A Guide to Preemptive Funding Offers

Most founders don’t realize that investors can write offers without a full pitch. I’ve noticed that founders who regularly – though infrequently – meet with a small but highly motivated set of investors are generally presented with the most options during fundraising, and are mostly likely to get preemptive term sheets. When an investor does issue a preemptive offer, it is usually because she thinks the founder is about to start fundraising, and the investor wants to get ahead of the entire process.

Source: blog.ycombinator.com