Your sheet has 90 rows, four shades of yellow, a column called "notes 2" and a co-founder's tab that disagrees with yours. You're not sure whether you've replied to the partner who emailed last Tuesday. It's tempting to think this is a software problem. Mostly it isn't, at least not yet.
Below are the columns to use, so you can copy them into a new tab right now. After that comes what to skip, how to clean up what you've got, the signals that it's really time to move, and what moving looks like in Airtable, Notion or a dedicated tool. Prices were read on 2 November 2026.
The tracker columns to copy today
Fourteen columns, in this order. The first six are the ones you'll use every day, so freeze them on the left. Use a dropdown wherever the table says one, because free text is how you end up with "Intro?", "intro asked" and "Waiting" all meaning the same thing.
| Column | Format | Example | Why it's there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investor | Text | Example Ventures | One row per firm or angel, in this round |
| Contact | Text | Priya, Partner | The person you actually talk to |
| Stage | Dropdown | First meeting | What has actually happened so far |
| Owner | Dropdown | Maya | Stops two founders both replying, or neither |
| Next step | Text | Send cohort data | If you can't name one, the row is stale |
| Next step date | Date | 2026-11-09 | Sort by this every morning |
| Warmth | Dropdown | Warm via Sam | Warm or cold, and through whom |
| Intro status | Dropdown | Forwarded | So you can chase the connector |
| Tier | A, B or C | A | Tells you who gets your time first |
| Cheque range | Text | $250k to $500k | Checks fit, and helps you plan allocation |
| Soft-circled | Number | 250000 | Said yes, not yet signed |
| Committed | Number | 0 | Signed or confirmed in writing, and nothing else |
| Last contact | Date | 2026-11-02 | Shows silence at a glance |
| Pass reason | Dropdown | Too early | Patterns here tell you what to fix |
Above the table, add three cells: target, sum of Committed, and sum of Soft-circled. Filter out Passed by default, and don't delete those rows. Add a second tab listing each stage and what it means. If you want rules for that tab, the fundraising pipeline page has them, along with a weekly review.
What to track, and what to skip
Every extra column makes the sheet a little less likely to be updated at 11 pm after three meetings. Keep a field only if it changes what you do next. These all fail that test.
- Skip fund size, AUM and portfolio lists. You used them to decide whether the firm belongs on the list. A link to the firm's site is enough after that.
- Skip a probability percentage. Nobody can estimate it honestly, and it creates a total that looks like a forecast.
- Skip a full meeting log in a cell. Keep notes in a linked doc with one line per meeting. Cells make poor documents.
- Skip colour as data. Colours can't be filtered reliably and mean different things to each of you. Use the Stage column.
- Skip a separate tab for each founder. There should be one list, with an owner column.
- Do keep investors who passed. They're useful next round, and they stop you from re-emailing someone who already said no.
Clean up the mess in an hour
Don't try to edit the old sheet in place. Make a new tab with the columns above, and move rows across as follows.
- Sort by firm name and merge duplicates. Combine into one row, and list the additional people in the Contact column.
- Set a stage from evidence only. Search your inbox for each name. If you can't find a reply, the stage is Contacted, whatever the old note says.
- Move money into the right column. Only signed or written commitments go in Committed. Everything else is soft-circled, and you'll probably find the total is lower than you've been telling yourself.
- Assign one owner and one next step per row. Anything with no plausible next step goes to Passed or back to Target.
- Archive the old tab. Don't delete it, but make sure nobody edits it again.
- Sort by Next step date. Today's and overdue rows are your work for tomorrow morning.
Keep it true with five minutes a day
A tracker decays the moment it stops matching your inbox. Open it each morning and sort by Next step date. Handle everything due, then give each row you touched a new date. Update the Stage straight after any call, before you open your email, because that's when you still remember what was said.
Be careful with access, too. This sheet holds soft commitments, pass reasons and your private view of each firm, and a link set to anyone with the link can travel. Share it by name, with founders and whoever is helping on the raise, and never send it to an investor or adviser as a progress report. Copy the three totals into an email instead.
