensation. Each board member now owns specific areas. No more diffusion of responsibility.

3. Instituted Pre-Read Discipline

Board papers now go out 72 hours in advance. Not “papers”—a proper board pack: financial dashboard, operational KPIs, strategic decision items, and a clear agenda developed by myself and our Board Chair. Each agenda item specifies whether it’s for information, discussion, or decision.

4. Got Active on Fundraising

This was transformative. When we started exploring our Series B plans, our board members made introductions to three Gulf-based VCs and two international funds with MENA practices. These weren’t cold intros—they were warm connections where our board members had invested personal credibility. The board became involved in fundraising.

5. Implemented Some Compensation

We introduced equity grants for board members. Not life-changing amounts, but enough to create meaningful alignment. When board members have skin in the game, the dynamic shifts.

Our board meetings now run 2.5 to 3 hours. The board asks real questions. They challenge assumptions. They hold management accountable. And critically: we circulate minutes within a week, with clear follow-ups and owners.

The difference? I leave these meetings energized. We make better decisions. We move faster because we’ve pressure-tested our thinking with people who’ve been there before.

Tariq’s perspective:

“The transition from Low-Performing to High-Performing Board is where we see founders level up. Layla didn’t just accept our board seat—she took the initiative to reshape her entire governance structure. That signal alone gave us confidence for follow-on investment.

In MENA, we’re still building these muscles. In Silicon Valley, founders often have board members from previous companies who model good governance. Here, we’re creating these patterns from scratch. That’s why Desert Capital runs a ‘Board Readiness’ workshop for all our portfolio CEOs within 90 days of investment. We can’t assume founders know this instinctively.”

The World-Class Board: The Aspiration

Looking at the canvas, I can see where we need to go. A World-Class Board operates at a completely different altitude.

The board members have deep experience and networks from different parts of the industry—not just clinical expertise, but regulatory affairs, government relations in multiple MENA markets, experience scaling tech platforms in emerging markets, and exits under their belt.

They’re actively using their networks to co-lead fundraising, making the critical introductions that unlock Series B and Series C rounds. When you’re trying to raise $30M+ in a region where that’s still a large round, having board members who can get you in the room with Mubadala, STV, or international funds makes all the difference.

There are clear roles and committees for all board members—no passengers, everyone contributing. Board papers go out 5-7 days in advance with extensive documentation, numbers, and reports. Meetings run 4 hours to 2 days depending on the strategic importance.

The board is actively discussing and probing deeper into key items, challenging management constructively. Minutes are circulated within 48 hours for signature, and there are clear action items with deliverables that actually get tracked quarter to quarter.

Most importantly: the board is pushing, challenging management, with clear expectations. They’re not there to rubber-stamp decisions. They’re there to make us better.

And they use a proper board management platform where all documents live, all discussions are tracked, and institutional knowledge is preserved.

Are we there yet? No. But we have the roadmap

The MENA Context: Why This Matters More Here

The MENA startup ecosystem is at an inflection point. We’re seeing larger rounds, more international capital, and rising expectations for governance and professionalism. But we’re also dealing with unique regional challenges:

Regulatory Fragmentation: Healthcare regulations vary dramatically across GCC markets. A World-Class Board with regional expertise helps navigate this.

Capital Scarcity at Growth Stage: Series B and beyond remains challenging in MENA. Having board members who can actively fundraise and make introductions isn’t nice-to-have—it’s existential.

Limited Depth of Operational Expertise: We don’t yet have the depth of experienced operators that Silicon Valley has. Building a High-Performing or World-Class Board means being creative—bringing in advisors from adjacent industries, recruiting board members from international companies with MENA experience.

Cultural Dynamics: Board meetings in MENA can sometimes default to extreme deference to founders or senior members. A High-Performing Board requires creating a culture where respectful challenge is not just acceptable but expected.

Tariq’s perspective:

“At Desert Capital, board quality is one of our key evaluation criteria during diligence. We look at: Who’s on the board? What do they bring? How do they operate? And critically—is the founder coachable on governance?

We’ve passed on deals where the business fundamentals were strong but the founder was resistant to board professionalization. That’s a massive risk at scale. Conversely, we’ve backed founders who had weaker initial traction but demonstrated exceptional ability to build governance infrastructure. Those founders tend to be the ones who successfully navigate Series B and beyond.

The MENA region is producing world-class founders. Now we need to produce world-class boards to match. That’s how we build enduring companies, not just exciting startups.”

The Practical Roadmap: Moving Up the Ladder

If you’re a founder reading this and recognizing yourself in the Low-Performing Board description, here’s how to start moving up:

Phase 1: Audit Brutally (Month 1)

• Map what each board member actually brings to the table
• Assess your current board operating system honestly
• Identify the gaps in expertise and experience you need

Phase 2: Professionalize the Basics (Months 2-3)

• Institute the 72-hour pre-read rule
• Create a standard board pack template
• Start circulating minutes within one week
• Establish clear agenda-setting with your Board Chair

Phase 3: Upgrade Composition (Months 4-9)

• Recruit one board member with deep industry expertise
• Consider creating an Advisory Board if you can’t immediately change Board composition
• Be willing to have difficult conversations with board members who aren’t contributing

Phase 4: Activate Your Board (Months 6-12)

• Create formal board committees with clear mandates
• Get your board actively involved in your next fundraising process
• Implement board member equity compensation if you haven’t already
• Start using a board management platform (we use Carta, but there are several options)

Phase 5: Build Toward World-Class (Year 2+)

• Extend board meetings to 4+ hours with deeper strategic discussions
• Institute the 5-7 day pre-read discipline
• Recruit board members with networks across multiple MENA markets
• Create a culture of constructive challenge and accountability

This isn’t quick. But it’s essential.

The Bottom Line

Nine months ago, I would have said board meetings were a necessary tax on my time. Today, I see our board as one of our most important competitive advantages.

The businesses that will win in MENA over the next decade won’t just be the ones with the best product-market fit or the strongest unit economics. They’ll be the ones with the governance infrastructure to scale through multiple funding rounds, navigate complex regulatory environments, and build institutions that outlast their founders.

That starts with your board.

So here’s my challenge to every founder reading this: pull up the Three Board Types canvas. Be honest about where you are. Then commit to moving up the ladder.

Your Series B investors will thank you. Your management team will thank you. And most importantly, your future self—exhausted from building a regional champion—will thank you.

About the heroes of this story:

Dr. Al-ha-Mansouri, is the Founder & CEO of HealthSyncz MENA, a digital health platform connecting patients with healthcare providers across the GCC. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and previously worked in healthcare strategy consulting. HealthSyncz has raised $12M to date and operates across UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

Tariq E. Hassan is a General Partner at Desert Capital, a Dubai-based venture capital fund focused on Series A and B investments in MENA technology companies. Prior to Desert Capital, Tariq was VP of Corporate Development at Careem and an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company. Desert Capital has invested in 24 companies across fintech, healthtech, logistics, and enterprise SaaS.

Written by:

Chris Rangen, global strategy advisor to startups, scale ups, CEOs, VCs, Fund-of-funds and national ecosystem builders.

Want to level up your board governance?

Download the Three Board Types canvas and other governance tools at strategytools.io

Join founders across MENA who are building World-Class Boards for their scale-ups.

This article is part of the Startup Series at Strategy Tools, helping founders, investors, and ecosystem builders across MENA navigate the journey from startup to scale-up. Read more about Scale Up MENA here.

Your board isn’t static. It evolves as your company does.

Most founders get this wrong. They think about their board as a one-time decision, made at incorporation or when investors come in. But the reality is different. Your board should transform as you move through the founder’s journey, from that first day working out of a co-working space in Dubai Internet City to the moment you’re negotiating your Series C with regional and international VCs.

The question isn’t whether your board will change. It’s whether you’re intentional about how it changes.

