Help founders make capital decisions they can defend.
Integrated designs and runs two programs for founder-support institutions. Foundations, where founders learn how capital works and decide whether and how to raise. Raise, an invite-only track for companies with the evidence to run a real process.
Founders earn the right capital by building stronger businesses.
The program starts with the business: what customers actually do, how the economics work, what the company must prove next, and which capital, if any, fits. Investor materials and conversations come after that work, and they are stronger for it.
The program closes that gap and runs through the raise: why to raise, how much, what the capital must accomplish, what evidence is missing, and then the financing package and the investor process itself.
Founders leave with a clearer and more defensible answer to four questions.
- i
Is institutional capital appropriate for this business now, later, or not at all?
- ii
What must the company prove next?
- iii
What evidence, financial understanding, materials, and relationships are currently missing?
- iv
What should the founder do over the next 60 to 90 days?
The program does not promise that every participant will raise capital. It helps founders build stronger businesses, make better capital decisions, and approach the market with more evidence and judgment.
Learn and decide first. Raise when the business has earned it.
Most cohorts hold two kinds of founders: those meeting institutional capital for the first time, and those with a business that could run a process now. One program cannot serve both well, so there are two.
Learn and decide.
Build the package. Run the process.
Founders meeting institutional capital for the first time.
Companies with the evidence to run a real process.
A defensible capital decision: whether to raise, what kind, how much, and what to prove first.
A financing package and an investor process that actually runs.
Four to six weeks. Cohorts of 10 to 20 companies.
Eight to ten weeks. A small group, with experts in the room.
Open to the institution’s founders.
By invitation, based on evidence and specific criteria.
Capital decision made and evidence produced.
Investor conversations and capital raised.
Foundations feeds Raise. Institutions can run Foundations as a recurring intake and invite companies into Raise when the evidence is there.
Behind those numbers, three different capital answers.
The same work does not produce the same answer. One company raised far less than it planned, because a sharper strategy needed less money. One raised more than it targeted, because the evidence supported the ask. Across a full roster, the answers add up over time.
A sharper market changed the raise.
The founders planned to raise $2.3 million to pursue many industries at once. Focusing on one market changed what the business needed to become, and with it, what it needed to raise.
A single buyer, a single use case.
The product stayed the same. The company it was building became a different, smaller, more certain business.
A venture-scale round for a business chasing many markets at once.
Friends, family, and angels. Patient capital for the business they actually needed to build.
Company names are withheld, and the industry categories shown are illustrative of a broad, multi-market plan. Figures for Company A and Company B come from firsthand records of the work, not from public filings. No claim is made that a program caused any financing outcome.
Know what's working. Know what to fund.
The same evidence can do three jobs. It shows the founder how the business is actually performing, it narrows the capital decision, and it becomes the explanation an investor hears.
See what's working, what needs attention, and what growth requires.
The evidence narrows the choice. The founder makes it.
"Here's what's working."
"Here's what we still need to prove."
"Here's what the money would help us accomplish."
A written capital decision, or a process underway.
In Foundations: whether to raise, why now, the appropriate capital type and amount, what the money must accomplish, and what evidence is still missing. In Raise: the financing package and an investor process in motion.
A company-by-company operating view.
Where each company started, what it tested, what evidence changed, what remains unresolved, and the next capital milestone.
Evidence of the work funded.
A closing readout of participation, completed work, business evidence produced, decisions made, and remaining gaps, without pretending that a short program caused future capital raised.
A complete program, without hiring a full-time executive or assembling the expertise internally.
The institution's objective, target founder, sponsor story, and definition of success.
A name, positioning, message, and launch package the institution can take to founders, partners, and sponsors.
The right participating companies, each founder's starting point, capital-path question, and most important proof gap.
The sequence, curriculum, operating cadence, founder tools, live experiences, and accountability system.
One experienced through-line who leads the program, facilitates the most important sessions, and coordinates experts.
Live working sessions, selected outside operators and investors, practical feedback, and bounded one-on-ones.
Intake, company context, evidence collection, preparation, feedback, and progress tracking, so human time stays on judgment and relationships.
