Templates by Jonny Boyarsky

Hot Take Season is back!

One of the biggest problems of the VC world is the incentive and practice to tout your wins and hide your losses.

So many "Tier 1" VCs will swear up and down about early stage investments they made and the conviction that they have and then founders and others start to believe that they're geniuses.

"We knew Uber was going to be huge, read our investment memo on it" --> please shut up and show me the 50 investment memos you wrote that year that you didn't get your money back.

You likely had the same conviction on those 50 other deals that went belly up within a few years and you got no return

Every time a VC talks about a 100x return there are usually 20-100 that end up being worthless.

They have the same conviction at the earliest stages about their winners as they do their losers, which means that their conviction is misguided and essentially meaningless.

The problem is that the conviction leads to founders and LPs thinking that investors are omniscient mini gods. Founders and LPs will listen to their advice on building and take it as gospel even though many investors haven't built anything in years!

And before people respond with power law nonsense, I'm not arguing that they can't be good investors even when they're wrong most of the time, I'm just arguing they shouldn't tout certainty and conviction when their accuracy is abysmally low.

The problem isn't that they tout their wins, it's they give advice as though they aren't wrong most of the time.

#founders #vcs #hottake

At the earliest stages, more investments have happened because of "good vibes" than logic or DD. Make the vibes good my friends.

If I told you that I could get you 5 investor intros, but that each one would only listen for 3 minutes, you would make sure those 3 minutes were extremely compelling.

Founders need to understand this concept.

MOST PITCHES THAT INVESTORS GET AREN'T INTERESTING UP FRONT (either to them specifically or more generally).

Founders need to understand two critical things about how investors think about investability.

1) An investor spends 3 minutes on average looking at pitch decks.

2) Most investors will likely decide if an idea or business is compelling or relevant to their thesis almost instantly.

You need to make sure that your startup is as compelling as possible AND that you know how to tell that story.

You also need to make sure your startup matches their thesis. This is absolutely critical when reaching out.

You usually have one shot, make it count.

#founders #startups #investors

Startup building is about innovation at every stage and in every way.

If there was a playbook for being successful, everyone would do it.

But there's not a guaranteed way to be successful.

Take general advice that applies, but know that you need to break the mold if you're ever going to build anything great.

For founders that are going to cold reach out, check this out tomorrow!

Should be a great time with Eva Dobrzanska!

In combination with HubSpot For Startups Robert McIntosh, Literally Helping Startups, and Daniel Gallagher

Going to try to help founders who are raising with this post.

Comment a two sentence description of your startup with 3 tags (stage, location, and geography) and we'll tag a fund or individual that invests in your kind of startup.

The best way to get VC money is to not need VC money.

This may sound strange, but it's a lot like chasing a dog that's off a leash.

If you run after the dog, they'll assume you are desperate for them and run away.

If on the other hand, you can get their attention, and then run away from them, they'll be way more likely to chase after you.

VCs get pitched by desperate founders a lot and will almost always screen those companies out.

The two things you can do:

1) Build, set goals, meet those goals, grow your company as fast as you can without external capital.

2) When the time comes that you have something investable, reach out with the confidence that you are only raising to accelerate the growth.

If you pitch saying "we need" or even flinch with cashflow problems, you'll be back to chasing.

#founder #startups #vc

I can’t say this enough times. Find ways to add value to everyone you meet.

If you’re a founder, intro relevant startups to investors you meet.

If you’re an investor, recommend better investors to the founders that aren’t a good fit(as long as you actually like them!)

If you’re a service provider, make intros on both sides!

The ecosystem is fragmented and people can make it more cohesive.

What are the products you would do free promo for?

Canva I think it's an excellent product. A little pricey for premium but I pay it because I don't mind.

SAGA Beverages (Alyssa Felsch) I really don't care too much for supplement brands or energy drinks (I'm a one coffee a day kind of person), but their functional beverages are actually incredible. The sleep one helps you fall asleep instantly (so much so that I only take half), the focus one helps me get dialed in. All natural and truly incredible.

Notion A lot of functionality. Honestly I need to get better at using it (shout out Robert McIntosh for knowing how to use it effectively).

HubSpot of all the CRMs out there, I do think there's is so easy to use. I've used in past companies and just think it's excellent. (If you're a startup and want to use it, we have a wild discount, just dm me!).

Think about what these products do well, whether it's price, advertising, product onboarding, features, functionality, etc. and then try to copy those approaches!

Founders should steal ideas from the best companies on how to execute!

#founders #startups