Here’s how startup boards typically evolve across seven distinct stages, based on hundreds of companies we’ve worked with across MENA and globally.

Stage 1: Founder Board

Members: 2-3 founders Focus: Getting started. Protecting the founders. Raising pre-seed capital Deliverables: Minimum legal requirement

This is where every startup begins. Just you and your co-founders, sitting around a table at AstroLabs or in5, trying to figure out if this idea has legs.

At this stage, your board is purely functional. You need one to incorporate. That’s it.

MENA Example: When Ahmed and Sara launched their B2B SaaS platform in Dubai, their first board meeting was literally a Google Doc they both edited. They were focused on one thing: getting to product-market fit. The board formalities could wait.

The mistake founders make here? Overthinking it. You don’t need elaborate governance structures when you’re still validating your idea. Keep it simple. Protect your equity. Document decisions. Move fast.See content credentials

Stage 2: Buddy Board

Members: Founders and friends Focus: First external board members Deliverables: Legal requirement

You’ve raised a small friends and family round. Maybe AED 200K from an uncle who believes in you, or from that former colleague who’s doing well in tech.

Now you might get your first external board members. They’re well-meaning. They care about you. But let’s be honest: they’re probably not adding strategic value yet.

MENA Example: A Dubai-based edtech startup brought on the founder’s former university professor and a successful entrepreneur from their network. These board members provided encouragement and opened a few doors, but didn’t fundamentally change how the company operated.

This stage is transitional. You’re learning what a board can do. You’re practicing the mechanics of board meetings, updates, and governance. It’s training wheels.

The risk? Staying here too long. As you grow, you need strategic horsepower, not just friendly faces.

Stage 3: Angel Board

Members: Founders and 1-2 angel investors Focus: Founder-led, but with early angels on board Deliverables: Get a functional board. Help founders work with board members

You’ve raised your first institutional-ish money. Maybe from Dubai Angel Investors, Riyadh Angels, or a group of seasoned operators who’ve been where you are.

This is where boards might start getting interesting. Many founders still don’t set up board at this stage. Maybe they should?

MENA Example: A Bahraini fintech startup brought on two angels after their pre-seed round: a former bank executive with deep connections in the GCC financial sector, and a serial entrepreneur who had built and exited a payments company. Suddenly, board meetings became strategy sessions. The angels helped the founders think through regulatory challenges, introduced them to potential enterprise customers, and pressure-tested their go-to-market assumptions.

At this stage, your board should help you professionalize without bureaucratizing. You’re learning to work with people who have put money into the startup, but aren’t running the day-to-day.

The founders still drive the agenda. But now you have advisors who’ve actually done this before.

Stage 4: Industry Network Board

Members: 1 founder, 2-3 members with strong industry network and access to key people across the industry Focus: Gain customer insights and access to key networks, decision makers and customer buying processes Deliverables: Build deep industry ties. Gain deep customer insights

You’re post-seed, maybe approaching Series A. You’ve validated your product. Now you need to scale distribution. Simply, you need access to more customer prospects.

This is where industry-specific expertise becomes critical.

MENA Example: A Saudi healthtech company building a hospital management platform brought on the former CIO of a major hospital group and a healthcare venture partner. These board members didn’t just advise—they made introductions. Within six months, the startup had pilots running in three major hospital systems across the Kingdom. The board members understood the procurement cycles, the decision-making hierarchies, and the political dynamics inside large healthcare institutions.

At this stage, your board becomes a business development engine. Every board member should be able to pick up the phone and get you in front of customers, partners, or ecosystem players that would otherwise take you months to reach.

The focus shifts from “help us figure out what to build” to “help us get to the people who will buy it.”

Stage 5: BD Board (Business development board)

Members: 1 founder, 2-3 people with relevant market, sales, new markets and BD background Focus: Build out a go-to-market strategy, sales process, export and growth strategy and get the sales engine running Deliverables: Build sales engine. International expansion

You’ve got product-market fit. You’ve got early traction. Now you need to build a machine.

This board is about scaling what works. At this stage, your board should be commercially minded, with strong ties into buyers at scale.

MENA Example: An Egyptian logistics-tech startup that had proven their model in Cairo brought on board members with experience scaling across emerging markets. One had built sales teams across Africa for a major tech company. Another had led international expansion for a regional e-commerce player. Together, they helped the founders build a repeatable sales playbook, structure their regional expansion into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and avoid the classic mistakes of scaling too fast without infrastructure.

At this stage, board meetings focus on metrics. Unit economics. Customer acquisition costs. Sales cycle length. Pipeline coverage.

Your board should be challenging your assumptions about what’s working and what’s not. They should be pattern-matching against companies that have scaled successfully, and warning you about the ones that didn’t.

Stage 6: Value Creation Board

Members: 3 or more experienced members in strategy, finance, M&A, GTM & transactions Focus: Long-term strategy and roadmap for maximum value creation. Strong focus on comparable companies and M&A opportunities Deliverables: Strong value creation. M&A, transactions

You’re Series B, maybe Series C. You’ve built a real business. Now you’re optimizing for exit optionality. But first, scaling and value creation.

This board thinks in terms of enterprise value, strategic acquirers, and market positioning.

MENA Example: A UAE-based mobility startup that had raised $30M brought on board members who had led M&A at major automotive companies and growth equity investors who understood the regional exit landscape. They helped the founders position the company for either a strategic acquisition by a major regional conglomerate or an IPO on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The board ran scenarios on different exit paths, connected the founders with investment banks, and helped them think about how each strategic decision impacted valuation multiples.

At this stage, every board discussion has an eye on the end game. How do we maximize value for shareholders? What comparable companies should we benchmark against? What strategic moves make us more attractive to acquirers or public markets?

The founders are still driving the business, but the board is stress-testing the long-term strategy against real market opportunities.

Stage 7: Exit Board

Members: 2 or more with exit transaction experience Focus: Leading the company through a successful exit transaction, IPO and having the right board post-transaction (where needed) Deliverables: Lead successful transaction. Lead post-transaction

This is the stage where the company goes from private to public ownership. You are rapidly growing up. You’re actively in process, whether that’s an IPO, a strategic sale, or a major secondary transaction.

MENA Example: When Careem prepared for its $3.1 billion acquisition by Uber, the board included members who had navigated major exits before. They understood the complexities of cross-border M&A, regulatory approval processes across 13 countries, employment transitions, and the negotiations with a strategic acquirer. The board helped the founders and executives think through not just the transaction itself, but what came after—the integration, the earnouts, the team transitions.

At this stage, your board should have been through this movie before. They know what a good deal looks like. They know when to push and when to walk away. They understand the legal, financial, and human complexities of major transactions.

This isn’t the time for learning on the job.

The Pattern

Look at the progression. Early-stage boards are about governance and legitimacy. Middle-stage boards are about access and execution. Late-stage boards are about value and exit.

The mistake most founders make? Having the wrong board for their stage. Keeping buddy board members when you need industry access. Keeping angel investors on the board when you need M&A expertise. or, in many cases, not having a board at all.

Your board should evolve as deliberately as your product, your team, and your strategy.

Each transition is an opportunity to upgrade the strategic capacity of your company. To bring in the expertise, network, and pattern recognition you need for the next phase.

Most importantly, your board should reflect where you’re going, not where you’ve been.

A great board will focus on where the company needs to be in two years, not just where it is today. 

Three questions for founders building their boards

1. Does your current board composition match your current stage and immediate challenges? If you’re scaling go-to-market but your board is full of product people, you’ve got a mismatch.

2. What expertise will you need in 12-18 months that you don’t have on your board today? Board changes take time. Start thinking about your next board evolution before you desperately need it.

3. Who on your current board should you transition off to make room for new capabilities? This is the hardest question, but also the most important. Building the right board sometimes means making tough decisions about who no longer fits the company’s needs.

