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Ten fundraising consultants on how a round gets met: investors counted, meetings booked, investor data and timing, an audience of their own and rounds closed.
A fundraising consultant for startups whose investor access comes from closed transactions: 440+ direct relationships, 2,500+ investors and LPs met with clients, 30+ partner firms and its own investor data timed on signals.
Investors answer firms they know. spectup built that familiarity from closed transactions, signals and an audience of its own.
440+ direct relationships out of closed transactions, 2,500+ investors and LPs met with clients, and 30+ partner firms. It runs the outreach and counts the meetings.
Its own investor database, built from primary data and from what each investor has written before, and a signal engine that times the approach for when the capital is ready.
The Raise or Die Letter goes to 2,000 B2B financial decision makers every two weeks, and the podcast reaches 8,000+ listeners a month.
spectup comes first, as the best overall. The other nine follow in the order the checks give.
9 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
| Firm | Best for | Fees | Relationships counted | Books meetings | Data and timing | Own audience | Rounds and amounts | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01spectupBest overall | Startups with revenue raising Series A or later | Monthly fee, then a capped success fee at close; no fee figures published | 10/10 | |||||
| 02Marquee Equity | Startups that want a large investor outreach campaign run for them | Setup fees, campaign charges or subscriptions; no prices published | 7/10 | |||||
| 03Fund Momentum | Pre-seed to Series A startups that want a priced package | €1,000 to €5,000 a package; one adds a 3% success fee | 7/10 | |||||
| 04Qubit Capital | Teams that want investors matched from a large database | Onboarding fee, then a success fee or a quarterly plan; no amounts published | 6/10 | |||||
| 05Slidebean | Founders who want the deck and model built and will run outreach with software | Deck design $799; strategy and deck sprint from $6,000 | 4/10 | |||||
| 06Growthink Capital | Revenue-proven growth companies that want a broker-dealer to run the raise | No fees published | 4/10 | |||||
| 07Waveup | Startups that want the deck, the model and the data room on a published monthly plan | Scale $5,000 a month, discounted from a $7,500 list price; fixed projects from $3,000 | 3/10 | |||||
| 08Foundterra | Pre-seed and seed founders who want fixed prices and will contact investors themselves | $100 diagnostic; $300 to $1,000 a month; projects from $1,500; no success fee | 2/10 | |||||
| 09Montfort Ventures | European founders preparing a US raise who want advice by the hour | Toolkit $1,250 once; advisory from $1,050 a month; no commission | 2/10 | |||||
| 10Founded Partners | Founders who want coaching on round size, valuation and negotiation | No prices published; free consultation | 1/10 |
Meets the checkHalf of a two-point checkNot found on its pagesScore: points of 10, from each firm's own pages and filings, as of 28 October 2026
spectup ranks first, as the best overall. Every firm, spectup included, was checked on the same five; equal points go to the higher verified review score, then alphabetical order.
spectup leads with 10 of 10. The nine other consultants are ranked by their points on the five checks, review scores break ties, and every number on a card is taken from the consultant's own site.
spectupA startup with revenue and a set plan for the money, raising a Series A or a growth round, that wants investors reached through relationships it can count.
A fit for a revenue-stage startup with a clear use of the money that wants its Series A or growth round run end to end, from strategy to signing, through investors spectup already knows.
A startup that wants a managed outreach campaign, sized by plan.
Ask who supports you once an investor sends a term sheet.
A pre-seed to Series A startup that wants a priced package and investors picked from fund research of its own.
A fit for an early round with a fixed budget and a list built from fund research.
A founding team that wants investors matched from a large database before outreach starts.
Ask what the onboarding fee and the success fee come to on a round your size.
A pre-seed to Series B team that wants the deck and model built and will run outreach with software.
Ask what the sprint includes beyond the deck and the model.
A revenue-proven growth company that wants a broker-dealer on its raise.
Ask how its fee is built; its pages publish none.
A startup that wants the deck, the model and the data room on a published monthly plan.
