Insider-led extension · $750K–$2M · 4–6 weeks
A bridge between rounds
A bridge is a different animal from a priced round. The buyer is mostly people who already own your stock, the decision turns on the last four months of updates rather than a deck, and speed matters because you are usually raising into a shortening runway. The mistake is running it like a new round.
50–70%
Insider participation
Share of a healthy bridge typically covered by existing investors. Materially below this is a signal worth understanding before approaching new money.
60–80%
Update open rate
Healthy engagement across an existing investor base. Persistent sub-40% opens usually precede a hard bridge.
4–6 weeks
Time to close
Bridges move faster than priced rounds because diligence is largely already done.
6+ months
Runway at launch
Starting a bridge with less than six months of runway materially weakens your position on terms.
The walkthrough
Week 1
Read the relationship data honestly
Open investor relations and look at engagement, not sentiment. Who opens updates, who replies, who signalled at the last round, who has said nothing for two quarters. The silent ones are information too. They tell you where the bridge will not come from, which is worth knowing before you build the ask around them.
Investor relations · Relationship health
Week 1
Split the pipeline in two
Insiders and new money are different conversations with different materials and different timelines. Run them as separate pipelines in the CRM so an insider conversation never gets the cold-outreach treatment and a new investor never gets an update written for people who already own equity.
Tracking CRM · Split pipelines
Week 1–2
One honest update, then the ask
The bridge is decided by the update, not the ask. The agent drafts a straight account of the last four months – what worked, what did not, what the money buys and what it proves. Send the update, let it land, then ask. Bundling the two reads as spin.
Agents · Update drafting
Week 2–3
Anchor the insiders
Get one existing investor to commit and state a number first. An anchored bridge is a fundamentally easier conversation with everyone after it, and the captable model shows each investor exactly what their position looks like at the proposed terms before they have to ask.
Captable · Scenario modelling
Week 3–5
Top up with a narrow new list
If insiders do not fill it, matching narrows to funds that specifically do bridges and extensions at your stage – a different and much smaller set than your original list. Twenty to thirty names, warm paths first, drafts personalised to the bridge story rather than the original round.
AI matching · Outreach
Week 4–6
Close fast, document properly
Bridges close faster than priced rounds, which is exactly when captable hygiene slips. Keep every SAFE and note current in the captable as it signs, so the Series A diligence does not turn into three weeks of archaeology.
Captable management
Closing note
Bridges reward founders who kept their investors genuinely informed for the four months before they needed anything. The relationship work is the raise; the ask is administration.
Benchmarks are drawn from public industry reporting. RaiseOS is in private beta and pre-revenue – nothing here is a customer outcome.
Other playbooks
Start free. Upgrade when the round goes live.
Matching, the MCP server and the data room stay free. Pro adds the CRM, agents and outreach for $500 a year.
No card required · 1.25L investor records from day one · Nothing sends without your approval