This article is part of the Startup Series at Strategy Tools, helping founders, investors, and ecosystem builders across MENA navigate the journey from startup to scale-up. Read more about Scale Up MENA here. Thanks to Scott Newton and Rick Rasmussen for extensive discussions on startup board qualities.

Our answer: “you are asking the wrong question. You need to develop all six decks”

By: Christian Rangen, global advisor to VCs, FoF’s & ecosystem builders. Faculty, advisor, investor Sanjana Raheja, advisor to early-stage founders, accelerators, & innovation programs

Don’t bring the wrong tool for the job

Over the last 15 years we have worked with 1000’s of founders on investor readiness and fundraising. Pre-seed health tech, post-IPO energy tech and everything in between. One constant: the pitch deck. Yet, in our experience, this is only a small fraction of the story. Our experience; you really need six different decks.

Too often, we have seen founders send out their pitch deck (which is not designed to be sent out), and equally often we have seen founders try to cramp 21 slides into a 30. Min first meeting call (when a 6-slide meeting deck would have sufficed). Most founders, maybe even 90%, bring the wrong tool for the job. As a founder, make sure you have the right toolkit available to you. In our experience. That means six unique investor decks, each serving its own purpose, each perfect for its own job.

Understand the investors you will meet

As a founder, you can expect to meet three categories of investors. It’s useful to keep this in mind as you build your decks and fundraising process.

Lead

A lead investor will set the terms, set the valuation, give you a term sheet, do the due diligence, structure the round, (often) bring in the co-investors.

In many cases, a lead investor will also set up a 20% ESOP (pre-round), require you to incorporate in places like Delaware and reshuffle management.

These investors care about your decks, but they care far more about your data room, the 20+ customer interviews they are going to do, the legal, team, market and technical due diligence tracks they will run and ultimately the totality of the investment case.

Qualified

A qualified investor understands all the points and work listed above, but does not have the time, bandwidth or size of investment here where they would commit to doing this work. Instead, for the moment, they are happy to take a smaller slice, what we might call a listing post; but might step into a lead investor role in a future round.

A qualified investor might have access to your data room, financial models and years of financial statements, but they are unlikely to spend much time on it. They rely on you, the founding team, the board and often the (even more qualified) lead investors to handle the work that comes with the round. But, they do care about your decks, as this is likely the only documents they will spend significant time on.

Unqualified

An unqualified investor is likely going to be a friend, family, high-net worth or business angel. They are mostly highly competent people, but with limited time and experience with early-stage investment. Often, they would not know how to truly assess a startup, and rely largely on trust and relationships to commit to the deal.

For this group, the pitch deck or full deck is likely the only thing they will actually read. They might have questions, but will usually get these answers from the founders or fellow co-investors, unlikely to ever dig deeply into the case.

The six decks you need

1.      Executive Summary

Purpose: A strong one-pager that can be widely shared by e-mail

Format: 1-page

Content: High-level overview

Most common mistake founders do: putting in too much information

2.      Teaser Deck

Purpose: A visually strong deck to be shared in advance of the first meeting

Format: 3-8-slides. Send in PDF or via Docsend

Content: Teasing investors on the 3-5 key points on the deal.

Most common mistake founders do: Sharing too much information. Not including a timeline and structure on the round

3.      Short deck A: Your pitch deck

Purpose: The traditional ‘pitch deck’. But beware, this is designed to always have you in the room, giving a voice over. Removing you from the deck often leave it missing vital information.

Format: 6-8 slides. Use for pitches, not for sending out

Content: A visual story to support a founder pitching live on a stage or online

Most common mistake founders do: Three; – Cramming in too much information – Not having a ‘how to invest slide’ (Deal structure, deal timeline, committed investors, timeline to close and how to invest) – Sending it out, when the founder is not doing voice over. 90% of the time, you are better off sending deck 5. Introduction instead.

4.      Short deck B: First meeting deck

Purpose: A short and concise deck for your first meeting. Design it for few slides + key questions you ask so you can steer the conversation.

Format: 4-6 slides, last slide should always contain ‘three questions’. Keep all other slides in the appendix as needed.

Content: Overview on the deal, designed to get a good, two-way conversation started

Most common mistake founders do: Too many slides, no questions to ask. As a consequence, it becomes a ‘too much information pitch meeting’. No good.

5.      Introduction deck: Investment teaser

Purpose: The main deck, designed to be read by investors without you in the room

Format: 10-16 (can go to 20) slides. Send via PDF or share via Docsend

Content: A solid walk through of the business, the future ambitions and the deal terms

Most common mistake founders do: Not putting in an executive summary as slide #2, just after the frontpag

6.      Long deck: Investment proposal

Purpose: This is your extensive, sharing all sensitive detail-deck. This deck is designed to give your investors an honest, detailed analysis of the company and the investment case

Format: 20-100+ slides, regularly 50-60 slides. Only shared to most serious investors, maybe after the first 3-4 meetings

Content: An extensive, incredibly detailed analysis of the business, investment case and future potential.

Most common mistake founders do: Not using an executive summary, not having enough depth on numbers and financials, not including anything on investor liquidity and exit strategy

Time to go to work

Six decks; different purposes. Do not be overwhelmed. These decks are all built on the same platform, your future success narrative. All you need to do is package them for the readers. The number one mistake, not selecting the right deck for the right purpose.

Good luck!

This article is part of the Startup Series at Strategy Tools, helping founders, investors, and ecosystem builders across MENA navigate the journey from startup to scale-up. Read more about Scale Up MENA here.

By: Chris Rangen, global advisor to VCs, FoF’s & ecosystem builders. Faculty, advisor, investor Sanjana Raheja, advisor to early-stage founders, accelerators, and innovation programs. Big thanks to Nitin Reen, Nuwa Capital for valuable input to this article.

We just completed a packed week of Masterclasses on scaling strategy and investor readiness in Dubai. For parts of the week, we worked with first-time founders at the very earliest of stages. Their #1 question: how to raise the first round of investor capital. So, here’s the long answer to the question; how to raise money as a MENA founder.

(note, this article cover idea- and pre-stage. For seed-stage and beyond, see Fundraising in MENA 201 – your funding journey – coming soon).

15 years of helping founders on startup fundraising

Over the past 15 years, we have worked with 1000’s and 1000’s of founders, mostly on growth strategy, fundraising and investor readiness. We have studied 100’s of highly successful founders and developed 1000’s of hours of slides, tools, simulations, digital courses, online workshops and in-person investor readiness programs delivered globally. Across different programs, roles, accelerators and 1:1 support, we have been on the inside of over 400 equity rounds, helping founders raise $100M’s from pre-seed to post-IPO.

Before you start

Before ever going out to raise any investor capital. Here are five questions you want to ask yourself.

Five questions before we start:

1.      Do you really want to raise capital from investors – or are there other ways to grow and fund your business?

2.      Are you a ‘backable case’? (ideally, venture backable case, with the possibility for 100X return – or higher?)

3.      Do you fully understand the expectations, business model and timeline of your investors?

4.      Can you generate investor liquidity and exit back to your investors on a reasonable timeline?

5.      Do you have the early traction and commercial proof-points to be fundable?

If you are not sure what each of these questions mean or not sure about how to answer them, you might want to discuss your startup growth plans with a mentor or co-founder before proceeding.

Assuming you’ve read, reflected and answered these five questions well, let’s go ahead.

What you need to raise capital for a pre-seed stage company in MENA

Ok, you don’t really need these seven items listed below. Fact is, some founders can raise the first check simply by a call or a WhatsApp. No slides. No memo. Just trust and relationship. But for most, these are the seven items that should be in place.