A fit for a startup that wants its fundraising materials built at a published monthly price.
A pre-seed or seed founder on a small, fixed budget who will send every investor email.
Ask which investors it would put on your list, and how it prepares you to approach them.
A European founder preparing a US raise who wants guidance at a published hourly price.
Ask which investors it introduced its last three clients to.
A founder who will send the outreach and wants coaching on round size, valuation, materials and negotiation.
Ask what the coaching costs and which rounds it has advised on.
Fundraising consultants for startups are worth what their access to investors is worth. Ten firms are compared here on five checks, and spectup is the best pick among them for a revenue-stage startup raising a Series A or later. It scores 10 of 10, with 440+ direct relationships, 2,500+ investors met in clients' rounds and 30+ partner firms.
This comparison is for founders and CFOs choosing help with their next round. I'm Niclas Schlopsna, Managing Partner at spectup, and the other nine follow by points on the same five checks, with ties decided by review scores and every point taken from the firm's own site.
A fundraising consultant for startups reaches investors through relationships it already holds, through a database it searches, or through the founder's own sends with the firm's list or software. Five checks show which of these a firm sells, and a founder can ask for each before the first call.
The relationships are counted: how many investors the firm knows, has met in clients' rounds and reaches through partner firms. The outreach is run by the firm and produces meetings it can count. The data has a source and a timing: the firm's own live rounds, or a bought list.
The audience belongs to the firm or it does not. The proof is rounds the firm helped close, named, with the amount raised.
| Whole | Part | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs the investor outreach | The firm (5): Fund Momentum, Growthink Capital, Marquee Equity, Qubit Capital, spectup | 50% |
| Who runs the investor outreach | The founder (5): Founded Partners, Foundterra, Montfort Ventures, Slidebean, Waveup | 50% |
Outreach is where US securities rules come in. The SEC's guide to broker-dealer registration lists people "finding investors for “issuers” (entities issuing securities), even in a “consultant” capacity" among those who may have to register. So ask any consultant paid on the money raised how its US work is licensed.
Growthink Capital runs securities work through its own broker-dealer. spectup's U.S.-related activities are conducted under SEC Rule 15a-6 through a chaperoning arrangement with a U.S. registered broker-dealer that is a FINRA and SIPC member. A round under Rule 506(b) has "no general solicitation or advertising to market the securities", so how a consultant reaches investors is part of the legal question.
A consultant's licence decides what it may do with investors, so ask for it before the first call.
spectup ranks first for a startup raising from Series A with revenue behind it. All ten were scored from 0 to 2 on five checks, ten points at most, each from the firm's own site:
7 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
Firm | Relationships counted | Books meetings | Data and timing | Own audience | Rounds and amounts | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
spectup | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
Marquee Equity | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
Fund Momentum | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
Qubit Capital | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
Slidebean | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Growthink Capital | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Waveup | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Foundterra | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Montfort Ventures | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Founded Partners | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
A tie is settled by independent reviews: the firm whose best profile on Clutch, Trustpilot or G2 (five reviews or more) shows the higher score ranks above the other, and the number of reviews comes next. A firm with no such profile comes after those that have one, and alphabetical order settles what is left.
Marquee Equity and Fund Momentum tie on 7, and Marquee Equity's 4.3 from 547 Trustpilot reviews puts it ahead of a firm with no public rating. Slidebean and Growthink Capital tie on 4, and Slidebean's 3.6 from 294 Trustpilot reviews puts it ahead in the same way. Foundterra and Montfort Ventures tie on 2 with no such profile, so alphabetical order decides. spectup is the only firm with two points on relationships and on audience.
Three kinds of firm are not here: marketplaces of freelance advisers such as Toptal and Upwork, directories of individual advisers such as FundraisingAdvisors.app, and the consultancies that raise donations for nonprofits.
