Bad Behaviour After Funding
Some founders are wonderfully responsive until the cheque clears. Before funding, every message gets an answer. Afterwards, an investor asking for the monthly numbers becomes an irritating distraction.
That change deserves a blunt name: bad behaviour.
Being busy is understandable. Treating the people who backed you as disposable once their money arrives is unacceptable. If you promised openness to secure an investment, you cannot withdraw that promise because fundraising is over.
The founder-investor gap often begins with a bargain neither side admits it wants.
Expectations of Founders and Investors
The founder thinks: give me money on acceptable terms, then leave me alone. I understand this business better than you do.
The investor thinks: I am trusting you with capital, so I expect information, sound judgement, and serious consideration of my concerns.
These positions can coexist. Trouble starts when the founder interprets accountability as interference, or the investor interprets respect as obedience.
Founders should examine their own contradiction.
You want investors to believe your forecasts, accept your valuation, and trust your character. Yet once funded, you resent having to explain what happened to the money.
Why should confidence survive when the evidence disappears?
Your domain expertise does not settle that question. You may understand the customer better than anyone around the boardroom table. That does not make you an expert in recruitment, financial controls, or managing a growing organisation. It certainly does not exempt you from keeping your word.
Investor Trust and Communication
A cheque validates an investor’s willingness to take a risk. It does not certify your infallibility.
The most corrosive behaviour is selective availability. A founder ignores requests for information, then becomes remarkably communicative when another cheque is needed. Suddenly there is time for calls, detailed presentations, and warm messages about the partnership.
Investors notice. They remember who treated them as partners only when the bank balance demanded it.
There is also a difference between disappointing results and dishonest communication. Sales falling short is a business problem. Dressing up weak sales as “exciting momentum” while withholding the numbers creates a second problem: nobody knows whether your next explanation deserves belief.
Silence has consequences beyond hurt feelings.
It destroys options.
You cannot demand trust while making yourself impossible to reach. Accountability becomes especially important when you would rather avoid the conversation entirely.
Responsibilities of Founders and Investors
None of this gives investors permission to behave like petty bosses. Writing a cheque does not confer operating wisdom. An investor who demands constant access, bypasses the founder to instruct employees, or treats every rejected suggestion as disrespect is damaging the business too.
Founders owe investors candour and agreed governance. They do not owe them flattery.
Investors owe founders room to execute. They should also accept that advice can be heard, understood, and reasonably rejected.
The solution begins before anyone transfers money.
Setting Expectations Before Funding
Work through the Founder, Investor Expectation Matrix. Discuss growth expectations, reporting, decision rights, and exit horizons. Ask what happens when targets are missed. Pleasant agreement during a pitch tells you little about how either person handles disappointment.
Founders should use the One-on-One Investor Vetting Questions and speak with entrepreneurs whose companies struggled. Did the investor offer practical help? Did they listen? Did they become threatening when the business stopped matching the presentation?
Investors should investigate the founder’s conduct with equal care. How do they respond to uncomfortable questions? Can they acknowledge a mistake without blaming employees, customers, or the market? Evasiveness before funding deserves attention.
Record mutual expectations using the Founder, Investor Prenup Agreement as a discussion guide.
Make sure the formal investment documents reflect the decision rights both sides understand.
Post-Funding Communication
Then establish a reporting routine. Send a concise monthly update covering performance, cash, runway, problems, and requests for help. Disclose material setbacks promptly. Answer reasonable questions. If an answer needs time, say when it will arrive.
This is basic professional conduct. A founder capable of selling a complex product should be capable of sending an honest update.
Finally, be candid about whether you want outside equity at all. If sharing information and accepting agreed oversight feel intolerable, reconsider the financing model. Bootstrapping may require slower growth and harder choices, but it may suit your priorities better.
Investors should make the same assessment. A founder can build a worthwhile business that does not fit your return expectations. Forcing that relationship helps nobody.
The real test comes after funding, when neither side needs to impress the other to close the deal.
Promises and Relationships
That is when promises become behaviour. Founders who disappear after receiving the cheque reveal what they thought the relationship was worth. Investors who respond with domination reveal their own misunderstanding.
Both should have been more honest before signing.