Your LPs Can Smell The $108K/Day
While you're grinding through month 6 of your raise, other GPs are closing at $2-5M/day. Here's why velocity is the only fundraising metric that matters, and how to fix yours before momentum kills you
You spent 15 years becoming the smartest person in the room.
McKinsey partner. Goldman MD. Stanford professor. Trauma surgeon. You built a reputation on being exceptional.
Then you raised a fund.
And now you’re sitting in month 8 of what you thought would be a 4-month raise, refreshing your inbox at 11pm, wondering why the LP who was “really excited” three weeks ago stopped returning your calls.
Here’s what nobody tells you about fundraising:
The shame is a lot worse than the rejection.
You can handle a “no.”
You’ve been told no your entire career. What you can’t handle is watching your peers close their funds while you’re still explaining your thesis to the same 30 LPs who keep asking for “one more Zoom.”
You start BSing your team about how it’s going. You stop posting on LinkedIn. You avoid other GPs at conferences. You wonder if you made a catastrophic mistake leaving your old life.
And the worst part? You think it’s you.
Your thesis isn’t compelling enough. Your track record isn’t strong enough. Your network isn’t deep enough. You’re not a “natural” fundraiser.
All of that is wrong.
The problem is velocity, not you.
Look at this data from 10 funds raising right now:
Fund A: $5,066,667/day
Fund B: $2,008,571/day
Fund C: $1,652,174/day
Fund D: $1,321,739/day
Fund E: $1,103,911/day
Fund F: $871,964/day
Fund G: $478,202/day
Fund H: $257,459/day
Fund I: $108,571/day ← This is you
Fund J: $0/day
Average velocity: $752,941/day
Industry benchmark: $185,000/day
The funds moving at $2M/day aren’t smarter than you. They don’t have better track records. They definitely don’t work harder.
They have velocity. And velocity creates its own reality.
When you’re moving at $108K/day:
LPs smell it. They slow-walk diligence.
They ask harder questions. They wait to see who else commits.
They use you for market intel while they evaluate “safer” funds.
Your co-GP starts second-guessing the partnership. Your team wonders if they backed the wrong horse.
When you’re moving at $2M/day:
LPs panic about losing allocation. They crap themselves to call you back.
They skip steps in diligence. They commit before seeing your full pipeline. Other LPs call asking for intros. You become oversubscribed. You get to curate your cap table instead of taking whoever will say yes.
Same fund. Different velocity. Completely different outcome.
Here’s what creates the velocity gap:
It’s not your network.
You know plenty of LPs. They’re just not moving.
It’s not your thesis. Your thesis is fine. Plenty of worse theses close fast. Lots of them.
It’s not your track record. First-time funds with zero track record close at $3M/day all the time.
It’s your system. Your system is crap.
The GPs moving at $2-5M/day have something you don’t: a machine that creates urgency, manufactures FOMO, and turns passive interest into active commits.
They’re not working the same process faster. They’re running a completely different process. Over here at LPB we do systems. All day, every day.
The brutal truth about fundraising:
Momentum compounds. And so does the lack of it.
Fast velocity creates social proof. Social proof creates more velocity. More velocity creates oversubscription. Oversubscription creates leverage. Leverage creates optionality. Optionality creates a better fund.
If you don’t like this stuff, you don’t like MOIC and IRR. We don’t make the rules.
Slow velocity creates doubt. Doubt creates longer diligence. Longer diligence creates slower commits. Slower commits create weaker signaling. Weaker signaling creates more doubt.
You’re not in a fundraise. You’re in a flywheel. And right now, yours is spinning the wrong direction. If was spinning in the right direction you’d be closing the browser window right now.
Here’s what really matters: Slow velocity kills your returns.
Let’s do the math you actually care about.
Scenario A: You close at $108K/day (industry slow)
$25M fund takes 231 days (7.7 months) to close
You start deploying in month 8
Market moves about 15-20% while you’re fundraising
Best deals from months 1-7 are gone
You’re buying at higher valuations than the fast movers
Or worse: you compress deployment to “do catch up” and, well, do worse diligence
Result: Your entry multiples are 1.2-1.5x worse than they should be. LPs see it.