Fewer points can still mean the better fit, for a founder who wants a fixed price and runs the outreach.
spectup is a private capital advisory firm and a fundraising consultant for startups, and it takes the full 10 of 10 on the five checks, two on each. It runs Series A and later rounds for companies that already earn revenue and have a defined use of proceeds, with no upper limit on round size. It turns down pre-revenue companies, rounds before Series A, and rounds that have to close in weeks.
Its relationships come out of closed transactions: 440+ direct ones, 2,500+ investors and LPs met in clients' rounds and the investor books of 30+ partner firms. It runs the outreach itself and counts the meetings, 44 of them on a $40M Series D.
Its investor data is its own, a database built from primary data and from what each investor has written before. A separate signal engine watches 80+ signals, and an approach is made when the capital is ready.
The audience is its own too. 2,000 B2B financial decision makers read its Raise or Die Letter, which goes out every two weeks; the podcast reaches 8,000+ listeners a month and its LinkedIn channel 20,000+ followers.
A raise runs in four phases: strategy, readiness, outreach, then diligence and the run to signing. spectup prepares the CEO, the CFO and their counsel for the negotiation, and they conduct it.
The transactions on its site include a $40M Series D, an $18M Series B and a $12M Series A, and it has 4.9 from 18 reviews on Clutch. Its own startup fundraising consultant page sets out which rounds it takes, how it runs them and how it is paid.
The success fee falls due only when the round closes and the money is in.
Among the fundraising consultants for startups here, Marquee Equity sells outreach as a campaign, with a team of 100+ by its own count. Its score is 7 of 10: two for outreach with a meeting count and two for rounds named with amounts, one each for relationships, investor data and audience.
It builds the documents, "pitch deck, business plans, teasers, financial model, projections and valuations", then runs outreach campaigns of 50 to 600 investor engagements per deal, depending on the plan. A transaction execution manager handles the investor back and forth and the call scheduling, and its homepage states 5000+ meetings per month.
AI matchmaking draws on its own investor database, and its site offers direct access to 32,000+ VCs, PEs, family offices and angels: a count of investors in a database, and the only count it gives of its network. The pages read name no source for that data in its own rounds and no timing on investor signals; its audience is a blog of articles with no stated reach.
It names a $4M seed round for Qolo.io and a raise of 1 million USD for eZdia. Prices are not published; its terms name setup fees, campaign charges and subscriptions. By its own count it has helped 1,200 clients, and on Trustpilot it scores 4.3 from 547 reviews.
Marquee Equity is the only firm besides spectup that states a count of the meetings it books.
Fund Momentum is based in Vienna and run by Michael Schneider, whose fundraising advisory practice, Seedraisr, now runs as part of it. It works with founders raising pre-seed to Series A, and its site counts 10 years of experience across 22 countries. It also comes to 7 of 10: two for investor data of its own and two for a round named with its amount, one each for relationships, outreach and audience.
The data is its own research: verified profiles of 1,000+ VC partners across 950+ funds, each fund with its thesis and deployment signals, and fund closes it reports itself, so the list shows which funds have fresh capital. That is one count of investors, and the only one; the angels, VCs and family offices it opens to founders are not counted.
It runs targeted outreach, warm where possible, with no count of the meetings that follow, and its smallest package names a short list of 50 to 100 investors with a warm introduction to 10 to 15. It publishes articles and a newsletter with no stated audience. A client names a first round of USD 3.75 million, for Nautica Technologies.
Prices are published per package, in euro: €1,000 for a one to two week short list, €3,000 upfront plus a 3% success fee over six to eight weeks, or €5,000 upfront for eight weeks. It has no public rating on Clutch, Trustpilot or G2.
Fund Momentum matches Marquee Equity on points; Marquee's 547 Trustpilot reviews put it one place higher.
Qubit Capital started in India in 2020. Its site describes an AI fundraising platform: matchmaking against a network it says holds 7,476 VCs, outreach programmes run on the client's behalf, and decks, financial models and data rooms. That adds up to 6 of 10: two for rounds named with amounts, one each for relationships, outreach, data and audience.
