I heard this military expression a while ago "hurry up and wait". Apparently, if you're in a military operation, you have periods of intense activity followed by long periods of boredom while you wait for the next order to move. Now, I'm not military, and I can't stand the use of war jargon in business (like beachhead, attacking your competitors, etc., etc.) but I think this is an appropriate expression for the process of raising money.

For example, I spent quite a lot of time preparing a detailed financial plan. Everything seemed smooth, my advisors had a look at it and checked it off until my principle advisor — a former accountant — noticed that it was missing (cough) a balance sheet. I spent an entire friday, saturday and sunday adding a balance sheet. Partly because it wouldn't balance. My advisor (I'll call him Paul) actually worked on the weekend to make it balance properly. That weekend was crazy. Then monday I handed off the FP and basically it was in the hands of the investors until they got back to me.

I'm not saying they weren't prompt. What I'm saying is that I had to work like a dog — and FAST, because we need to move this along! — and then had nothing to do (on the investment) for several days.

And it just happened again, except this time with some details on the technical plan. And now, I'm trying to get a hold of the one guy who can be most helpful, and I can't reach him, so finding this one guy is suddenly my #1 priority. I can't do anything until I hear from him. So it's hurry up and wait.