A strong product can still leave you struggling to explain your startup's potential to investors. In a May 2024 interview with Sasha Orloff, Steve McLaughlin, CEO of FT Partners, shared lessons from advising Revolut on its 2021 financing round. Revolut later announced a share sale at a $75 billion valuation in November 2025, a separate milestone from the deal discussed in the interview.
TLDR:
Fundraising is storytelling with high stakes. One of the key elements in securing substantial investment is building a credible narrative around the company’s future.
McLaughlin stresses that most founders underestimate this critical skill. “The process of telling your story is really important. And you'd be shocked how few entrepreneurs actually take the time to share it."
When FT Partners took on Revolut, the fintech's valuation stood at $5 billion. FT Partners' historical transaction record describes financing of $1.25 billion at a $33 billion valuation, announced on July 15, 2021. Later, Reuters reported a secondary share sale at a $75 billion valuation in November 2025, not 2024.
The numbers helped show the potential and the vision behind Revolut’s growth. McLaughlin says FT Partners looks for companies with strong business models. “We only work with very good companies. If we don't believe in a company's business model, we won't take it on.”
Revolut's later valuations give the historical case study new context. Its November 2025 announcement confirmed a share sale at a $75 billion valuation, but did not state a $3 billion transaction size. More recently, Reuters' October 4, 2026 report put its private valuation at $115 billion. These are later valuation milestones, not amounts of capital raised in the financing McLaughlin discussed.
The broader market context makes disciplined storytelling even more critical heading into late 2026. Global fintech investment climbed to $116 billion in 2025 (up from $95.5 billion in 2024), according to KPMG's Pulse of Fintech report. Founders should prepare to discuss burn multiples, unit economics, and a credible path to profitability alongside their vision. Crunchbase's Q1 2026 analysis reports $12 billion in global fintech venture funding alongside a decline in deal count. That venture-only figure covers a different scope from KPMG's broader investment total.
What does that mean for founders raising today? McLaughlin's core thesis holds: a compelling narrative can help you reach the right investors, but the numbers behind it need to hold up under review. Check your spending figures before discussing burn multiples and unit economics with investors.
US fintech companies raised $16 billion across 445 deals in Q2 2026, with deal sizes averaging about $36 million, according to FinTech Global's Q2 2026 US funding analysis. The composition matters: funding from rounds of $100 million or more rose 23% year over year to $12 billion, while funding from smaller rounds fell 17% year over year to $4.3 billion. These changes describe funding amounts, not deal counts.
Large rounds can lift funding totals without improving access to capital for earlier-stage startups. For your own raise, focus on investors who fund your stage and business model. A sector-wide funding total is no guarantee of demand for your round.
For founders checking their Series A readiness or preparing a Series B raise in this environment, the playbook McLaughlin describes (credible unit economics, a long-term financial model, the right investor fit over the highest headline number) can help prepare them for investor discussions.
The latest quarter adds a caution to the big-round headlines. According to Crunchbase's Q3 2026 fintech funding analysis, fintech startups raised $10.6 billion globally, down 21.4% year over year and down 28.4% from $14.9 billion in Q2 2026. Deal count fell to 687 rounds from 995 a year earlier. Funding from rounds of $100 million or more dropped 43.3% from Q2, while early-stage funding held up at $4.23 billion, down just 0.6% year over year. These figures track global venture funding, not the broader investment totals or the US-only Q2 data cited above.
For founders preparing a year-end raise, McLaughlin's long-term storytelling lesson still holds, but give investors a way to check the story. Pair your product roadmap with current ARR, customer retention, burn rate, and runway. Make the assumptions behind your projections explicit, and show which milestone the next round will fund. A compelling vision gets stronger when investors can trace it back to your actual results.
Revolut's story did not stop at $33 billion. A Reuters report from July 22, 2026 said a secondary share sale was underway at $2,017 per share, a $115 billion valuation. Secondary sales let employees and early investors sell shares before a listing, so they differ from primary rounds that put new capital into the company.
Looking further out, CoinDesk, citing the Financial Times, reported in April that Revolut had discussed a $150 billion to $200 billion valuation range for a future IPO with investors. The company has said it would not seek a listing before 2028 and had set no formal valuation targets, so treat those IPO figures as reported discussions, not outcomes. The same report put Revolut's 2025 pre-tax profit at £1.7 billion, up 57%.
The lesson for founders: the long-horizon story McLaughlin helped build in 2021 only held because years of reported results kept backing it up. Your version is smaller, but the habit is the same. Keep your monthly financials current so every claim in your deck traces back to your books.
