The story, the numbers and the person, saying the same thing.
A fundraising practice for founders raising pre-seed to Series A. Congruence between the founder and the company, a suite of specialist AI tools, and one person running the raise alongside them.
A deck is screened by software before a partner opens it.
What survives that screen is paperwork, and paperwork is what the free tools now produce well. Two companies with the same numbers arrive looking the same. What separates them is the founder.
And the dynamics of raising stay largely unseen, to founders and to funders alike.
Kristina Altukhova runs The Best Match from Amsterdam. She reads the founder alongside the file, and she stays for the roadshow. Why she does this.
Congruence is whether the story, the numbers and the person say the same thing when someone starts pulling at them.
A capital raise is the most exposing thing a founder does. Whatever pattern someone carries, worthiness or avoidance or defensiveness, the raise turns the pressure up until it shows.
The part the rest of this market hands to intuition.
Software measures the company: the deck, the list, the model, the data room. Reading the founder is left to a feeling in the room, and a feeling does not survive being asked about.
Three instruments do that reading. They are built with Super Stories, an Amsterdam B2B strategy and communications agency, and they are why the work does not depend on how many hours one person has in a week.
What a founder says when nobody is scripting it.
You answer by voice instead of typing. People say more when they speak, and less of it is rehearsed. It runs the intake, and it asks the same questions again before the roadshow, so your language in week one sits next to your language now.
In use · the intake and the podcast
The board a founder at seed does not have.
It holds your deck, your model, the objections investors raised when they passed, and the read on where you stand. Put a decision to it and you get the objection a VC would raise, and the different one a family office would raise, before the meeting where either costs you.
In use · two founders
The money that costs no equity.
It reads the European, national and regional schemes against what your company actually does and returns a shortlist worth pursuing. Establishing which ones apply takes research time nobody raising a round has.
In use · deep-tech, cleantech, health, aerospace
A roadmap to raise, in four parts.
The first three get a founder ready. The fourth runs the raise. What the R.E.A.D. turns up decides where the work goes, so no two founders get the same programme.
| 01 | IntakeFree | A diagnostic call. It ends either with a reason not to proceed, or with the R.E.A.D. as the next step. |
| 02 | The R.E.A.D.Fixed fee | Raise, evidence, architecture, divergence. The gap between them is the finding. |
| 03 | Roadmap to RaiseRetainer | The material and the founder, built at the same time. |
| 04 | Roadshow to RaiseRetainer | Warm paths first, then new outreach in waves of fifty. |
You genuinely get the feeling that you are a really important part of her team, and she is a valued team member. It's definitely not a hands-off, pure capital-raising experience. It's really hands-on, really getting to understand your business.
Simon Kewell · Presto Capital
Kristina supports founders in a way that is more comprehensive and holistic than anything I've seen. She goes beyond the pitch deck and the financial model, aligning the founder as a human being with their strategy and their relationships to investors and partners. I'm convinced this approach yields great outcomes, for the benefit of both founders and investors.
Roel Messie · CEO, IDH Investment Management
Kristina is proactive, she works hard, and she really has your best interest at heart. She's not the typical person who waits for directions. She chases, she pushes to open doors, and she finds other ways to open them. She works closely with your team and integrates well. If you need someone dedicated and focused to help you establish the right connections in seeking investors, that's Kristina.
David Doral · CEO, Dovetail Electric Aviation
Kristina has taught me to just be confident and deliver a sharp, concise message and stay on point with investors.
Simon Kewell · Presto Capital
Start with a conversation. Forty-five minutes, free, and you'll know where you stand.
Book the intakeOr listen first. The Human Side of Building is a series of conversations with founders and investors about what decides a raise.
Getting a founder ready to raise capital, and then running the investor roadshow alongside them.