1.      Pitch deck

2.      Investor FAQ

3.      Financial model (if you have it)

4.      Liquidity budget (if you don’t have it, develop it)

5.      Long-term capital strategy (ok, most founder’s don’t it. They should)

6.      SAFE note

7.      Investor list (target 100 qualified, local investors, ideally from your personal network, local investors and local angels)

1.      Pitch deck

There are tons of great examples and template for what to put in a pitch deck. We recommend these slides in your standard, short pitch deck.  As you grow the company, you’ll hear us talking about your six decks. (read more about the six decks here) .

If you have already developed your deck and just want some quick feedback on it, test out the SasStr AI pitch deck analyzer, a superb tool to sharpen any pitch deck.

2.      Investor FAQ

With the deck completed, you now want to dig more into the details. Developing a document with Investor FAQ, and making this available next to your deck is a great value-add for potential investors.

Think of the questions that Investors might have in their mind when you pitch to them. This includes:

a.      Is there a clear, urgent, and large enough problem here?

b.     Is this business model capable of producing venture-scale returns?

c.      Are your milestones set, investable and can they take you to the next stage?

d.     Is the risk/reward trade-off attractive enough to bet on today?

e.      Do you have the background & experience, and can your team actually pull this off?

For more, Download Strategy Tools’ Investor FAQ for pre-seed companies here.

3.      Financial model (if you have it)

At some point, you will need a financial model. For some, it might be too early, especially if you’re still validating your idea.

But if you have one (or can whip up a simple version), use it. It shows investors you’ve thought about the numbers behind your story.

We recommend keeping it simple at this stage. No need for complex spreadsheets yet.

Here is a pro tip: This works very well because investors love seeing you’ve stress-tested for surprises (e.g., “What if sales take 2x longer?”). You do not have to be precise; it’s about incorporating realism in your model.

4.      Liquidity budget

This is the “bridge” to your financial model. If you don’t have it, develop it.

What you do need, is a basic liquidity budget. This show clearly show how the money coming in now will be spent (use of proceeds), what other financing sources you are using, any revenue you might have and how long your financial runway will be.

You can easily build it in 15 mins. Here’s how:

– Calculate your Inflows: Raise amount + grants (e.g., Dubai Future Accelerators) + early revenue.

– Your outflows: Monthly burn (e.g., $10K: 50% dev, 30% go-to-market, 20% ops).

– Runway: Formula = (Total inflows – Burn) / Monthly burn. Target 12+ months. An investor putting in $50.000 today; how long will that money last?

5.      Long-term capital strategy (ok, most founder’s don’t it. They should)

Having a capital strategy “future-proofs” your fundraising to avoid dilution traps. This is the biggest point of pain for MENA founders that we saw in our masterclasses.

Build out a basic plan covering: – How much capital do you actually need, usually over a 5-10 year period – How are you going to finance this? (choice of instruments) – Over which timeframe will you be raising financing? – Which amounts, valuations and dilutions are you targeting for each round (ok, this last one is tricky, but the best founders got this mapped out already. You should too)

It sounds complicated, but it is the key to strategically fundraising your startup to success in the long term

In summary to the Financial Model, Liquidity budget, and long term capital strategy, focus on the 3 basics in Google Sheets or Excel:

a. Runway: How long will the money last? (Cash on hand ÷ Monthly burn = Months of runway.) Aim for 12-18 months post-raise.

b. Use of Proceeds: Break down spends (e.g., 40% product, 30% marketing, 20% team, 10% ops). Tie it to milestones like “Launch MVP in 6 months.”

c. Quick Projections: Rough revenue forecast (e.g., $0 now → $50K in Year 1 via 100 customers at $500/month) and costs. Test one key assumption, like customer acquisition cost.

One MENA-specific tweak: Please factor in local realities like currency fluctuations (e.g., AED/USD stability) or regional hiring costs. Start with a 6-month view to match fast pre-seed timelines.

I help work on this with early stage founders; reach out if you need support here!

Let’s move into the common (but heavily misunderstood) fundraising instruments that help you as a founder:

6.      SAFE note

Most founders use a SAFE note at this stage. You can also use a CN (convertible note), a KISS (Keep It Simple Security) or equity, but Carta data is clear. SAFE notes are used by 90% of all founders at this stage. Use a standard Y-combinator SAFE note template, and input your key information. Get the SAFE template here.

Just be aware, not all countries recognize the SAFE as legal investment instrument, so there is always that….

Test out Carta’s SAFE note calculator, to model out your note terms.

Want to know about how these instruments work? Check out our Scaling Up in MENA: The Most Common Investment Instruments.

7.      Investor list

Target 100 qualified, local investors, ideally from your personal network, local investors and local angels).

“Do you have any investors you can introduce me to?”, is probably the most common question I get from early-stage founders. Come on, that’s lazy.

Do your job, do your research and build your own lists. Map out your target investor personas. Study how active your investor prospects are. Find the ecosystem leaders that other angel investors follow. Map, study, map, study.

Building an investor list is surprisingly easy. Today, I expect any seed stage founder to be able to build out and maintain an investor CRM with 1.000 investor prospects, in some cases going to 5.000+ investor names. Difficult? Not at all. Takes some time? Yes, absolutely. But thanks to a plethora of options, from investor communities, online databases, matching tools and incredible AI tools, any founder can build a 1.000 name investor list in just minutes.

For pre-seed founders, start by engaging with personal network, high-net worth individuals and angel investors. Maybe explore local accelerators and grants, but keep it small, simple and fast. But, you do need to build that 100 name list.

What you will raise

The amount you raise will vary significantly based on many factors, including market, team, traction, general sentiment (AI is way up), etc, so take the numbers here and adjust for your own market and team.

You are likely to be raising in the range of $500.000 – $1M on a capped SAFE with discount. The amount and cap varies from market to market, sector to sector and generally based on the founders and their pricing power and negotiation position. Strong teams might see $500.000 5M capped SAFE with 20% discount. Less strong teams might see $100.000, capped at $1M post, with 30% discount and preference shares.

Less strong teams in smaller markets, might go as low as $50.000 – 100.000, but this is increasingly rare. if you are maturing into a VC round, you might even see $1M – $2M, at 4M – 8M post cap, a strong pre-seed deal in most markets.

Not sure what this all means? Do you research or get a mentor to guide you.

Understanding the instruments you will face

Pre-idea: $50.000 – 500.000, SAFE, capped at $500.000 – $4M post

Pre-seed: $100.000 – $2M, SAFE, capped at $500.000 – $8M post, with some markets at an average $12,5M post cap these days.

Seed: $300.000 – $5M, SAFE, capped at $1M – $15M post. Might also be a priced equity round. In some cases, could also be a CLA – convertible loan note

Seed+; $200.000 – $5M, SAFE, capped at $2M – $15M post. Might be a very strong seed round, with high level of interest. Could also be a bridge round, or even a short-term emergency financing round.

A: $5M – $25M, target $15M round size. Valuation $30M to $80M pre-money valuation

Across these rounds, you an reasonably expect a 20-25% dilution in the early stages, declining towards 15% – 25% as the company grows. If you have strong negotiation power, like Gamma, you can raise a $100M series B at 3% dilution, but this is the rare exception for the top 2% founders.

(Want to learn more about the six investment instruments you have and how to best use them? Join our 2026 Scale Up MENA! Masterclasses and Investor Readiness Programmes)

Going from notes to priced equity rounds

In many markets, the SAFE note has become the standard go-to-investment instrument. It’s well suited for that job. But, after a few rounds, you are likely going to switch from notes to a full equity round.

This is what we call a priced round, as the investors will – for the first time – set a price on your company. In doing so, SAFE notes are supposed to convert into equity. Some CN (Convertible loan notes) might get paid back or converted as well.

Around this time, we would also normally see a ESOP (Employee Stock Option Program) get established and a formal board of directors get set up. In our experience, we would ideally like to see the ESOP get set up far earlier, and be used as a key tool for attracting and keeping top talent from day one. However, many founders will only establish the ESOP here, leading into the first priced round.

