The AI Engineer’s Guide to Raising VC — Dani Grant (Jam), Chelcie Taylor (Notable)

Channel: aiDotEngineer

Published at: 2025-07-27

YouTube video id: YYNXFsUutbM

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYNXFsUutbM

[Music]
leave 100% armed and ready to go. So,
starting a company, raising VC,
when do you raise VC?
Always
when?
As early as possible. How? How early?
When you need to scale. Well, let me ask
you a question.
Do you need to have revenue to raise VC?
Show of hands. Yes.
Show of hands. No.
Okay. Um, I love that we're making this
interactive and I'm super excited to be
here. Um, I think what Danny said is
right and I think this group is already
well ahead of um, other groups of folks.
You do not need revenue to raise VC. As
you can imagine, most VCs, well, not
all. I think maybe if you take a step
back, there's obviously different types
of VC funds as you guys all know.
There's definitely funds that are maybe
multi-stage later stage who are going to
be looking for certain things like ARR
growth um, or ARR full stop. Um, but if
you know the types of funds you're
looking for, particularly I'd focus on
preed and seed funds, those folks are
wellversed in investing in companies
pre-revenue and and sometimes
pre-product. They're really just going
to be backing you. So, the short answer
is you're right. You don't you don't
need revenue to to go out and raise
around.
So, how about this? Show of hands. Do
you need to have a product to raise VC?
Show of hands, yes. Show of hands, no.
Spicy group. What do you think?
I feel like I that was a layup since I
said it right before, but yes, you do
not need a product either to raise VC
capital. I'd say the most important
thing, which I think a lot of folks know
in this room, but maybe if you don't at
the earliest stages, what investors are
banking on is you as a founder, the team
that you can bring around you, the team
that you can ultimately recruit, but
importantly, the vision that you have
for what this company can be. when
you're investing at preeding and even
seed, a good investor knows that the
outcome in say seven 10 years that
product's going to look dramatically
different than what you came in and
pitched them um at the moment. So I'd
say what I would over emphasize on
rather than do I have the perfect
product because again the likelihood
that that product works and is going to
be sustainable across multiple cycles is
unlikely. I'd really focus on like what
is it about me, my team, and my core
abilities to kind of see a unique
insight in the market versus need being
hyper obsessed with like having this
perfect beautiful product on day one.
What about this? Do you need to leave
your full-time job to raise your first
round of VC? Who thinks yes?
It's such a show of the state of the
market that only a couple people
hesitantly were like, "Yes, you do need
to be full-time to raise millions of
dollars." Who thinks no?
And I actually think that's a little bit
more mixed. I think it's going to be
firm dependent for sure. Um I think
there's a lot of firms that are
comfortable with folks who are like,
look, I have a I'm out of a reputable
tech company. I'm not ready to make the
jump, but I've been working on this as a
side project. Here's what I've done, and
this is why I want this funding to kind
of take that leap. I would say, however,
if you know everything about venture
capital is, and again, you should not be
only building a company for VCs. I
should say that first. But if you are
raising from VCs, it's helpful to
understand their psychology. What we're
doing is we're trying to back obviously
companies that can return funds. And as
a result, we want people who have tons
of conviction about what they're doing.
And so one way to have a signal of
conviction is you left your full-time
job. Um so again, everything is going to
be partner and company specific. But I
would definitely say um it's never a bad
thing if you've decided to leave your
company and go fully in on building the
business. I'm going to say something a
little spicy which is um when we raised
we were uh pre-product my co-founder had
not yet left his job and so everything
was potential when we did our first
conversations with VCs it was all we're
about to do blank we're going to show
you a prototype but it was very early
and I think it was a lot easier for us
to raise our round when everything is
potential versus like it actually took
us a really long time to build a product
that's so wow that a VC would have
joined the call been like that is wow
let's go And so like
the earlier you can go the better. Um
and one one way you can do that is raise
before you're raising. So who has heard
ask for advice get money? Ask for money
get advice. I think there's something
true to that where people want to be
part of something and the earlier you
bring someone in the more a part of it
they are. And so when you start reaching
out to say I'm about to do blank I'd
love to get your advice or I I think
that's it can lead to conversations. Uh
so you can raise without raising.
