Five introductions that go nowhere: are fundraising consultants worth it?

Sunny Ray · Apr 27, 2026 · 5 min read

"They give us five introductions, those introductions get nowhere. And I just sit there scratching my head." A founder said that to me on April 27, and I have heard some version of it from more founders than I can count.

He was raising the last equity round before a debt facility. He had a meeting every 15 minutes and spent four days a week on the road. He did not have time to be burned twice, and he had been.

So are fundraising consultants worth it? Some are. Most are not, and the reason is not the price. Founders don't distrust fundraising help because it is expensive. They distrust it because most of it ends after five introductions. Here is the test he used, which is the best buyer's checklist I have heard.

Five intros and a disappearing act

The pattern goes like this. A consultant charges a fee up front. The meeting notes put what he had paid in the range of several thousand to tens of thousands. They send a handful of introductions from their network. The intros are polite, the meetings are short, nothing comes of them. Then the consultant has done what they promised, technically, and the founder is back where they started with less money.

Five introductions is not a fundraise. A round takes far more conversations than that to find the handful of investors who move. Five intros is a sample. And if the five were picked from whoever owed the consultant a favor rather than whoever fits the company, the sample is not even a good one.

That is why he told me he would only pay on success. I understood the reaction. I didn't agree with the fix, and I'll come to why.

The right test: a reference from a finished raise

His actual demand was smarter than the success-fee line. He wanted to get on the phone with a founder who had completed a raise with our help. Not a testimonial on a website. A live call with someone whose round closed.

That is the right test for any fundraising help, and few founders ask for it. A logo wall tells you who the consultant has met. A reference from a closed round tells you whether they can finish. Ask the reference three things. How many investor conversations did it take? What did the consultant do after the first intros failed? Would you hire them again for the next round?

If a consultant cannot produce a single founder willing to take that call, you have your answer.

Red flags: success fees from unregistered advisors, long lock-ins

Now the uncomfortable part. Success fees feel like alignment, and that is exactly why founders ask for them. But public guidance on hiring fundraising help flags an advisor without the right registration taking a percentage of the raise as a securities risk. In many places, being paid a cut of capital raised is regulated activity. A founder who pays it to the wrong person can end up with a problem in the round itself. Ask a securities lawyer before you agree to one. This is not legal advice.

The same guidance flags long lock-ins, like twelve-month exclusive contracts, as a red flag. If the work is good, nobody needs to lock you in.

A few more I would add from experience. A consultant who will not tell you which investors they plan to contact before you sign. A plan built on their network instead of a list built for your company. And anyone promising a close. Nobody controls an investor's decision.

Why the five intros fail

It is worth understanding why the intros went nowhere, because it is not bad luck. An intro from a consultant arrives as a favor between two people who know each other. The investor takes the meeting to be polite to the consultant, not because the company fits. You get thirty minutes of courtesy and a kind pass. Five of those can feel like momentum while delivering none. A fit-first list, where every investor was chosen because your stage and sector match what they back, produces fewer polite meetings and more real ones.

Intros versus a system the founder owns

Here is the deeper problem with the five-intro model. When it ends, the founder owns nothing. No list, no process, no relationships. The consultant's network was rented for a month and the lease ran out.

The alternative is help that leaves a system behind. A targeted list of investors who fit your stage and sector. Outreach that runs from your name and builds relationships you keep. Conversations that happen as peers, before anyone asks for a deck. When a month of that ends, you have dozens of investor relationships that are yours. If the round takes longer than planned, and most do, the machine keeps running.

That is the only pitch for fundraising help I respect. Not trust us, but here is what you will own at the end, whether or not we are still around.

How to decide

Ask for a reference from a founder whose round closed, and call them. Ask exactly how many investors will be contacted and how they were chosen. Ask what you keep when the engagement ends. Check whether the fee structure is legal where you are. And look for help that grows your own pipeline, not help that loans you someone else's.

If the answers are good, fundraising help can be worth far more than it costs. If the plan is five introductions, save your money and send the emails yourself.

If you want to run investor outreach yourself, with a system that books the conversations and leaves the relationships with you, here is how it works.

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