Same on the board, we strongly encourage setting up boards already in year one, to start building the right board for long-term strategic support.

Read more about the seven startup boards.

Beware of stacking SAFEs

“Everyone said SAFE notes were supposed to be easy”, said one founder we worked with in Cairo. She had done four SAFE notes, across four different rounds. All early-stage.

If you know what you are doing, stacking SAFE notes is perfectly fine. Challenge is, most founders do not.

In her case, she held four different SAFE notes, with a total of 13 different investors, each note with different terms, caps, discounts. One of the notes did not specify pre- or post-money valuation. Another did not specify preference shares or common shares. One had MFN (most-favored nation). The others not. But, most of all, none of them clearly explained how to structure the SAFE notes going into conversion.

Our founder, she was equally confused and perplexed. Suddenly, she found, these easy-to-use SAFE notes were not so easy after all.

When stacking multiple SAFE notes on top of each other, just make sure you either really know what you are doing or you have a great lawyer-advisor at hand to guide you when the conversion day comes.

Understanding how dilution compounds

Ok, so you have now converted 1-4 rounds of SAFE notes, set up a 20% ESOP program and completed your first priced round. Congrats. Few founders actually make it this far. Just be aware of the equity math. Because, at this stage, you have likely sold off, or promised (ESOP) 40% – 60% of your company’s equity. More than one founder has turned ashen-white when realizing that the ‘easy SAFEs’, ‘small ESOP’ and ‘great funding round’, suddenly add up to a total of 55% of the company now switching hands.

Smart founders would abide by Nuwa Capital’s Nitin Reen’s advice, “stop at 3 concurrent notes”.

If you want to read more about the compounding dilution through the founder’s journey, check out our story on Leo Bank.

How to improve your negotiation position

–          Be profitable, don’t need the money

–          Show strong commercial traction, with a path to profitability

–          Have a great business in place

–          Have a great team in place

–          Have great advisors and early investors in place

–          Run a great fundraising process

How to run an accelerated fundraising process

Most pre-seed founders should be able to run a fast, accelerated fundraising process. We call this the accelerated fundraising journey. The point here is that this process is designed for speed, for getting the money in fast and quickly getting back to building the business.

Few founders design the process for speed, often ending getting dragged into lengthy processes, even years of fundraising, for even a small amount. Pro tip: optimize your pre-seed round for speed, fast closing and getting back to building.

Advanced early-stage founder?

If you are an advanced, early-stage founder, use these two canvases to guide your work.

The most common mistakes we see

1.      Not being ready

2.      Not having an investment instrument (SAFE note ready)

3.      Asking for too much money vs. company maturity and pricing power

1.      Not being ready

Surprisingly, many founders go to market to raise capital – without having their most basic materials in order. Pitch deck lacking key information. No budget in place. No process in place and no timeline to close. The result? Long slogh, little progress. Time and energy wasted. Limited chance to close.

2. Not having an investment instrument (SAFE note ready)

We were running an investor readiness program in Cairo. Every founder, without exception, were pitching a great story, but their presentations ended abruptly. The “how to invest slide” was missing. There were no SAFEs ready. No timelines. No co-leads waiting in the wings. No other investor commitment and no momentum to close. Investors watching were all wondering the same, “How do I invest?”, unfortunately, so did the founders. Once we added that last slide:

HOW TO INVEST Raising  $100.000 on a $1,5M post SAFE. $50.000 already secured from five angels and one accelerator. Round closing in 3 weeks. Access our investor pack here and sign the SAFE note here. 

Things started speeding up. Ask yourself. Have you built an investor pack that anyone can sign on today?

3.Asking for too much money vs. company maturity and pricing power

“We are raising $2,2M on a SAFE”, said one founder I met in Dubai this week. “But you don’t have any revenue or metrics to support that”, I replied. “That’s why we need the money”, came the response. Not an ideal response.

This might surprise some founders, but you really do want to show genuine momentum, traction and preferably early revenue, even at pre-seed stage. If you need $2,2M to get to first revenue, well, unlikely to happen. In that, raise a smaller amount, maybe $200.000 instead of $2,2M and build more capital efficiently.

Founders, go to work

Ok, that should be a pretty rich list for most founders. Our goal. help you raise smarter, faster and get back to scaling.

Good luck!

Want to read more?

The Story Of Scaling Leo Bank From Idea To Exit In The Middle East.

Founder: the six decks you need

Launching the First-time Fundraising Series

1. Deciding to raise

2. Running a competitive process

3. Building a compelling deck

Anatomy of a seed round

Can you run MedAssist’s Cap Table?

Antler: How to raise a pre-seed round

Carta: pre-seed funding

Y-combinator: a guide to seed fundraising

SAFE note templates (from Y combinator)

Ten Books That Will Save You From Costly Cap Table Mistakes: A Reading List for Founders, advisors & expert facilitators

This article is part of the Startup Series at Strategy Tools, helping founders, investors, and ecosystem builders across MENA navigate the journey from startup to scale-up. Read more about Scale Up MENA here. Thanks to Scott Newton and Rick Rasmussen for the collaboration in shaping a lot of this materials. Get the tools and learn more at www.strategytools.io

I just got off a call. Great founder. Raising a strong Series A. Except, maybe not.

The momentum was not quite there. The investor prospects were starting to dry up. Christmas was approaching (there’s always an excuse for investors wanting to avoid saying “no”).

In fact, I’m having a lot of these calls. Getting towards the end of the year. A lot of founders are trying to close out funding rounds, trying to avoid dragging them into the new year.

Here are the top ten questions I ask founders raising capital right now.

1. Who’s on your fundraising team?

Raising capital is a team sport. It’s not just the CEO on endless Zoom calls. Every successful raise I’ve seen has a clear division of roles and responsibilities across the founding team, board, and advisors.

Your Project Member handles the research—mapping and analyzing investors, doing the first e-mail outreach, keeping the CRM updated, and driving progress through follow-ups and booking meetings.

Your CFO (Strategic) leads the overall funding round and all touchpoints. They take the first calls with investors, handle all inbound conversations, and provide documents, data room access, and track progress through DD, FAQ, securing closing signatures and payments.

Your CEO (Founder) is overall in charge of the funding round. They take calls and presentations with investors beyond initial analysts and scouts, meet and build relationships with senior contacts at potential investors, and spend time on 1:1 relationship building with selected investors.

Your Board Members help design the overall capital strategy and funding rounds. They prepare management for roadshow and investor meetings, join key conversations with advisors, banks, and investor prospects, and actively have 1:1 conversations with selected investors outside of CEO/CFO.

And don’t forget your Advisors and Investment Bankers—CFO-for-hire, fundraising advisors, crowdfunding platforms, and investment banking teams can all play crucial roles depending on your round size and strategy.

If you can’t clearly articulate who does what in your fundraising team, you’re already behind.

2. How many investors have you mapped (long list)?

When I ask founders this question, I often hear “about 50” or “maybe 100.” That’s not enough.

During the Mapping phase—which should begin 12 to 24 months before you need the capital—you should be building an investor database of 200 to 1,000+ investor prospects. You should be analyzing and selecting your Top 100, Top 30, and Top 10. You should be identifying all blocked investors (those who’ve invested in competitors, have conflicting interests, or simply aren’t a fit).

The best founders I work with treat investor mapping like a sales pipeline. Because that’s exactly what it is.

3. How are you using your investor CRM—honestly?

Most founders have some kind of spreadsheet. Few have a proper CRM system for their investors. Even fewer actually use it consistently.

Your investor CRM should track every touchpoint, every meeting, every follow-up.

It should tell you when you last contacted each prospect, what the next action is, and where they sit in your pipeline. You should be updating it continuously throughout the process.

If your CRM is a mess, your fundraise will be too.

The best founders? They give me access to their investor CRM, no questions asked. 

4. How many investor prospects would you count as ‘strong relationships’?

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s one thing to have a long list. It’s another to have developed real relationships with your top prospects.