Founder progress, emerging outcomes, participant experience, and credible stories in a closing readout with a recommendation for what comes next.
A sample week for one company.
Every company names one Big Rock each week and answers for it on Friday. That cadence is what moves the businesses forward.
What your team does
- Select participating companies. We advise on criteria.
- Provide and participate in the communications channel.
- Confirm the outcomes, targets, and goals.
What we do
- Design the program: scope, schedule, company criteria, and measurement plan.
- Build the curriculum and founder tools around the selected companies.
- Lead the live sessions and founder coaching, and bring in the specialists.
- Track progress and prepare the closing readout for your team and sponsor.
Building businesses that earn the capital they need.
One version of the ten weeks. The sequence is built around the cohort, so the emphasis and the order shift with what those companies need.
- Weeks 1 to 2
Capital, decoded
Venture math and how funds actually make money. Types and sources of capital, from customers and grants to angels, venture, and debt. Deal basics. Each company decides what capital is for and whether outside capital fits now, later, or not at all.
- Week 3
Understand the deal
Terms, ownership, dilution, and control. How a financing would work for this company and what the path requires the business to become.
- Weeks 4 to 6
Build the operating muscle
The metrics that matter and an operating dashboard for each company. Best-in-class go-to-market and product specialists work directly with the founders, and the company starts running the way its future capital partners expect.
- Week 7
Pressure-test the business
Guppy Tank. Investor pitches and feedback sessions with operators and investors who say what they actually think.
- Week 8
The financing package
Financial model, data room, deck, and the rest of the materials a serious process requires, built from the evidence the company now has.
- Weeks 9 to 10
Run the process like a pro
Investor CRM, network activation, investor feedback and iteration, and closing. Companies that are ready go to market. Companies that are not leave with the plan that gets them there.
Foundations covers the first four phases in four to six weeks. Raise runs all six with a smaller group and spends most of its time in the last two. Exact length depends on the cohort and the local capital calendar.
True experts, in the room.
Best-in-class GTM specialists.
Work directly with each company on positioning, pipeline, pricing, and the sales motion that fits the business.
Best-in-class product specialists.
Sharpen what the company builds next and how it proves customers want it.
Operators and investors.
People who have raised, deployed, and returned capital, giving direct feedback rather than encouragement.
Companies leave further along as businesses, and some leave raising.
Most companies start without a capital plan. The program records where each one starts, the work completed, the evidence produced, and where it finishes: a clear decision, evidence investors can check, a financing package, or an active raise.
Illustrative, not program results. Actual measures are agreed before kickoff and reported to your organization first.
A fixed scope, agreed before kickoff.
Each program has a defined cohort, schedule, scope, fee, and division of responsibility. Programs may be funded directly or through a corporate sponsor, foundation, or economic-development grant.
Who this fits.
A good fit
- Incubators, accelerators, university venture centers, and regional innovation organizations supporting early-stage companies.
- Leadership teams that see capital readiness as a real gap in their current programming.
- Organizations with funding in place or a credible path to a sponsor, foundation, or grant.
- Teams that want an experienced outside lead to design and run the program.
Probably not
- Organizations looking only for speakers or a set of curriculum files.
- Cohorts made up mainly of idea-stage founders without a product or early market evidence.
- A single company that needs intensive operating or fundraising support.
- Organizations expecting a guarantee that companies will raise capital.
Does this work outside your home market?
Yes, if the program is built around the local companies, investors, events, and sponsor priorities. Your team owns those relationships. We design and run the program with that local context.
What if the companies are at different stages?
That is why there are two programs. Foundations takes founders who are new to institutional capital. Raise is invite-only for companies with the evidence to run a process. Many institutions run Foundations as a recurring intake and invite graduates into Raise.
What if we do not have a sponsor yet?
We can help turn the need, program design, expected outcomes, and budget into a short sponsor brief. Your organization owns the sponsor relationship and funding decision.
Who sees the final readout?
Your leadership reviews it first. The sponsor version and the measures it includes are agreed before kickoff.
Planning a capital-readiness program?
Tell us about the founders, the gap you are trying to close, and how the work may be funded. We can tell you quickly whether the program fits.
Discuss a program →Or email contact@getintegrated.ai