What we do.
Fundraising and Capital Advisory at Asta is the work that sits upstream of the round. We prepare the company to raise: the strategic narrative, the financial model, the metrics framing, the data room, the diligence anticipation, the term-sheet review, and the negotiation support. The founder runs the investor outreach. We build the analysis and the materials that determine whether the outreach lands.
The work is structurally the same across the funding lifecycle but the emphasis shifts by stage. At pre-seed and seed, the strategic narrative and the financial model carry most of the weight, because the company has limited operating history. At Series A through Series C, the narrative still matters but the metrics package, the cohort analysis, and the unit economics increasingly dominate the diligence. At growth and pre-IPO stages, the diligence preparation, the data room, and the cross-functional readiness matter more than any single artifact.
What we do not do.
Asta is not a placement agent. We do not solicit investors on behalf of issuers, do not act as a broker-dealer, and do not accept contingent fees on the close of a securities transaction. The firm is fee-based, retainer-based, and fractional-executive-based. The founder owns the investor relationships, the outreach, and the negotiation. We support the work with the analysis and the materials, and we attend diligence sessions as the firm's senior principal in the same way an executive on the company's leadership team would.
This posture is described in detail in the regulatory disclosure on every page of this site and in every engagement letter we issue. Sophisticated buyers ask about it before signing; we name it explicitly.
Engagement patterns.
Pre-seed and seed positioning.
Six to ten weeks. The strategic narrative, the founding-team story, the early product proof, the market thesis, and the financial model that translates the thesis into a 24-month operating plan. The deliverable is a deck, a model, and a coachable narrative the founder defends in fifteen pitch meetings.
Series A through Series C raises.
Eight to fourteen weeks. The strategic narrative refined against operating data, the metrics package (cohorts, retention, unit economics, expansion mechanics), the financial model with multiple scenarios, the data room organization, and the diligence-question anticipation. The deliverable supports a six-to-nine-month round.
Growth equity and bridge rounds.
Six to twelve weeks. The strategic narrative for the next chapter, the cohort and unit-economic depth that growth investors require, the use-of-proceeds analysis, the term-sheet evaluation framework, and the negotiation support. The diligence here is more rigorous and the materials need to anticipate it.
Term sheet and negotiation review.
Two to four weeks, often standalone. A structured review of incoming term sheets against the company's strategic and financial position, identifying the terms that matter (valuation, preferred stack, anti-dilution, governance) and the terms that look like they matter but do not. The deliverable is a written analysis and a negotiation strategy.
The deliverables.
A pitch deck the founder can defend without notes. A financial model with the assumptions named, the levers identified, and the scenarios stress-tested. A metrics package that anticipates the diligence questions. A data room organized for the round, not after it. A term-sheet evaluation framework. A negotiation strategy that the founder owns and we support.
The split.
The founder runs the round. The founder owns the investor list, the outreach, the meetings, the relationships, and the negotiation. Asta builds the materials, attends diligence sessions as the firm's senior principal, anticipates the questions, and supports the founder through the term sheet. The split is regulatory and structural; it is also operational, because the investors are buying into the founder, not into the advisor.
When to engage.
Three to six months before the planned round opens. The materials work takes time, and the work that produces the highest-quality round is done before the first conversation, not after. Engagements that begin two weeks before the round opens are corrective rather than preparatory, and the round usually shows it.