Who thinks you need to have a co-founder
to raise VC?
Everyone's right
for the mo most of the businesses we
back have co-founder relationships.
There are unique cases where there's a
solo founder. Um so I wouldn't say never
but yes typically co-founder is
standard.
So okay so you know when to raise VC
what's the first step? What do you do?
pitch. Okay. How do you get to a pitch?
Solve the problem. Okay. Have a company.
What else?
Find someone in an elevator. And what if
you live in a one-story building?
What's the first step?
Sorry.
Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yes. You you need some
something that you're starting
cold email. So the best of course is not
a cold email, right? It's a warm intro.
But most engineers don't know VCs. And
so what do you do if you don't have a
network? So how many people here think
that VCs
read cold emails sent to them?
Do you read cold emails sent to you?
I do. Um so this is Again, I think the
intuition is correct here. VCs like
anyone anyone like who has capital to
sell, I suppose, is getting a lot of
emails and getting inundated. However,
it is also my job to hunt for deals,
right? So, like I am a salesperson just
like any other goto market person, but
I'm trying to I'm trying to sell money
that I have to amazing entrepreneurs.
So, I definitely read cold emails and I
would I'm sure we'll go into these
examples. What I will say is the cold
emails that actually get answered by
myself and I actually surveyed my team
um across other kind of investment
categories. They're usually cold emails
that are prompted by some kind of warm
signal. So it's exactly the same
playbook you would see in any type of go
to market um process, right? So I'm
constantly, for example, on LinkedIn
putting out content probably twice,
three times a week on topics I'm
thinking about very early ideas. This is
me as a signal to say, hey, I'm in this
space of ideiation. and I want to talk
to smarter people than me. So the
entrepreneurs that reach out to me in
those moments saying like, "Hey, I'm
building something somewhat relevant.
Are you willing to spend 15 minutes to
chat? I'd love to share ideas." I almost
always reply and hop on the phone. Um
versus waiting and then saying, "I'm
running a process right now." That's
much harder. So I think what Danny
suggesting is right. Getting in early,
having casual conversations, making it
much more um relationship building, I
think actually yields the um the
outcomes folks want.
The country music is for us because what
we're saying is very heartfelt.
Music.
So, um, Chelsea shared with me actual
cold emails she has received.
Um, and we're going to share them with
you. So, I'm curious who here would
answer this cold email or DM, which is,
"Hi, it was great meeting you at blank.
I asked you this question. My
co-founders and I are taking time off
from this company to build this thing.
We've built out an MVP and started beta
testing. I'd love your take on our go to
market and if and if it feels right. Any
pointers to other investors? Do you have
15 to 20 minutes to chat?
Who here would answer?
Who here would not answer?
Actually, no one raised their hand for
not answer. This is this is an answer.
What makes this so good?
Okay.
Yeah. And I'd also say they have a very
specific ask. They want to talk to me
about go to market and they want to talk
to me about any pointers on either what
my feedback is. I'm not a consumer
investor. They know that. So they're
like, could you give me pointers on
other consumer a consumer investor I
could know? And so it feels very
tangible for me. I know exactly going
into this response. Okay. If they want
to talk to me about 15 minutes, I can go
in advance thinking about what I'm going
to help them with. I think the challenge
in cold outreach is keeping it very
vague. Um, oftentimes, again, it just
does. It's like, and again, I don't mean
to say things people already know. It's
like anything in go to market, you just
want to be hyper specific so the person
immediately knows when they reply what
they're going to get from you and what
they can expect in that conversation.
One, um, one of our, uh, VCs says to us,
don't think selling email, think be
compelling. The job of the email is not
to make the sale. It's just to compel a
response because then you get the
opportunity to make the sale. And so,
um, one mistake we've made as founders
is trying to put the whole pitch up
front because being like, look at this
thing we're building. Here's everything
you should know about it that should
compel you. Actually, it's just like,
who likes long emails? Um, and what's
better is just to give enough to compel
the reason to answer. Okay, what about
this one? So, here's a link to a blog
that you all have written at Notable.
