Lecture at the invitational training for Mongolian startup support staff: a 180-minute hands-on fundraising workshop

I ran the hands-on fundraising workshop at the invitational training program for Mongolian startup support staff. The audience was people who design and operate startup support programs. Teaching founders and teaching the people who support founders require different preparation. The latter group has to go back and teach it themselves.

90 minutes of lecture, 75 minutes of participants writing

The first thing I decided was the time split. Of the 180 minutes total, I capped my own speaking time at 90 minutes and handed the remaining 75 to the participants to write by hand. I opened by putting that split on the first slide as a graph. Half of this is yours to write.

And within the first five minutes we nailed down the three deliverables everyone would leave with that day. Not lecture notes — three documents you can use the next morning.

• Your 12-slide IR deck outline and the headline message of each slide

• Self-diagnosis against 22 investment committee rejection reasons, plus defense logic for weak points

• A week-by-week fundraising execution table from W1 to W12 (with named owners)

At the end of today’s 180 minutes, you will have these three pages in hand. Not lecture notes — three documents you can use first thing tomorrow morning.

A structure that pairs each attack with its defense tool

The structure of this workshop is simple. First, I lay out all 22 reasons deals get rejected at the investment committee. Then I present the 12-page IR deck as the defense toolkit. And participants fill in the gap between the two themselves.

This isn't a lecture that stays with you because the slides look good. It stays with you because attack and defense are paired up and you fill in the blanks yourself. I also kept the order intact: each person writes alone first, then the team moves to consensus. Start straight into discussion and everything converges on whoever holds the highest title.

The three most common sticking points

In the 22-point self-diagnostic, the items teams marked as “can’t defend” were almost identical from country to country.

• How will you defend it if Big Tech starts the same thing

• How many pages of the IR deck go to the exit scenario

• What logic will close the gap between your target valuation and the investor’s number

None of the three can be answered from a memorized line; the answers have to come out of your own business structure. That is why the defense script is capped at 60 seconds. Any longer and you cannot memorize it, and what you cannot memorize never comes out in a real meeting.

Only honest answers leave trust behind

I added a separate slide on fundraising timelines. Three months covers the preparation and outreach a founder can control. After the investment committee approves, the clock belongs to the fund: actual disbursement usually takes another one to three months. Including that one slide is what protects the credibility of the whole lecture.

Across borders, the order was the same

Mongolia’s startup ecosystem is at a different stage than Korea’s. But the question — what to decide, and in what order — was the same. Clean up the financials, lock the milestones, build the deck, set the valuation logic, and only then meet investors. Skip the order and you only add meetings; the outcome doesn’t change.

Since 2023, BeginMate has worked on team building across borders in Korean, English, Spanish, and Chinese. This training program was an extension of that.

I ran the investment workshop for the Mongolian startup support training program. The audience were the people who design and operate startup support programs. Teaching founders and teaching the people who support founders require different preparation, because the second group has to go home and teach it again themselves.

90 minutes of lecture, 75 minutes of their own work

The first thing I fixed was the time split. Of the 180 minutes, I speak for 90. The remaining 75 belong to the participants, writing with their own hands. I put that split on screen as a bar chart before anything else. Half of this session is yours.

Then, within the first five minutes, I named the three things they would walk out holding. Not lecture notes, but three documents usable the next morning.

• A 12-slide IR deck outline with the head message for each slide

• A self-diagnosis against 22 reasons investment committees say no, plus defence logic for the weak ones

• A week-by-week execution table, W1 to W12, with named owners

In 180 minutes you will be holding three documents. Not lecture notes. Three pages you can use tomorrow morning.

Pair the attacks with the defences

The structure is simple. First I lay out all 22 reasons an investment committee rejects a deal. Then I present the 12-slide IR deck as the defence. Then the participants fill in the gap between the two themselves.

A session sticks not because the slides are beautiful but because the attack and the defence are placed side by side and the blank in between is theirs to fill. Individuals write alone first, and only then move to team agreement. Start with open discussion and the room converges on whoever has the highest title.

The three that always come up

The items teams marked as indefensible were almost identical to what I see in Korea.

• How do you defend if big tech launches the same thing

• How many pages of your deck cover the exit scenario

• How do you close the gap between your valuation and the investor’s

None of these can be memorised; the answer has to come out of your own business structure. So I capped each defence script at 60 seconds. Longer and you cannot memorise it, and what you cannot memorise never shows up in a real meeting.

Being honest is what keeps the trust

I added a dedicated slide on timelines. Three months is the preparation and outreach window a founder can control. After the committee clears it, payment runs on the investor’s clock and usually takes another one to three months. That single slide protects the credibility of everything else.

Across the border, the order stays the same

Mongolia’s startup ecosystem is at a different stage from Korea’s. But the question was the same: what to decide, and in what order. Clean the financials, fix the milestones, build the deck, establish the valuation logic, and only then meet investors. Skip the order and you only add meetings, not outcomes.

Since 2023 BeginMate has supported Korean, English, Spanish and Chinese, handling team building across borders. This program sat on that same line.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

투자유치는 실제로 얼마나 걸립니까?

3개월은 창업자가 통제할 수 있는 준비와 컨택 구간입니다. 투자심의위원회를 통과한 뒤 실제 납입까지는 투자사 시계로 움직이며 통상 1개월에서 3개월이 더 걸립니다. 이 구분을 빼면 강의 전체의 신뢰가 무너집니다.

투심위에서 가장 자주 막히는 질문은 무엇입니까?

빅테크가 같은 것을 시작하면 어떻게 방어할 것인가, EXIT 시나리오가 IR덱에 몇 페이지 들어가 있는가, 희망 밸류에이션과 투자자 산정액의 간격을 어떤 논리로 좁힐 것인가 세 가지입니다. 세 항목 모두 외워서 되는 것이 아니라 자기 사업 구조에서 나와야 합니다.

워크숍에서 개인 작성과 팀 토론 중 무엇을 먼저 합니까?

개인이 먼저 혼자 쓰고 그다음 팀 합의로 넘어갑니다. 바로 토론부터 시작하면 직급이 높은 사람 의견으로 수렴되기 때문입니다.