pipeline-tracker

name

pipeline-tracker

description

Run a fundraise like a sales pipeline — track every investor conversation, its stage, the next action, and follow-up timing in a simple file-based CRM. Use when a founder says "track my fundraising", "set up an investor CRM", "who do I need to follow up with", "update my pipeline", or wants to manage investor outreach and momentum. Produces and maintains a plain-text/CSV tracker, no SaaS required.

Fundraising pipeline tracker

A raise is a sales process, and the founder is running it against time. Momentum is everything: a tight, parallel process creates urgency; a slow, serial one leaks energy and signals weakness. This skill sets up and maintains a simple file-based CRM so nothing falls through and the founder always knows the next action.

Read shared/references/outreach-ethics.md — follow-up discipline here must stay on the right side of persistent-vs-pestering.

Set it up (first run)

Create a tracker file in the user's project (default: fundraising-pipeline.csv, or Markdown table if they prefer). Use the template in references/pipeline-template.md. Columns:

Field	What it holds
Investor	Firm or angel name
Partner	The specific person you're working
Tier	A / B / C (from investor-targeting)
Stage	Pipeline stage (see below)
Source	How you got in (warm intro via X / cold / inbound)
Last contact	Date of last touch
Next action	The single next thing you owe
Next action date	When to do it
Check / interest	Indicated check size or interest level
Notes	Anything said — objections, who they cc'd, asks

Pipeline stages

Keep it simple and linear; every investor sits in exactly one:

1. Researched — qualified as a fit, not yet contacted.
2. Contacted — first outreach sent (cold or intro requested).
3. Engaged — they replied / a call is booked.
4. Met — first meeting done.
5. Diligence — follow-up meetings, data room, partner meeting.
6. Term sheet / Committed — verbal or written commitment.
7. Passed — they said no (record why — it's signal).
8. Dormant — no response after the follow-up sequence ended.

Running it (ongoing)

When the founder gives an update ("had a call with X", "Y passed", "Z asked for the deck"), you:

1. Update the row — move the stage, set Last contact, write the Notes.
2. Set the next action + date — every active investor must have a next action owned by the founder. No row in stages 2–6 should have an empty next action.
3. Surface what's due — list who needs a follow-up today/this week, and draft it via the cold-email or warm-intro skill if asked.
4. Watch the funnel — report simple counts (e.g., 24 researched, 11 contacted, 4 met, 1 in diligence) so the founder sees conversion and knows whether to add more top-of-funnel.

Momentum coaching (the point of tracking)

• Run in parallel, not serial. Batch outreach so meetings cluster — multiple interested investors at once creates real (not fake) urgency and better terms.
• Mind the follow-up cadence. Persistent = two value-adding follow-ups, then stop (per the cold-email sequence). Pestering = more. The tracker enforces the gap, not just the nudge.
• Log every pass and why. Five passes for the same reason = a pitch or targeting problem to fix, not just bad luck.
• Keep top-of-funnel full until you have committed term sheets. A thin pipeline tempts founders to over-chase one lukewarm investor.

Output

• On setup: the tracker file, created and explained.
• On update: confirm what changed, then a short "due now / due this week" action list and the current funnel counts.
• Never invent investor names or activity to fill the tracker — it holds only what the founder reports or what was researched (with sources) in investor-targeting / investor-research.