Its network is a count of 20,000+ investors, with 7,476 VCs, 4,202 PEs and 4,807 corporates, that its AI system searches; its site says its relationships open doors but states no number of direct ones. It runs the outreach for the client without a count of the meetings that follow.
It names a $7.6M Series A for Swiipr Technologies and a €500k seed round for Ivent Pro, and its blog archives a Weekly Funding Roundup. It says it stays "from planning to term sheet to close".
Its prices are not published: work starts with an onboarding fee, then a success fee or a quarterly plan, as its blog describes. By its own count it has raised $215M across its deals, and on Trustpilot it scores 4.0 from 95 reviews.
A count of investors in a database and a count of relationships are different numbers. Ask which one a firm is quoting.
Slidebean, founded in 2014 and based in New York City and San Jose, sells pitch deck and fundraising consulting for pre-seed to Series B companies. Analysts there advise on the raise, and the team writes, designs and models the deck; the founder runs outreach with its Investor Finder software. Together that is 4 of 10: two for rounds named with amounts, one each for investor data and audience.
Investor Finder is a database of investors and their investment history for the founder to search. Slidebean also sells its own AI pitch deck software and sends the Startup Club newsletter every month, which by its own count 500,000 entrepreneurs read: an audience of founders, so it earns one point for content and none for an investor audience.
It names a $7M raise for Sparkcharge and a $225,000 pre-seed for MinuteSkill, and by its own count clients raised $500M+ with its deck and model help. Prices are published: deck design at $799 and a strategy and deck sprint from $6,000. On Trustpilot it scores 3.6 from 294 reviews, on a profile that covers its software as well as its services.
Slidebean's 500,000 newsletter readers are founders, so the newsletter earns it one point and not two.
Among the fundraising consultants for startups here, Growthink Capital trades under the Growthink name, in business since 1999, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Its securities transactions run through GT Securities, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC, and it works with revenue-proven, growth-stage companies in tech-enabled sectors. Its total is 4 of 10: two for rounds named with amounts, one each for outreach and audience.
Its site claims an extensive network of strong relationships, with 180 affiliated investment bankers and 250+ closed deals, and states no count of investors. It says it runs targeted, warm outreach, without a count of the meetings. Growthink Capital Research publishes a quarterly M&A Observatory and a monthly Growth Funding Recap, with no stated reach.
Its capital page covers the whole round, from strategy and the growth story to due diligence and closing. It names a $15M Series A for Spinn, a $20M growth raise for Super 73 and a $4.5M Series A for Seamfix, and by its own count has $3B+ of completed transactions. Its fees are not published, and it has no rating of its own: the Trustpilot reviews under the Growthink name are mostly about its business plan templates.
What each firm states as its investor reach, under the first check:
3 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
Firm | Its stated investor reach | Counted |
|---|---|---|
spectup | Three layers: relationships from closed transactions, investors met with clients, partner firms | 440+, 2,500+ and 30+ |
Growthink Capital | A network of relationships built as a broker-dealer | 180 bankers, no investors counted |
Marquee Equity | Direct access to investors in its database | 32,000+ in a database |
Qubit Capital | A network of investors its AI system searches | 20,000+ in a database |
Fund Momentum | Its own research on VC funds and their partners | 1,000+ partners in its data |
Montfort Ventures | Its VC network and its Growth Advisors | No count |
Founded Partners | Identifies suitable investors | No network claimed |
Slidebean | Investor Finder software | No network claimed |
Foundterra | A free list of pre-seed investors | No network claimed |
Marquee Equity, Fund Momentum and Qubit Capital each state one count of investors in their data. Only spectup states the three counts the first check asks for.
Waveup, one of the fundraising consultants for startups that sells the materials rather than the outreach, was founded in 2014 and has a team of 25 across Europe, with its head office in London. It builds the fundraising materials for seed through Series D: the pitch deck, the financial model, the valuation and the data room. It comes to 3 of 10: two for rounds named with amounts and one for audience.