During the Preparations phase—6 to 12 months before your raise—you should be developing early relationships with your top 100 investor prospects. You should be identifying your top 100 lead prospects and developing targeted investor profiles.

The founders who struggle are the ones who start building relationships when they need the money. The ones who succeed started building those relationships a year ago.

5. Walk me through your key metrics, both absolute and Y-o-Y growth

Investors want to see traction. They want to see momentum. If you can’t walk me through your key metrics—revenue, user growth, unit economics, and critically, year-over-year growth—in under two minutes, we have a problem.

You need to set your KPIs, metrics, and revenue story before you start serious investor conversations. These should be crystal clear in your materials phase.

Know your numbers cold. Investors will.

The best founders can easily articulate, $1,5M ARR, growing at 18% Month-over-Month, with a $14 CAC/forecast $900 LTV, 3% churn, 6.000 SME customers, 14 enterprise customers. Total pipeline of 28.000 prospects. Given our accelerated growth, will hit $100M ARR in 38 months.

6. Can you show me your Outcome Canvas on this round?

What does success look like for this round? And I don’t just mean “we raised the money.”

I mean for your investors, your current lead investors and their probable outcome. This is core to their investment decision – and you need to help them bring their decision to a resounding yes.

Founders who can't articulate their likely investor outcomes often end up with outcomes they didn't want.

7. Where can I find your six decks?

Yes, six. Different investors need different materials at different stages.

You need your one-pager, your pitch deck, your meeting deck, your teaser deck, your full investor deck and your long deck. Each serves a different purpose in the investor journey. During the Materials phase—4 to 6 months out—you should be developing your one-pager plus the five other investor decks, setting up Docsend plus investor FAQ, developing your data room, and recording your pitchdeck Loom. (Read more about the Six decks you need here)

If you’re scrambling to put together materials while in active conversations, you’re already too late.

8. How many investor meetings are you running—every week?

During the active Process phase—which typically runs 1 to 4 months—you should be targeting up to 25 investor meetings per week. Yes, per week.

You need to run all investor meetings over a limited number of weeks, create momentum, and use power questions to balance power dynamics. The goal is to map out your top investors’ decision-making process and timeline while updating your CRM continuously.

Fundraising is a sprint, not a marathon. If you're doing 3 meetings a week, you're not fundraising—you're just having coffee.

9. Talk me through how you are securing five competing term sheets—or more?

One term sheet is not a negotiation. Two is barely better. You need to be targeting five or more competing term sheets.

This means you need to secure multiple possible lead investors. You should be receiving and negotiating on multiple term sheets simultaneously.

The founders with the best outcomes are the ones with the most options. Competition creates leverage.

10. What’s the timeline and probability to close the round?

Finally, I want to know your honest assessment. When do you expect to close? And what’s the probability you actually will?

The Closing phase will take about a month, maybe two. You finalize legal documents, close the round, settle legal documents, receive invested amounts, and potentially combine new equity with debt or soft-funding. It takes time.

Be honest with yourself. And be honest with me. What’s really your timeline?

Now, Prepare for the Next Round

Here’s what most founders forget: the moment you close one round, you’re already preparing for the next one. Media and announcements follow closing, and then the cycle begins again.

The Funding Journey is not a single event. It’s a continuous process that requires deliberate planning, systematic execution, and relentless relationship building.

So, founder—how would you answer these ten questions?

Finally, the most important question, how can I help?

This article is a part of the upcoming report Fundraising Success: a playbook for global founders raising capital. Coming in 2026. Pre-register today.

Cap tables matter

Cap tables are the backbone of any successful startup scaling into a long-term successful winner. But, along the way, founders are likely to raise 5 – 15 rounds of financing, including SAFE, CLA, Equity, Debt, RVB and Project financing. How to keep track of it all? Your cap table.

Try your skills

Leading up to the Scale Up MENA! masterclasses, we have set up a super simple, yet complex exercise for anyone to test their cap table skills.

Meet MedAssist

Here is MedAssist, a fictive case company based  in MENA. Your job, guide them through five round of early-stage financing. Make the investments. Update the cap table as needed. Below are 15 early-stage mini-term sheets, based on terms you might likely see at each stage. These are based on market standards in the region.

For any requirements, just make the reasonable assumption that you have these requirements in place as you proceed. For revenue and ARR, the number is listed as you progress below.

For initial set up of the cap table. Assume you have five founders, each owning 20% each. A total of 100.000 shares, at $5 per share, equal split amongst the team. There is no vesting in place and no ESOP in place – yet.

Round 1: Idea round (friends and family)

First round has three early family members interested. Which one or ones would you choose? What would be the preferred investment instrument? At this stage, MedAssist is pre-revenue.

Round 2: Pre-seed round (business angels)

Months go by, and angel investors are lining up for the pre-seed round. With 300.000 in early revenue, the momentum is growing. Would Alex Angels, DAN or Fatima be a better fit? or maybe all of them?

Round 3: Seed round (accelerators)

Post angels, local accelerators are next. Sanabil 500, RAK or Startup Bootcamp are all great programs. Yet, in our example, also offering very different terms. Who would you go with?

Round 4: Seed+ round (early VCs)

Revenue tips the magic $1M mark. Things are looking up. VCs come around for early coffee. Note, they all want various forms of market traction and progress. Let’s just assume you already have the Dubai Market Expansion card here.

Round 5: Small Series A (VCs)

Ah, our final round, a small Series A. With revenue at $1.9M, we are above the classic $1M mark, but still below the new, $3M ARR milestone for a “real Series A”. With strong interest now from ADQ, SB and HG, who would you choose to work with here?

Cap table management

Ok, you have the story, you have the data. Now, can you run up the cap table?

Assume five founders, 20.000 shares each, entry at 5 per share. You take it from there. Good luck – and post your cap table in the comment.

Welcome to Scale Up MENA! Masterclass

If you enjoyed – and have completed – our little MedAssist task, you should be ready for the upcoming Scale Up MENA! Masterclass. Globally, more than 4.000 founders, investors, VCs, family offices, sovereign wealth fund investment officers, accelerators, bankers, board members, angel investors, climate funds, consulting companies, foundations, innovation agencies, ministries, students and educators have all built their founder skills and cap table skills with Scale Up!

Now, we are excited to launch the Scale Up MENA! Masterclass, 100% tuned into the realities of fundraising in the Middle East and North Africa. Based on 12+ months of research and 15+ years with early-stage investment experience, Scale Up MENA! Masterclass lets you build out your fundraising skills, cap table skills and overall scale up leadership skills in just hours.

Join us for the upcoming Masterclasses in Dubai and Egypt, read more about Scale Up MENA! or get in touch today, Chris@strategytools.io

Over the coming 12 months we expect to train and certify 30-60 Scale Up Train-the-trainers. These range from accelerator managers, business school faculty, VCs and program managers at large, global entrepreneurship programs. Yet, what they all will face is the joy, the struggle and the complexity of ‘the cap table’.

Here is a short overview on the four most common cap table tools we use in Scale Up!

What is a ‘cap table’?

A capitalization table – or ‘cap table’ – is the living, breathing record of who owns what in your company. It tracks equity ownership across all shareholders, from founders and employees to angels, VCs, and convertible note holders. Think of it as the financial DNA of your startup.

At its core, a cap table shows the percentage ownership, the number of shares, and the type of securities each stakeholder holds. But it is far more than a static spreadsheet. A well-maintained cap table tells the story of your fundraising journey – every investment round, every SAFE conversion, every option grant to key hires. It reveals who has voting rights, who gets paid first in an exit, and how much dilution founders experience as they scale.

In Scale Up!, we have seen hundreds of teams wrestle with their cap tables. The ones who master it early gain a strategic advantage. The ones who treat it as an afterthought often face painful surprises down the road – discovering they have given away too much, structured deals poorly, or created complex messes that scare off sophisticated investors.

