Jamal Hirani

Why most fundraising tools optimise the wrong variable

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Most fundraising software optimises activity.

More emails.
More CRM entries.
More database access.

But fundraising isn’t an activity problem.

It’s a structural alignment problem.

Curious to hear from founders:

What part of fundraising felt misaligned in your last round?

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Jamal Hirani

One thing we’ve observed repeatedly:

Founders don’t fail because they lacked effort.

They fail because they deployed effort before structural alignment.

For example:

  • Targeting funds that don’t invest at their stage.

  • Running outreach before narrative coherence is strong.

  • Raising while runway pressure forces weak positioning.

Most tools respond to this by increasing activity:
More contacts. More sequences. More dashboards.

But what if the real optimisation variable isn’t volume — it’s timing and mandate fit?

Should fundraising software:
A) Maximise founder autonomy and let them move fast
or
B) Enforce readiness thresholds to protect long-term signal?

Curious how others think about this — especially those who’ve raised or deployed capital.