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Pedro Santos's avatar

“Even the best in class investors are wrong nearly 90% of the time. Ask yourself: how many dates did you go on before meeting your significant other? Fundraising follows the same principle.”

Rejection reframed like this takes so much sting out of it. Do you think founders should treat investor meetings less like evaluations and more like discovery calls for mutual fit?

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Natan Voitenkov's avatar

Pedro - the first capital you would take in, would probably be the most significant one. That investor would hold a large share of your company. It is important to remember that you are likely to "date" that investor for the next 8-12y. It better be someone you respect, and someone who believes in your thesis.

I would definitely say that you should treat it as a "mutual fit" discovery meeting. That being said, if you have your back to the wall, do what's necessary to build/save the company.

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Ryan K. Rigney's avatar

Ryan from the SR team here. YES. I think that's an excellent way to frame it.

In some ways the process is a chance to discover the investor's framework for evaluating companies—to flesh out your mental model of how others are viewing your pitch.

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Helene's avatar

Haha this was timely with the applications closing a few days ago! ;)

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Muyukani Kizito's avatar

Founder story for days especially as a first-time founder

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(Sonu Goswami)'s avatar

thanks for sharing! really useful perspective....reminds founders that rejection is part of the journey and revenue always speaks louder than “no.”

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Sampson Agboola's avatar

Thank you for sharing.

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