How to position your startup as “the one to watch” before fundraising
Raising a funding round does not start when you share your deck. It starts long before that moment, with the reputation, presence, and profile you build in the months leading up to it. Investors form early impressions well before a formal process begins, and those impressions are shaped by how clearly you communicate your vision, how visible you are in your space, and how consistently you show up.
In an increasingly competitive ecosystem and a challenging fundraising market, startups that manage to position themselves as the ones to watch enter their fundraising process with stronger momentum, higher trust, and significantly better odds.
This article breaks down the fundamentals of how founders can position their startup as “one to watch” in the context of a funding round. From sharpening the narrative to building visibility and credibility, it is important to have a strategy and to implement it consistently.
Having worked closely with founders and investors across Europe, I have seen repeatedly how early positioning can define the trajectory of a fundraise. When done well, it enables better conversations with investors, builds trust, and creates more excitement around what you are building.
While this varies somewhat between B2B and B2C companies, and across different industries, some fundamentals remain the same.
So how do you build that momentum before you ever send out a pitch deck?
Start with clarity: sharpen your narrative before you amplify it
Before you can become the startup everyone talks about, you need to understand what you stand for. The strongest market positioning always starts with a clear, sharp, defensible narrative, one that answers three questions:
- Why this: what makes your product or approach meaningfully different?
- Why you: what unique experience, conviction, or methodology sets your founding team apart?
- Why now: what shift or insight makes your solution inevitable?
This is not about broad mission statements. It is about a positioning that is specific, repeatable, and memorable, one that investors can recall after a single conversation. A strong narrative becomes the anchor for every future touchpoint: your product messaging, PR, content, pitch, and eventually your fundraising.
Founder reputation is key: people invest in people
A founder’s personal brand is a major driver of fundraising success. Building a strong and credible personal brand matters because investors assess:
- How well a founder communicates
- Whether they have a clear vision
- How do they build trust with their community
- Their ability to attract talent and attention
A founder’s personal presence across LinkedIn, interviews, events, or communities becomes a proxy for leadership. Particularly in the early stages, conviction is built around the founding team, not just the product.
- Presence builds familiarity.
- Familiarity builds trust.
- Trust builds momentum when fundraising begins.
Build early thought leadership
Startups often wait too long to show what they know. Being vocal about the problem you are solving and owning the conversation around the relevant aspects of your sector helps establish credibility. Founders who consistently articulate insights, patterns, and shifts in their market signal that they deeply understand the territory they are building in.
Thought leadership is not about loud opinions. It is about consistent, value-driven commentary, such as:
- Insights from customer conversations
- Patterns you are spotting before others do
- A clear vision of where your market is headed
This positions you not just as a founder, but as a domain expert, which helps build trust with investors.
Build a playbook and execute consistently
Positioning your startup as “one to watch” is not a campaign; it is a system.
A practical visibility playbook includes:
- Key messages you want to be known for
- Two to three core content themes and thought leadership angles
- Recurring formats you can realistically maintain
- A cadence that fits your actual bandwidth
- Media and community channels prioritised for your market
- Supporting materials such as a founder bio, key data points, and narrative summaries
The goal is not to be everywhere. It is to show up intentionally and consistently, in ways that align with your strengths.
Consistency builds trust. Strong storytelling drives excitement. Together, they foster investor interest.
Becoming “the one to watch” is not about hype or theatrics. It is about clarity, presence, consistency, and credibility. When founders invest in their positioning early, fundraising becomes an extension of a story that is already in motion, one that is consistently reflected in the pitch deck, online touchpoints, and relevant media outlets.
The post How to position your startup as “the one to watch” before fundraising appeared first on EU-Startups.