Why good cap table management matters?

Poor cap table management is one of the silent killers of startups. We have watched promising companies stumble not because their product failed or their market disappeared, but because their cap table became an unsolvable puzzle.

First, investors care deeply about cap table cleanliness. A messy cap table signals operational immaturity. When a Series A investor sees dozens of small angel investments, confusing SAFE terms, or founder equity splits that don’t make sense, they start asking harder questions. Some walk away entirely. In fact, based on our work with VCs across three continents, cap table issues rank among the top five deal-breakers in early-stage investments.

Second, cap table mistakes compound over time. That generous equity grant to your first employee? That SAFE with a low valuation cap? These decisions ripple through every subsequent round, affecting dilution, control, and exit economics. We have seen founding teams who, after three rounds of funding, own less than 20% of their company – leaving little incentive to keep building.

Third, transparency matters. A well-managed cap table builds trust with your team and investors. Everyone knows where they stand. Employees can model their option value. Investors can track their returns. Founders can make informed decisions about future raises. When we run Scale Up! sessions, the teams that maintain real-time cap table accuracy consistently outperform those who don’t – they make faster decisions, spot problems earlier, and negotiate better terms.

Finally, your cap table becomes critical during exits. Whether it is an acquisition, IPO, or secondary sale, the cap table determines who gets what. Liquidation preferences, anti-dilution clauses, and participation rights all flow from your cap table structure. Get it right, and everyone celebrates. Get it wrong, and you will watch your team’s wealth evaporate in legal fees and disputes.

What role does the cap table have in Scale Up?

In Scale Up!, the cap table isn’t just a teaching tool – it is the backbone of the entire learning experience. Everything flows through it. Every strategic decision participants make, from hiring key talent to choosing between investor offers, ultimately shows up in their cap table.

We designed Scale Up! around a simple truth: you cannot understand startup growth without understanding equity dynamics. Founders face constant trade-offs. Should they take money from that eager angel at a lower valuation, or wait for a lead investor? Should they grant 2% equity to a rockstar COO, or offer a lower package with more cash? Should they raise a large round at a high valuation, or stay lean and bootstrap longer? These questions all converge on the cap table.

Throughout the simulation, teams watch their cap table evolve in real-time. They see how their ownership percentage shrinks with each round. They feel the tension between growth capital and dilution. They experience the consequences of poor terms or ill-timed rounds. And crucially, they develop an intuition for what ‘good’ looks like – balanced ownership, clean structure, alignment with investors.

The cap table also serves as our primary performance tracking mechanism. In our leaderboard, we don’t just track revenue or valuation. We track how efficiently teams deploy capital, how well they preserve equity, and how smartly they structure their deals. The winning teams aren’t necessarily those who raise the most money – they’re the ones who reach their milestones with the least dilution.

From our experience training over 4,000 participants across accelerators, business schools, and VC programs worldwide, we have seen that mastering the cap table transforms how founders think about their business. They stop seeing fundraising as simply getting cash in the door. Instead, they start thinking strategically about capital as a tool, equity as a finite resource, and investors as long-term partners. That mindset shift is what Scale Up! is really about – and the cap table is where it happens.

Here are the four cap tables we use in Scale Up!

Pen & Paper

For smaller groups, with less experience and less time, the good ol’ pen & paper format works perfectly fine. If you are running a discovery session (3 hours) or even a full-day session, you can get far with just pen and paper.

In fact, Scale Up! was first designed for pen & paper, in the view that we learn more when seeing and writing vs. punching numbers into a spreadsheet. There is something powerful about physically writing down each equity transaction. It forces teams to slow down, discuss each decision, and truly understand what is happening to their ownership structure.

Pro:

– Easy to use – Very easy to get started – Simple to manage for both participants and facilitators – Forces intentional, slower decision-making – Great for building foundational understanding

Con:

– Gets complex after first three rounds – Converting SAFEs and CLAs is not so easy in the paper format – More manual, so it takes a lot longer – Hard to track multiple scenarios or run sensitivity analysis

When to use it:

For small groups, lower levels of pre-existing knowledge, limited time, or when introducing basic cap table concepts for the first time.

Who’s in charge:

The team. Make sure the whole team works through this format together. Go slow. Cover the basics. This collaborative approach ensures everyone understands the fundamentals before moving to more complex tools.

Facilitator view:

With small groups, it’s pretty easy to follow. You can always see the documents and paper records on the table. Increase the group size, say, to six or ten teams and it might get a bit trickier. Budget extra time for teams to catch up, and expect to do more hands-on support walking around the room. We typically recommend one facilitator per 15-20 participants when using pen & paper.

Excel 1.0 (the classic)

Almost as old as the pen & paper format in Scale Up!, the old Excel file is still fantastic to use. It was made for ‘save a local copy’, and has no cloud collaboration or shared leaderboard. It works. It’s simple, but it is also lacking a number of key features.

This version emerged from our early days working with accelerators who wanted something more scalable than paper, but didn’t yet need real-time tracking. It has proven remarkably durable – thousands of founders still use it today.

Pro:

– Easy to use – Covers basic cap table management, nothing else – People use it locally, can take it home and work on it overnight – No internet dependency – Teams can experiment without worrying about ‘breaking’ a shared file

Con:

– Facilitators have little to no insight into how it is going – Hard to follow and impossible to track the top performers – Mistakes are often left unsolved, due to only having local version – No real-time feedback or comparison with peers

When to use it:

Designed to make the pen & paper version slightly more suited for multiple rounds and later stages, it is simple and easy to use. The Excel 1.0 cap table tool is very suitable for small and large groups, at entry- and intermediate levels. Just don’t expect to be able to track performance or clean up mistakes in this format. Best for asynchronous work or when participants want to practice independently between sessions.

Who’s in charge:

The CFO

Facilitator view:

We have run 100’s of sessions with this tool, and it just works. Probably the best tool for super early stage founders who are still wrapping their heads around basic equity concepts. The lack of real-time visibility means you will need to schedule regular check-ins and be ready to troubleshoot issues retroactively rather than preventing them in real-time.

Google Sheet 1.0 (the basic)

A couple of years ago we started experimenting with a shared version, where we could track all teams in the same interface, and also teams could compare themselves in real-time.

We simply copied the excel version into a Google Sheet version (1.0), and voila, we had the basic version. Instantly, this was a hit with participants. The competitive element that emerged from the live leaderboard completely changed the energy in the room. Teams started benchmarking themselves, learning from top performers, and pushing themselves harder.

Pro:

– Same ease of use as Excel – Now in a shared format, with leaderboard – Easy to keep track of all teams, audit and correct cap math mistakes in real-time – Creates healthy competition and peer learning – Facilitators can provide targeted support based on what they see

Con:

– Not many; but a clear message that ‘this is only looking at financing’ – Not tracking ARR, revenue or basic accounting – Teams sometimes focus too much on leaderboard position vs. learning

When to use it:

In most sessions, really. Great for both entry, intermediate and more advanced users. If you have reliable internet and want to create a dynamic, competitive learning environment, this is your go-to tool.

Who’s in charge:

The CFO

Facilitator view:

Bringing the cap table from local Excel to shared Sheet is a game-changer. If there are two facilitators, one would spend ca. 10% of his / her time to just keep an eye on, do light audits and generally correct mistakes before they turned into major problems. The real-time visibility means you can spot patterns – which teams consistently make similar mistakes, which concepts need more explanation, which teams are ready for advanced challenges.

But, the feedback was clear; ‘where do we track everything else….?’ Teams wanted to see how their cap table decisions connected to their revenue growth, hiring plans, and burn rate. That insight led us to build version 2.0.

