An Open Letter to Founders Raising Capital for the First Time

Hundreds of pitches later, I have some tough news for you.

Back in October I wrote an article (more of a rant than an article tbh) about Quibi raising $1.8B in capital and then shutting down — it really struck a chord with people.

As a result, I’ve received hundreds of messages and emails from early-stage founders who are looking to raise capital and get their shot at startup success. It was clear many founders resonated with my frustration at the way capital is currently distributed.

I feel their hustle, passion, and sometimes anger at all the headlines about others raising XX million dollars for some weird or silly idea that doesn’t seem to make any sense. And they are right to feel this way.

But here is where you start to hate me.

I didn’t want to write this article.

All the messages I received were incredibly gracious. They talked about how my article encouraged and reinvigorated them.

These are my people. I was a bootstrapped entrepreneur the majority of my life and I know how hard it can be before you find success.

But I’ve been on the other side of the entrepreneur coin for a few years now.

Now I’m friends with the funders and I sometimes write small checks myself. I’m one of those people reviewing 50–100 decks per month and making decisions on who ‘has what is takes’ to receive funding.

So let’s go back to all those nice messages I received.

Oftentimes they would ask me to take a look at their deck and see if I would consider writing them a check or making a warm intro to someone who could.

I’ll rip this bandaid off quickly.

99% of founders are nowhere near being ready to raise.

Only 2 of the 200+ decks I received were even close being funding ready.

This is not a reflection on your passion, hustle, or even skill as an entrepreneur. It was almost always a lack of understanding of the startup space. The language is different. The mindset is different. Even the math is different.

For example, inexperienced founders love to talk about their idea and product. Funding ready founders talk more about...