Signals it's time to move to investor tracking software
Move when a specific thing keeps going wrong, rather than when the sheet looks ugly. The thresholds below are our rule of thumb rather than research.
| Signal | Threshold | What software adds |
|---|---|---|
| Follow-ups slip | Two or more missed in a month | Reminders and task lists |
| Too many live names | More than about 30 in active conversation | A board view and filters, so you can see what's moving |
| Several people working the list | Two founders plus anyone else | Assignments, comments and an activity history |
| You want to know who read what | Sending the deck or data room to strangers | Link tracking tied to the investor record |
| Emails live only in one inbox | A co-founder keeps asking what was said | Email connected to the record, where the tool supports it |
| You're raising and running the company | The sheet hasn't been opened in a week | Follow-ups surfaced where you already work |
One signal alone is rarely enough. Two together usually are. And if your real problem is that nobody opens the tracker, new software won't help, because that's a habit problem. Fix it with a 30-minute weekly slot first.
Your options: Airtable, Notion or a dedicated tool
There are three reasonable next steps up from a sheet. A flexible database keeps your columns and adds views. A dedicated tool brings the fundraising-specific features, and gives you less control over the shape.
| Option | Price | Good at | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airtable | $0 version. Team $20 and Business $45 per user a month, billed annually | A relational database with automations, and read-only collaborators and form submissions aren't charged | You build and maintain it yourself, and its pricing page doesn't state numeric record limits |
| Notion | $0 version. Plus $10 and Business $20 per member a month, with up to 20% off yearly | Table and board views in the same place as your notes. Guests are free | 5 MB per file on the $0 version, and you build the tracker yourself |
| Foundersuite | Basic $0 with 75 investors per pipeline. Silver $69 a month | A pipeline board, tasks synced to your calendar and email follow-ups, built for this job | Data room is a paid add-on. We read these figures on its comparison pages, since we couldn't read its pricing page |
| Visible | Starter $0 with 2 pipelines. Base $59 annual or $69 monthly | Investor status and engagement in one view, with updates alongside | 1 data room with 25 files on Starter |
| Nautis | $49, $99 or $129 a month. 14-day trial, no $0 version | A round's deals on a board, with Raise HQ showing committed amounts and today's follow-ups | Investor deals are limited on Launch. The guide doesn't describe a bulk import |
Which should you pick? If you enjoy building and want your own structure, use Airtable. If the team already writes in Notion, keep it there. If you just want it to work, use a dedicated tool, and start with whichever $0 version fits your list size. Pay for Nautis only if you also want the wider workspace, because tracking investors alone doesn't justify its price when $0 options exist.
Moving your tracker into Nautis
If you do choose it, the Fundraising CRM maps closely to the columns above. Create a round with a target and valuation or cap, then add each investor as a deal. Source covers warmth, Lead Partner covers the contact, and Check Size covers the expected amount. The next steps sit in Notes and the Follow up today list on Raise HQ, which shows drafts for your approval. Committed and Soft-circled appear on the Raise HQ card against your target.
Be aware of some gaps. The guide doesn't describe a CSV import, so plan on adding deals one at a time, and try it with your top 20 names during the trial. There's no pass reason field listed, so put that in Notes or a custom field. Find Investors can pre-fill a deal from a directory profile using Add to Pipeline, which saves typing for new names.
If you ever want your data back out, the Find Investors guide says you can manage and export from the Fundraising CRM once investors are in a pipeline. Test that during your trial too.
FAQ
What should a startup fundraising tracker include?
At minimum: investor, contact, stage, owner, next step, next step date, warmth, soft-circled and committed amounts, last contact and pass reason. Keep one row per firm per round. Anything that doesn't change your next action can stay out.
Is fundraising tracking software better than a spreadsheet?
Not always. A clean sheet works fine for about 30 live names and one owner. Software earns its keep when reminders slip, when several people work the list, or when you want to see who opened your deck.
Can I use Notion or Airtable as investor tracking software?
Yes. Both can hold the columns on this page, and both have $0 versions as of November 2026. Notion's help pages describe table and board views, and Airtable describes a relational data model with automations. You'll build and maintain the setup yourself, so they suit founders who like doing that. A dedicated tool needs less setup.
How do I track soft commitments?
Keep them in a separate column from signed money, and never add the two together in a headline number. A soft commitment is a statement of intent. Move it to committed only when it's signed or confirmed in writing, and count the round as closed only when the money arrives.