Scenario B: You close at $753K/day (Capital OS client average)
$25M fund takes 33 days (just over 1 month) to close
You start deploying in week 5
You’re first money into the best deals
You set terms instead of accepting them
Your LP base is curated (only the helpful ones)
Result: Better entries, better terms, better support network
The MOIC/IRR impact:
A 7.7-month fundraise vs a 1-month fundraise means:
6.5 months of deals you missed
6.5 months of valuation drift
6.5 months of your best opportunities going to faster funds
Higher entry valuations = compressed MOIC by 20-30%
Delayed deployment = compressed time to exit = lower IRR by 300-500 bps
Then the death spiral starts:
Poor Fund I returns → LPs don’t re-up for Fund II → You’re back fundraising from scratch → Takes even longer because now you have poor performance → Can’t raise Fund II → and…
That’s how funds die.
Not from a single bad decision.
From slow velocity in Fund I that cascaded into performance that made Fund II impossible.
Every day you’re raising at $108K/day instead of $753K/day costs you:
Entry valuations 15-20% higher than they should be
The best deals in your target zone (gone to faster funds)
198 days you could be sourcing and closing
A curated LP base that actually helps portfolio companies
20-30% of your Fund I MOIC
300-500 bps of IRR
Your ability to raise Fund II
You didn’t leave Goldman/McKinsey/Stanford to build a mediocre fund.
But that’s what slow velocity creates.
This is fixable. This does not need to happen.
The GPs moving at $753K/day aren’t special. They just have a system that creates velocity instead of hoping and wishing for it.
Most fundraising advice is garbage. “Build relationships.” “Tell your story.” “Be authentic.” Cool. You’ve been doing all of that for 8 months.
How’s that working out for you?
What actually creates velocity:
Understanding which LPs move fast vs which ones waste your time.
Knowing exacttly which LPs are going to meet with you in the next 30 days. We have systems that tell you this.
Knowing how to manufacture urgency even when you’re pre-first close.
Building a pipeline that creates FOMO instead of “let’s stay in touch.” Having the infrastructure to convert warm intros into commits in days, not months.
The difference between $108K/day and $753K/day isn’t talent. It’s not good looks.
It’s f******** systems and we tell you how to build them.
It’s technical precision.
You spent a decade becoming world-class in your previous career.
Then you walked into fundraising with no training, no system, and no idea what actually moves LPs from interest to commitment.
That’s not a character flaw. That’s a knowledge gap.
And knowledge gaps are fixable.
The shame you’re feeling right now? It’s not permanent.
In 90 days, you could be the GP moving at $750K/day or faster while watching someone else grind through month 8 of their raise.
Or you could still be here, refreshing your inbox at 11pm, wondering why this is so much harder than it’s supposed to be. And then explaining to your LPs in three years why your Fund I MOIC is 1.8x instead of 3.2x.
Your choice.
If you want to know what creates the velocity gap and how to fix yours, we should talk.
We work with GPs who are stuck exactly where you are. Average client velocity: $753K/day. Top quartile: $1.6M-5M/day. These aren’t VC royalty. They’re former operators, academics, and professionals who learned the system.
Not a placement agent. Not a consultant.
A technical system that moves LPs from “interested” to “committed” without you spending 14 months begging.
Reply with:
Your fund size
How long you’ve been raising
Current velocity (capital committed divided by days elapsed)
If we can help, we’ll tell you. If we can’t, we’ll tell you that too.
But stop pretending this is normal. $108K/day isn’t a fundraising strategy. It’s giving away 20-30% of your MOIC before you write your first check.
Fix your velocity or explain the performance gap to your LPs in three years.
Adam
LP Blueprint
Great post. I’m not fundraising right now, but when we’re back in market I’ll reach out to learn more.