Its blog publishes articles on fundraising and pitch decks, and its newsletter is a sign-up form with no stated reach. It names Laude Ventures' $150M fund and Tapcheck's $225M round, for which it prepared the investor materials.
Prices are published: a Scale plan at $5,000 a month, discounted from $7,500, a Multi-workstream plan at $10,000 a month, discounted from $12,500, or fixed-price projects from $3,000. Retainer is its standard model, with a hybrid retainer plus success fee for selected engagements. By its own count it is behind $3B+ in funding, and on Clutch it scores 5.0 from 6 reviews.
Five of the ten firms leave the investor outreach to the founder: Founded Partners, Foundterra, Montfort Ventures, Slidebean and Waveup.
Foundterra works primarily with pre-seed and seed founders. It builds investor-ready materials, researches and targets investors, and prepares founders for investor Q&A and data room requests. The result is 2 of 10: one for investor data and one for audience.
Founders contact investors themselves, and Foundterra says it is not a broker or placement agent. Its site lists a free investor database of pre-seed investors, and it claims no network. Its monthly plan includes an investor signal review of replies, silence and objections, which reads the answers once outreach has gone out.
Its blog covers fundraising and pitch decks, and its YouTube channel runs a numbered video series in Hebrew on raising capital in the US. It names no closed round.
Foundterra and Montfort Ventures both score 2, and neither contacts an investor for the founder.
Prices are published: a $100 deck diagnostic, monthly support at $300, $500 or $1,000, and done-for-you work from $1,500, with no success fees and no paid introductions. On Trustpilot it has a single review.
Montfort Ventures, one of the fundraising consultants for startups that bills by the hour, is based in San Diego and was founded in 2023, with a service for French and European founders raising in the United States. Its advisory covers strategy, deck review, a curated list of investors, meetings with them and term sheet reviews. Its tally is 2 of 10: one for investor data and one for audience.
It delivers a client's deck to its VC network and draws on its network of Growth Advisors, with no count of either. Its investor data comes from research firms such as Pitchbook, and its toolkit's investor CRM and database is supplied in partnership with Open VC. It helps founders connect to investors and facilitate meetings, with no count of them; the blog carries articles and reports, and no closed round is named.
Prices are published: a Startup Toolkit for $1,250 once, Light Advisory at $1,050 a month for 5 hours, and Fundraising Advisory at $125 an hour with a 40-hour minimum. It states that it takes no equity and no commission, and it has no public rating.
Montfort Ventures sells hours, so ask how many of them go to the investor outreach.
Founded Partners sells startup funding strategy and pitch deck consulting: how much to raise and at what valuation, decks and financial models, and guidance on investor negotiations. It identifies investors and prepares founders to approach them, so the founder sends the outreach, and weekly advisory sessions are sold separately. Its single point, of 10, is for a blog of articles.
It claims no investor network and describes no investor data, signals or named round. It publishes no prices, offers a free consultation and has no public rating.
| Row | Lowest monthly plan | Highest monthly plan |
|---|---|---|
| Foundterra (Three plans) | $300 | $1,000 |
| Montfort Ventures (One plan, 5 hours) | $1,050 | |
| Waveup (Two plans) | $5,000 | $10,000 |
Five of the ten publish prices: Foundterra, Fund Momentum, Montfort Ventures, Slidebean and Waveup. The other five, spectup among them, print no fee figures on their sites.
A success fee ties part of the price to the round closing. What each firm's own site says about it:
Check whether the success fee is capped, and whether it falls due at signing or when the money arrives.
| Track | What | When |
|---|---|---|
| Align | 0 to 1 week | |
| Build | 1 to 3 week | |
| Target | 2 to 5 week | |
| Outreach | From week 5 | 4 to 35 week |
| Monthly fee | 0 to 22 week | |
| Monthly fee | 22 to 35 week | |
| Success fee | Due at close | 22 to 35 week |
Outreach starts in week 5, once the deck, model, data room and named investor list are ready; our notes on how investor outreach works cover the approach and the follow-up. A raise typically runs five to eight months, counted from the signed engagement to the close, and the size of the round sets where in that range it lands.