Enjoyed reading this and this is exactly
why I have built blank. Would love to
chat. Here's a link to the GitHub. Who
here would answer this? Would
anyone actively not?
Okay. Interesting.
So, this is really funny because we
actually led the series be in this
company.
Uh but this email came when he was still
at the seed round but we tracked it for
many uh for multiple years and we um so
the reason this one was compelling is as
I mentioned we're constantly in market
hope like as much as it may appear and I
don't I don't know if this is totally
true but it may appear that VCs are just
like putting things out in the ether and
they expect no one to really read it. We
do and we really hope that people read
it and give us tangible feedback because
again like I'm just trying to ideulate
and figure out what's happening but
there are people on the ground like
yourself who know so much more than me.
So when someone actually engages and
says like oh this thing I read in your
article actually is relevant to what I'm
literally quit my job to build right now
and I'm going to send you the GitHub so
you can take a look that I'm serious.
That to me illustrates again, okay,
someone at the very least that is like
thinking about things similar to me,
someone that I should spend some time
with, even if their company today is not
the right right business for me to
invest in. Two other quick examples. Um,
this went to one of Chelsea's
colleagues. Hey, loved your post. You
might find the one I did a while back on
this topic interesting. Uh, would love
to hear what you think. This led to a
round.
This also led to a round, which is
funny.
Isn't that crazy? It says nothing about
their stardom.
Yeah.
which I think Danny is pulling out good
points. Um, as much as it may appear
that you want to like really sell the
business and we've already said this
before, again, a lot of the re the VC
relationship in the early days is about
information sharing and gathering and
less about pitching. Um, and so exactly
this person didn't even really tell us
what they were doing and we did also
invest in their company.
Um, one last one. Uh, wow. This thing
you said is exactly the reason, the
thesis that we founded our company on. I
am genuinely excited to have a
conversation with someone who has
clearly been thinking critically about
this space. Who here would respond to
this?
Y'all are a little shy, but there are a
lot of hands. Anyone like actively would
not respond?
No one. Right. And and why? I think in
this case again and um maybe these I
could have found maybe a little bit more
unique ones but I think this is one um
where you as a again investor want to go
in and talk to folks who are thinking
and talking about the same topics as you
and so it was clear this person did
their research they wanted to talk and
they were building a company in the
space. Um and again I I want all of my
conversations to be super productive. I
want to leave and have you feel like you
learned something too. And so this kind
of email illustrates that, okay, we're
going to start from a baseline of
understanding on what we care about.
Yeah. So, uh, you send an email, you get
a meeting.
What, what happens in the meeting? What
what do you imagine the pitch meeting is
like? What happens in it?
a jingga tower metaphorically.
What happens?
Okay. Yes.
Yes. So, you pitch essentially, but what
is it like?
Imagine
um that uh we gave all of you
some amount of money to go invest in a
couple of founders and you're like cool
money to go invest. So you start meeting
with founders.
What would you want to what would you
want these meetings to be like? What
would you want to hear to be excited
about someone to give them some of your
limited amount of investment capital?
Why you? Why now? So, I was asking
Chelsea before this talk, what are the
biggest mistakes that AI engineers
especially make in pitches? And the top
thing she said was engineers are so good
at technology so they overfocus on it.
But as an investor, I want to hear why
you, why now?
A thousand%. That's the exact answer.
Um, again, I don't want to negate the
importance of technology, right? We're
building software. You need to have
strong technical abilities. You need to
build a really strong product. But in
the early days, what I'm betting on is
vision. And I'm betting on you. And so I
want to hear and typically what works
very well is I want to hear why you have
a unique insight about the market or you
have a unique insight about go to market
or you have a unique insight about
product or you have a unique insight
about a customer segment because again
there can be tons of companies that are
doing the same thing but there will
always be one typically or multiple that
are going to win and they're going to
win for very unique ways and so to get
kind of that asymmetric outcome I have
to really believe that you're thinking
in untraditional ways and so that's what
the pitch I'm looking for. I'm often
asking questions and trying to poke to
see like is this a founder who's
thinking about things in a very unique
way. Um, and it's telling me why their
unique perspective is grounded by some
expertise they have from their lived
experiences or something they read or
something they saw um, etc. So,
what is a good answer look like? Like
how does someone do that in a way where
you're like, "Wow, got it. I get why
them."