McLaughlin describes several key strategies FT Partners implemented in this case:
| Strategy | What FT Partners Did | Key Principle |
|---|---|---|
| Uncovering Hidden Strengths | Showcased Revolut's expanding product suite and plans to scale internationally | Show the full scope of what's already built |
| Product-Led Growth | Showed how product excellence drove adoption with minimal marketing spend | Let the product speak for itself |
| Long-Term Vision | Built a financial model extending to 2041, projecting growth across multiple dimensions | Give investors a 20-year view beyond a three-year plan |
| Changing investor perception | Reframed Revolut as a unique technology business being built at rapid scale | Shift the narrative from valuation to lasting impact |
| Finding the Right Investors | Spent time identifying and engaging the right investors globally | Fit matters more than the highest offer |
The Revolut case study shows how much a capital raise can reshape a company's path.
Fundraising is about crafting a narrative that aligns with a company's long-term vision and potential. Investors demand more than just a good idea or a promising product. Founders need to master the delicate balance of showcasing current strengths while painting a compelling picture of future potential, a process covered in depth in the founder's guide to fundraising. That requires a close look at product roadmaps, market analysis, and financial projections.
McLaughlin describes an approach to storytelling backed by data and grounded in reality. The lesson is clear: preparation is key, partnerships matter, and the right narrative can turn a good raise into a defining one.
A compelling fundraising narrative goes beyond financial projections: it requires a clear vision of the company's long-term potential, a strong product story, and a credible path to scale. Steve McLaughlin of FT Partners stresses that most founders underestimate this skill: building a detailed narrative around the company's future, backed by product roadmaps and market analysis, can help investors understand the opportunity.
As summarized in the TLDR, FT Partners helped investors see Revolut's long-term potential. McLaughlin credits showing the breadth of its product suite, explaining product-led growth, and finding investors who shared that vision.
McLaughlin flags two major warning signs: founders who are unwilling to provide detailed information, and those who expect blind trust without the data to back it up. Transparency is non-negotiable, particularly in fintech. Prepare for questions about burn multiples, unit economics, and the path to profitability: your narrative needs credible financials behind it.
Cash and accrual views serve different needs: one tracks cash activity, while the other records revenue and expenses in the periods they belong to. You need real-time visibility into burn rate, runway, and cash position so you can answer questions on the spot. Puzzle, an AI-native accounting firm offering software and accounting services, gives founders up-to-date metrics daily to help them prepare financials for investor review.
KPMG reports that global fintech investment climbed to $116 billion in 2025. Crunchbase's Q1 2026 analysis reports $12 billion in global fintech venture funding alongside a decline in deal count. These datasets cover different periods and investment types, so they should not be treated as a single trend. For founders, the practical lesson is to back your narrative with credible unit economics and disciplined burn management.
With batch-style monthly reporting, you often see last month's numbers weeks after the month closes. If an investor asks about current burn or runway mid-raise, you are answering from stale data. Puzzle updates cash position, P&L, and balance sheet daily, and tracks burn rate and runway automatically, so you can answer on the spot and spot spending problems while there is still time to act. Puzzle's AI categorizes about 90% of transactions automatically (about 85% finalized), and founders typically spend 15 to 20 minutes per week reviewing them. If you want a bookkeeper involved, Puzzle's Expert Reviewed and Full Service options put an accountant in the same ledger you see, so the figures in your deck trace back to your books. Puzzle does not provide tax services.
No. McLaughlin describes FT Partners as selective: "We only work with very good companies. If we don't believe in a company's business model, we won't take it on." His account puts confidence in the business model at the center of the firm's selection process.
Transparency is non-negotiable when seeking funding, especially in the fintech sector. McLaughlin flags founders unwilling to provide detailed information or who expect blind trust as a major red flag. Data-driven storytelling is a requirement, not a preference.
Puzzle, an AI-native accounting firm, gives you real-time insights into your startup metrics (burn rate, runway, cash position, and revenue). Its accounting software updates these metrics daily, and its accounting services offer human review of the books. Up-to-date records help you prepare for investor questions; they do not replace financial review or fundraising preparation. For fintech founders in particular, accounting for fintech startups carries unique compliance and reporting demands that make real-time data even more critical.
Puzzle maintains cash and accrual books simultaneously, giving founders visibility into cash activity alongside revenue and expenses recorded in the periods they belong to. Our guide to cash vs. accrual accounting for startups explains the difference. Confirm which financial statements your prospective investors need.
These insights are critical for any founder looking to secure the capital needed to turn their vision into reality.
McLaughlin's playbook focuses on crafting narratives that resonate with long-term potential. It demands detailed preparation from founders: clear product roadmaps, thorough market analysis, and solid financial projections. This goes beyond impressing investors; it's building a foundation of confidence in your company's future.
Want real-time visibility into your startup's burn rate and runway? Book a Puzzle demo.
Interview source: Steve McLaughlin's fundraising conversation with Sasha Orloff, published May 16, 2024. The interview supplies the historical fundraising lessons; the later news sources supply the valuation and market updates.