Google Sheet 2.0 (the full management dashboard)

In early 2025 we started piloting a more advanced, full scale ‘Management Dashboard’. This tool would quickly outgrow the cap table, and suddenly teams would be able to run full-scale operations, annual accounting, ARR growth, margins, Y-o-Y growth, advisors, zoo animals and exit transactions, all in the same real-time spreadsheet.

Once we saw this live, we knew we were not going back. This version represents the full Scale Up! experience – where financial strategy, operational decisions, and equity management all interconnect. Teams finally see the complete picture: how hiring that expensive VP impacts burn rate, which impacts runway, which impacts when they need to raise, which impacts dilution.

Pro:

– Comprehensive full overview across all aspects of the company – Real-time, shared with running Leaderboard – Makes it superbly easy to run the session as facilitator, offering far more depth into company financials – Reflects real-world complexity that founders actually face – Teams develop holistic strategic thinking, not just cap table mechanics

Con:

– OK, so, it is very complex. It clearly takes time to figure out, and even the best teams get parts of it wrong – It has a lot of moving parts, leaving it hard for the teams to focus on the core, cap table management – Not for beginners, as most get overwhelmed and do not understand the basic financials, never mind cap tables – Requires significantly more facilitator expertise to run well – Teams need strong collaboration and clear role division to manage effectively

When to use it:

Intermediate and advanced-level teams. Need more time. Only worth using when we have minimum one full day, preferably three days. Best for cohorts that already understand startup basics and are ready to wrestle with the messy reality of scaling a company.

Last used with:

Katapult Ocean Program, and here it worked very well. These were experienced impact-driven founders who needed to see how sustainability metrics, investor expectations, and financial performance all connected. The complexity matched their reality.

Who’s in charge:

The CFO, but all team members have dedicated working areas they own. The CEO focuses on strategy and investor relations, the CTO manages product development costs and technical hiring, the CMO tracks customer acquisition and revenue growth. This distributed ownership mirrors how real startup teams actually operate.

Facilitator view:

This is a monster to run, but once it is running it is fantastic. Due to the holistic view on each startup, the full management dashboard takes the Scale Up! experience to another level – but only if you as a facilitator can handle it. You need deep financial literacy, strong group facilitation skills, and the ability to rapidly diagnose where teams are stuck. Plan for at least two facilitators for groups larger than 20 participants. The upside? Teams leave with genuine strategic capabilities that transfer directly to their real companies.

Closing thoughts

With 30-60 new trainers coming online, there will be plenty of chances for Scale Up sessions, big and small. From classrooms to Masterclasses, we will be delivering Scale Up!, Scale Up MENA! and Scale Up Africa Rising!

But, keeping track of all things cap tables is crucial. As a future facilitator, make sure you select the cap table tool that works for you and master it. Use this guide to decide on the right tool for the job for you.

Remember: the tool itself matters far less than your ability to use it effectively. We have seen brilliant sessions run with pen & paper, and mediocre ones with the full dashboard. Your job as a facilitator is to meet participants where they are, push them appropriately, and ensure they leave understanding not just how to fill out a cap table, but why it matters.

Start simple. Master one tool completely before moving to the next. Build your confidence. And most importantly, remember that behind every cap table percentage is a real founder making real decisions about their company’s future. Our job is to help them make those decisions wisely.

Here are the 10 steps we believe are important for a winning Scale Up! session.

Step 1: Be Clear About the Format

Are we running a 3-hour discovery session? A half-day teaching session? One day? Maybe a 4-week program?

Get crystal clear on the format from the start. The structure dictates everything else—your content depth, your pacing, your materials, and what outcomes you can realistically achieve. Don’t try to squeeze a 4-week program into a half day, and don’t stretch a 3-hour session into something it’s not meant to be.

Step 2: Know Your Participants

It’s really important that you understand who your audience is going to be. You need to understand their level, their background, their investment readiness, any previous programs they’ve completed, and who they are as individuals.

As much as possible, you want to review their decks and review their websites before you meet. This preparation makes all the difference between a generic session and one that truly resonates.

Step 3: Align on Expectations

Here, you need to make sure that you deeply, deeply understand the expectations of your clients. And make sure you understand the expectations of the participants.

If you’re not sure about the expectations of the participants, communicate, communicate, communicate in advance. Make sure that expectations are what you want them to be—nothing else. Misaligned expectations are the fastest way to derail an otherwise excellent session

Step 4: Focus on the Journey

Now you want to bring out the Founder’s Journey Canvas and make sure that you craft your story and your communication around that journey. This is essential to the program. Make sure you can easily overlay each step with the right investment instrument, right investment terms and right valuations.

The journey provides the narrative thread that holds everything together and helps participants see where they are, where they’re going, and what they need to get there.

Step 5: Prepare (with Your Co-Facilitators)

We cannot emphasize this enough.

You might be delivering this by yourself. You might be delivering it with others. You might be delivering it with someone for the first time. Regardless, you need to spend as much time as needed to get aligned and prepared together.

Run through the flow. Discuss handoffs. Clarify who leads what. Iron out any differences in approach. The investment you make here pays dividends when you’re in the room with participants.

Step 6: Layout the Detailed Workflow

As part of Step 5, you need to lay out exactly the detailed step-by-step-by-step-by-step.

What are we going to do? Who does what? Who prepares what? Which canvases? Which founder tasks? Which breakouts? Which overnight assignments?

Leave nothing to chance. The more detailed your workflow, the smoother your delivery will be.

Step 7: Venue

Make sure you can access the venue at the time that you expect.

We strongly recommend setting up the venue the night before, including all the materials. If that’s not possible, try to get there 2 hours before you start in the morning and set up.

Murphy’s Law applies 800 times over when it comes to venues. The projector won’t work. The Wi-Fi will fail. The room setup will be wrong. There are no tables. Build in buffer time to handle these inevitable issues.

Step 8: Focus on the Cap Table

You have to make sure that you and your co-facilitators are up to speed on all things cap table.

Whether you choose to go with the paper version, the local host Excel version, the simple Google Sheets, or the full-on CFO Management dashboard—you have to be comfortable with the cap table.

It might need a couple of hours, a couple of days, or a couple of weeks of training to get there. Don’t skip this step. Cap table confusion kills the experience.

Step 9: Keep High Pace, Keep High Energy

Now you’ve started, you’re up and running, you have the participants in the room.

Make sure that you keep your pace and keep your energy. Push them. Push them. Push them.

This is the real-life experience we want them to have. Startups don’t move slowly, and neither should your session. Give them the pitch deck Founder Task. Equip them with Investor update presentations. Push them into Outcome presentations and maybe even the Board IPO readiness deck. Make them work, make them present – and always keep the energy full on.

Step 10: Run an Exit Transaction

You’re now at the end of the program and you’re selecting a winner. Make sure you go through an exit transaction of some sort.

In the worst case, it’s basically “Congratulations, you’re acquired by Microsoft.” But there are many great exit scenarios you can run. Study them and

For everyone except the very most basic groups, run a proper exit scenario. If you have a really basic group, you can make up whatever you need for finding a winner. But make sure you have a clean cap table and a good exit transaction of some sort.

The Golden Rule: Always Tie It Back to Real Life

Finally, and this applies throughout the entire session: make sure that you constantly, always, always, always tie it back to real life.

As you’re going through the content, as you’re going through the stories, make sure to ask: How would this work in real life? What would be the equivalent in real life? How would you solve this in real life?

Because it’s not about the simulation. It’s about building skills for real life.

These ten steps have been refined through 200+ sessions across the globe. They work because they’re grounded in what actually happens when you bring founders, investors, and ecosystem builders together in a room and push them to think, decide, and act like they would in the real world.

Want to learn more about running Scale Up! sessions & Masterclasses? We deliver programs globally, by partnering with ecosystem builders, innovation agencies, ministries, accelerators, business schools, VC firms and anyone building the future of the startup ecosystem.

Visit us at strategytools.io. or reach out today at Chris@strategytools.io