Why chasing doesn’t work, and the five-step path that gets SA founders funded on their own terms.

Raising isn’t about being more persuasive in the room; it’s about being the kind of business a VC has been watching execute for six months.

We asked Knife Capital co-founder Keet van Zyl, who has exits to Visa, Uber Eats and Ticketmaster behind him, how SA founders should actually go about raising.

Venture capital suits a specific shape of business: one that can grow fast enough to return a fund, not one that’s merely profitable and steady. Taking VC money into the wrong business buys you an owner with a timeline you can’t meet. Check the fit honestly before you spend six months pitching.

Here’s how to know if your business is a fit for VC funding.

Start emailing a short monthly update to the VCs who passed, the ones who never replied, and the ones you’ve never met. Keep it tight: what you just did, where you’re heading, and one small ask that’s rarely for money. Do it for long enough and eventually one of them writes back asking whether you’re raising.

Here’s how to write an investor update newsletter.

SA founders lose more deals to humility than to hype, making a real business sound like a hobby. Experienced VCs discount your projections the moment you say them, so understating yourself gets you discounted twice. Frame real progress as a trajectory: not “the product isn’t finished” but “we’re at phase four of six.”

Here’s how to build momentum in your pitch without overselling.

Pre-revenue, any valuation you name is invented, and negotiating one under pressure is how founders give away too much for too little. A convertible note or a SAFE lets you take the money now and price it at your next proper round, with a discount that pays the early backer for the risk. Below roughly R5 million in SA, this is usually the only structure that works.

Here’s how to structure a pre-revenue seed round in South Africa.

Most rejections are about fund mandate, stage or vintage rather than a judgement on your business. How you respond decides whether that VC keeps watching you, so ask what would need to be true next time and then put them on the update list. The no you handle well is often the yes you get eighteen months later.

Here’s how to get a funding yes from a VC.

Work the five and the dynamic flips: instead of pitching strangers for money you don’t know you should take, you’re fielding interest from investors who’ve watched you deliver what you said you would, month after month.

These five steps are drawn from The SA VC Funding Landscape, Keet’s full masterclass inside the Founder Collab, the most candid look at how South African venture capital actually works:

You’ll also get access to 40+ other masterclasses from SA founders and operators on sales, UX, paid media, automations and more inside The Founder Collab.

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