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StartupsStrategy · 5 min read
Bridging revenue to revenue
There’s a particular kind of round that doesn’t get talked about much: the one that bridges from now-revenue to next-revenue. Doing it well is a craft.
Bridge rounds get a bad reputation because they’re often raised by founders who can’t quite make the case for a clean Series B. But a deliberate bridge: small, planned, with a clear bridge-to-what, can be the most strategic move a company makes.
What a good bridge looks like
- Small enough to be quick to close, weeks, not months.
- From existing investors who already understand the trajectory.
- Tied to a specific milestone, not just survival.
- Documented as a planned step, not an emergency.
What a bad bridge looks like
Long fundraising process, dilutive terms, no clear story for what comes next. Bad bridges often signal that the company is between the round it deserved and the round it can’t yet earn, and going to market with that ambiguity is brutal.
A bridge to a known milestone is a strategy. A bridge to "more time" is a delay.