He is refusing to share the financial model and requires to sit with the investor...? I understand that F2F is better when looking for investors. But this gives me the idea his documentation of the financial model is very poor or he is afraid people don't understand it (which indicates it can be improved).
I’m a seed stage VC. I give our founders the same advice as OP when raising their next round: If it’s more complicated than a basic pitch deck, walk through it with the VC, and optionally leave them a copy to play with.
Investors don’t have much time and can misconstrue stuff easily. When you walk through it, you get to answer questions in real-time and learn about any weaknesses they perceive in the modeling or the underlying biz.
Spreadsheets are non-linear. I would rather be given the chance to explore first on my own, and then have a chance to ask questions. The forced walk-through might be helpful to some people, but that can also be documented in the spreadsheet.
Also, formulas are what they are. You can try to tell me what they do, but the formula speaks the truth and I don't want noise when reading formulas for the first time. Again, you can comment any non-obvious formula, but let me read the formula on my own.