Yeah, that's a great question. And so
I'd say probably the best way to do this
is to usually start the pitch grounding
it in like what is the core problem that
you've identified that exists in the
world today that either people already
know and if they already know it and you
know that it's a well-known problem then
beginning to explain to them what got
you to the point of seeing why your
unique approach could be different. Um
so for example I'm trying to a good
example for is right now um we've been
spending some time for in kind of the
vertical AI application space and in
particular looking at voice AI agents.
Everyone is very familiar with the idea
that voice AI likely will drive
automation efficiency for industries
where they really rely on phone calls.
um that's pretty known. But what I think
is interesting when we meet founders who
are trying to go after say a different
industry, there's things like what is
why is this vertical segment or industry
more unique than another? Like why did
you choose to go after logistics and
transportation versus after restaurants?
And if you chose one like why did you
choose that? Why is that industry so
interesting? Oh, there's really good
kind of workflow. You can be embedded in
the workflow here. Oh, there's great
data modes. Oh, like you start like
unpacking in all of these layers of why
a person has chosen a particular path.
Um, and so it's actually not I wouldn't
say it's even that um bespoke
necessarily. I think it's really about
kind of telling and someone said this
earlier. It's about telling that
narrative particularly well such that
when I end the meeting I feel like okay
you have a very cohesive vision around
how this works and like even if we again
know the core problem is very well
understood that's okay. What we care
more about is that you have identified
something in that well understood
problem that you can tackle very well.
Okay. So, you're meeting with founders,
you're uh figuring out who you're going
to invest in. What else do you want to
hear in order to decide this is the
person?
Sorry,
you said return on investment. Okay.
Yeah.
Yes. So that was actually so I asked
Chelsea what are the biggest mistakes
engineers make when they start companies
and pitch VCs and so the first one was
overfocusing on technology underfocusing
on the the you and the now um and the
second is um talking too much about
what's happening right now but
forgetting to pause and sort of share
how this goes from what it is today to
how this could be a billion dollar
company.
Exactly. And again, because we started
this conversation saying you don't need
revenue to raise, you don't need a
product to even raise. Um, there's no
real reason to go so deep on either of
those things in early pitches. What I
would again focus on is why do you think
that you can achieve kind of larger
revenue milestones down the line? Some
ways to signal that would be, hey, I've
spoken to X number of potential buyers.
I have four of them raising their hand
to be design partners. We're in very
early ideiation stages, but I'm, you
know, I'm guessing that maybe ACVs could
look in this range. So, with that as an
understanding, you know, I'm thinking we
could get this far. Like I think as
Danny started with thinking a lot about
like what's the potential, what does
that next phase look like? Is that's
exactly what folks are betting on. And I
think design partners in particular are
a really great kind of anchor. And
again, you don't have to have a product.
And so maybe you're thinking how how am
I a design partner when I don't even
have a company or a product yet. Um so
if you don't want to call them design
partners, you can even say like I've
done some customer interviews. I've done
some research. Having some of that stuff
in your back pocket to say like hey this
is real evidence I've heard in market.
This is not hypothetical. I'm making it
up that people would spend this much. I
think again gives you some opportunity
to talk about potential. But then also
like you said begin to help the VC craft
a narrative of what return on investment
could look like. like how can I see this
person basically scale this company to a
phase where it could again return a
portion of my fund or become a billion
dollar business.
When we went out to raise for the first
time, Jam was so small and so and
because we tried to build like an MVP
and so the question we always got from
VCs is why is this a product and not a
feature? Why is this a why is this
company and not a feature? And so what
they were really asking us was not that
they were asking us what's the path from
where you are now to a billion-dollar uh
company. And so we always used to say uh
this is the first future of our future
product and then we would explain what
the future product could look like and
and how it gets there. Um but so but I
think that was helpful for being able to
raise the round. Okay. What else do you
want to hear in a meeting in order to
give someone money?
If you did not enjoy the meeting but
they were smart, will you give them
money?