The fee follows the same line: five to eight monthly fees while the round runs, then one success fee after the round closes and the money has arrived, a capped percentage of capital raised. If the round does not close, there is no success fee, and spectup is paid by the company only.
For the questions investors ask back, see how to raise venture capital.
2 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
If you want | Look first at |
|---|---|
A Series A or later round run end to end, through investors the firm has met for transactions | spectup |
Deck, model and data room on a published monthly plan | Waveup |
A broker-dealer on a growth raise | Growthink Capital |
A large investor outreach campaign run for you | Marquee Equity, Qubit Capital |
Advice by the hour for a US raise | Montfort Ventures |
Fixed prices, and you send the emails | Foundterra, Slidebean |
Coaching on the round, and you send the emails | Founded Partners |
A priced package for a pre-seed to Series A round, with a list built from fund research | Fund Momentum |
If your startup has revenue and is raising a Series A or later, start with spectup and ask us the questions above in writing. Our pitch deck consultants comparison covers the firms that only build the materials.
Our guide to AI fundraising tools shows where software stops in a raise.
"The outreach generated 44 investor meetings and saved me countless hours of unqualified calls."
8 questions on fundraising consultants for startups, answered by Niclas Schlopsna, Managing Partner.
spectup ranks first of the ten, for a startup with revenue raising a Series A or later. It scores 10 of 10 on the five checks: 440+ direct relationships from closed transactions, outreach that produced 44 investor meetings on one $40M Series D, its own investor data timed on 80+ signals, an audience of 2,000 B2B financial decision makers and rounds of $40M, $18M and $12M named on its site. Marquee Equity and Fund Momentum are next with 7.
Published prices here run from Foundterra's $100 deck diagnostic to Waveup's $10,000 a month. spectup, a startup fundraising consultant that runs the whole round, charges a monthly fee, then a capped success fee on capital raised; it publishes no fee figures.
None of the firms here that publish their terms does. Waveup takes no success-only work, Montfort Ventures takes no commission, Foundterra charges no success fee, Qubit Capital starts with an onboarding fee, Fund Momentum pairs its 3% success fee with €3,000 upfront, and spectup does not work on a success fee alone. Marquee Equity charges setup fees, campaign charges or subscriptions, and Slidebean sells fixed-price projects. Growthink Capital and Founded Partners publish no fee terms.
Not spectup, which starts at Series A. Foundterra works primarily with pre-seed and seed founders, and Slidebean takes pre-seed to Series B.
Through relationships it already holds, a database it searches, or the founder's own sends with the firm's list or software. spectup counts 440+ direct relationships out of closed transactions, 2,500+ LPs and investors met in clients' rounds, and 30+ partner firms. Qubit Capital and Marquee Equity state counts of investors in a database, 20,000+ and 32,000+, which is a different thing from a count of relationships, and the founder should ask which of the two a firm is quoting.
It differs by firm. spectup, Marquee Equity, Fund Momentum, Qubit Capital and Growthink Capital run investor outreach for the client, and of these only spectup and Marquee Equity state a meeting count: 44 investor meetings on one $40M Series D at spectup, 5000+ meetings per month at Marquee Equity. Slidebean, Foundterra, Waveup, Montfort Ventures and Founded Partners leave the sends to the founder.
It may have to. The SEC's broker-dealer guide lists people who find investors for issuers, even as consultants, among those who may have to register. Ask how the US work is licensed: Growthink Capital runs securities work through its own broker-dealer, and spectup works under SEC Rule 15a-6 with a FINRA and SIPC member broker-dealer.
Hire when the round needs investors beyond the founders' own network and the team cannot run a process next to the business. Raise alone when a lead investor is already in the conversation.
