Skip to main content

Founder POV

Summary

Three concepts helpful for founders are:

  • Filter Rather Than Convince
  • It’s a Numbers Game and You Only Need 1 Yes
  • Don’t Take It Personally

Filter Rather Than Convince​

There is a common misconception that your goal while pitching should be to convince investors of the promise of your idea. While that is theoretically possible, it is quite uncommon. Instead, it is far more likely that the investors you are meeting already have formed opinions about your space / idea, based on prior investments, operating experience, and discussions with executives, entrepreneurs, and other investors.

That’s why the first part of fundraising, Soon But Not Yet, is about “qualifying” investors. Your goal should be to discover what investors believe and then filter out those who are not a good fit for your startup. The ones that remain have potential to be believers and you want to keep engaging them.

It’s a Numbers Game and You Only Need 1 Yes​

Essential Investor Pre-Qualifications and Advanced Investor Pre-Qualifications describe how to pre-qualify investors. But pre-qualification can only go so far - ultimately, the only way to know how someone will see your company is to talk to them. Finding believers who are a good fit for you and your venture over the next decade is hard and rare. That’s why most investor conversations will go nowhere, which can be quite disheartening.

In those moments, it helps to remember that you only need 1. A single investor turning into a believer by saying yes to leading your round will completely change the dynamics of your fundraise. That’s such a critical and impactful event that I have an entire section dedicated to it - The Switch.

Don’t Take It Personally​

As mentioned above, most conversations will be disappointing for a wide variety of reasons. It’s hard not to be affected by a lame discussion or ghosting or an obvious personality or fund mismatch.

Try to remain centered, calm, and confident. Put out of your mind all the naysayers or investors that ghost you - consider them filtered out. Don’t take anything they say personally or let it bother you. Instead, put your energy into the next conversation and finding a believer.

Being able to accomplish the above is actually quite hard, which is why I have a separate section on the topic, Managing Your Psychology.