I've sat where your investors sit.
Joel Arberman
I'm passionate about giving founders the same rigor institutional investors expect.
I've spent more than 30 years on every side of the table in capital raising: evaluating companies as an analyst at First Investors Asset Management and SunAmerica Asset Management, advising them as a partner at Yorkton Securities, a 700-person institutional investment bank, and raising capital myself as the CEO of public companies. Along the way, I've taken 17 companies public and prepared founders for more than 30 private placements.
That experience showed me a gap that still surprises me. Larger companies raise capital with experienced bankers, lawyers and analysts behind them. Founder-led companies raising their first few million usually have to figure it out alone, and good businesses fall short as a result.
I founded Prepared to Raise, a Meraki Partners service, to close that gap. I work with a small number of founders at a time, building the strategy, materials and offering documents with them, so they approach investors ready, confident and on their own terms. For a fixed fee, with no equity and no success fees.
30+
Years in capital raising, on every side of the table
Up to $10M
Typical raise size supported
$0
Equity or success fees taken
17
Companies taken public, including four of my own
Founders raise ambition. Investors expect preparation.
How it all started
My career started on the investor side, as an analyst at First Investors and SunAmerica, deciding which companies deserved capital. That perspective shaped everything that followed: in investment banking, as a public-company CEO, and in taking four of my own companies public. I've reviewed hundreds of investor presentations, and I still read every one the way an investor would.
Seeing the gap firsthand
Working alongside institutional capital raises made one gap obvious: privately held, founder-led companies raising up to $10M rarely have access to the same strategic rigor, structure, and materials that larger deals take for granted. I launched Prepared to Raise to close that gap, on fixed fees, without ever taking a piece of the deal.
Why I love this work
I believe founders deserve a genuinely ready offering before they ever approach an investor. When strategy, materials and structure are prepared properly, founders raise with confidence, and they raise on their own terms, keeping full ownership of their investor relationships.
“Many founders don't struggle to raise because their businesses are weak. They struggle because they ask before they're ready. I've sat on every side of the table, and I've seen investors decide in the first five minutes whether a founder is serious. My job is to make sure you're ready for those five minutes, and for every question that follows.”
Joel Arberman
Founder, Meraki Partners, LLC
Get Started
Find out if you're ready to raise
Every engagement starts with a free 20-minute intro call. If we're a fit, the next step is a $1,500 Readiness Assessment: a written report within 5 business days, plus Running the Raise, with the fee credited in full toward any package within 60 days.
