“If you want to be good at fundraising, you need something interesting to offer, and you need to be a little arrogant.”

Philipp Möhring, General Partner at Tiny, said this on the latest episode of my DEALMACHER podcast. Tiny is the most active early-stage VC in Europe: a few hundred investments per fund, among them unicorns like Wayve, Synthesia and n8n. Philipp is currently raising his fourth fund. Before he started, he asked ten to twelve successful GPs in his network how they close their funds in only a couple of weeks.

Their answers match what I see in the founder rounds I advise. Four of them stood out.

1. A fast close is a long process

One of those GPs had closed his fund in six weeks. When Philipp asked how, the GP said: “Six weeks? A lot happens before that.”

Every fund that closes fast has been talking to investors for months. The GP has met the LPs, shared the thesis and answered the hard questions long before the data room opens. The close is the end of a process that started a year earlier.

Philipp’s summary on the podcast: “The best fundraisers simply talk to the most people.” The founders who close rounds quickly kept investor conversations warm between rounds. The ones who start three months before cash-out end up with one term sheet and no leverage.

His rule: start thinking about the raise about a year before cash-out. And respect the calendar. February, May and October are good months to start a process.

2. Arrogance is a mindset

Philipp is one of the most liked people in the German VC scene. And when I asked him for his most important fundraising learnings, the first one was that you need to be a little arrogant.

His analogy: fundraising is like dating. You are selling yourself. And there are people who go out saying, “Tonight I’m not going home alone.” And then they don’t go home alone.

This is about the assumption you walk in with. A founder who assumes the round will close negotiates from a different place than a founder who hopes the investor will like him. Investors read that difference in the first five minutes.

Arrogance alone does not close a round. You need a company worth investing in, and you need the mindset to sell it.

3. Fail fast applies to fundraising too

Philipp was open about his own weakness. He is not good at saying “last opportunity.” He keeps chasing investors who have gone quiet, sometimes for months.

His learning from his fundraising: pull the plug sooner. “If you fail slowly in a fundraise, you keep moving onto your back foot. You have less and less energy to bring forward.” Every follow-up email to someone who stopped replying costs you energy, and you feel it while writing it.

I tell founders the same thing. When an investor stops replying, stop chasing him. Spend the time on the investors who are still talking to you.

4. Believe an offer when it is an offer

Founders wait for preemptive offers. Philipp’s advice on the podcast: “You know when you have a preemptive offer because you have an offer.”

An investor who says he might preempt wants to run his due diligence alone, without competition, and keep the option to walk away. The founder gives up his other options for that. The investor gives up nothing.

The counter is simple. Keep every conversation running until a term sheet is signed. Including the one with the investor who did not impress you on the first call. Philipp has watched founders drop those conversations early and end up with nothing when the investor they preferred never came through.

What this means for you

The pattern is the same for founders and GPs. Start a year early. Talk to more people than feels necessary. Walk in assuming you will close. Stop chasing investors who have gone quiet. And treat nothing as an offer until it is one.

The full conversation with Philipp, including how Tiny prices pre-seed rounds and why he still trusts intuition over frameworks after hundreds of deals, is on the DEALMACHER podcast: www.id.vc/dealmacher-podcast