Show of hands. Yes.
Like very few hands. In sales, you know
how they say in sales you are in the
business of giving a good meeting. When
you go out to raise you are selling and
so you are in the business of giving a
good meeting. What's a good meeting?
Laughter.
There are next steps. You're focused.
birectional. That one's huge. So, uh,
one of the best pieces of advice that I
got when we went out to raise is, um,
oftentimes VCs will ask you something
just to see if you've thought about it.
And then the mistake founders make is
then they talk for 10 minutes about it
because there's a lot of information.
So, if someone asks you like about your
goto market, instead of doing the whole
go to market, you can say like, "We've
thought about it a couple ways. Happy to
go into it more. Most likely we do
blank." And just let it be a
conversation.
Totally. That's actually a great piece
of advice. I would say that we are again
I even alluded to this earlier. I'm
constantly asking questions just to see
how a founder is thinking about
something. And so I actually this week
we had a we took a company to investment
committee and we asked the founder this
very like one of the partners asked the
founder a question and he literally said
I could make up an answer right now for
you but I don't want to do that. I want
to be thoughtful. And we all were like
whoa that's amazing. like that actually
is the type of founder we would want to
work with because all of you are
competent and smart enough to come up
with any good compelling answer on the
fly. But like is that actually what you
believe? Is that the path you want to
take? Probably not. And so I'd say
there's obviously moments in time where
you want to like you know if it's a very
basic or a question very related to your
core business and you know the answer
obviously but I think feeling
comfortable as Danny is saying making it
birectional pausing asking the VC
questions back like oh what's at like
why are you asking me this question? I'm
just really keen to understand your
thinking about this category. It
actually can create a lot more
engagement and then get you closer to
the heart of like what you need to be
talking about. And then one other thing
I'll add, which I'm not sure if I'm
previewing it too early. Um, but I'll
also say when you're pitching, as Danny
said, you want it to be pleasant. You
want it to be exciting, but we're all
human. Like it's really hard to be
pitching a com a person that you don't
know. And also the power dynamic in some
ways does feel a little bit warped. So,
I always say to founders, especially the
ones I work closely with, like maybe put
some of your early pitches with funds
that you know probably aren't going to
work with you or maybe you don't want to
work a lot with them, put those at the
front. Practice, get excited, get reps
in, become really comfortable selling
your story and getting those questions
back so that when you go into those
later pitches of the back half of the
week when you're like, "Ugh, this could
be my ideal partner because they're
talking about my category. they like do
preede, they love AI engineers, then
you're totally ready and you know um
exactly what they're going to ask. So
again, I think it's all about making
yourself comfortable and coming in with
that sense of confidence.
So on that note, Chelsea,
what can an AI engineer expect to be
asked?
Great question. Um so it's going to
range obviously, but I think there's
obvious there's going to be a few core
areas where we're going to really focus
on. So, one is like I mentioned already,
what is the problem that you're trying
to solve and why you and in particular
someone already alluded, why now? Um,
then we're going to want to dive into
like what is that solution or at least
broadly what do you think that solution
could look like? Um, you don't need to
have the product. You don't even
necessarily need to have mockups, but we
do want to hear from you of some
cohesive narrative as to what I think
this product could look like and then
how do I intend on keeping product
velocity and iterating on the product to
get me to a point um where it is working
and I think we can go to market more
broadly with it. We then want are going
to ask you about like who's your
customer? What's your ICP? I'm sure you
guys have all maybe heard that. If you
haven't, ICP is ideal customer profile.
Every VC will ask you this and the idea
is come in with a good sense. Even if
you don't know if that's factually it,
you can say, "We're thinking it's two
ICPs. Are we thinking it's three? This
is how I'm going to test and learn to be
able to really hone in and focus." Then
we're obviously going to ask you about
where do you think revenue goes for
this? And so again, another way to back
into these things because most of your
companies aren't going to have revenue
is ask yourself and explain to the the
VC. So, I don't know just yet what how
we're going to monetize the product, but
I have a hypothesis that based upon
conversations with customers, design
partners that they want to buy a product
in this range, they're thinking that
they want it to be seatbased. Oh,
actually, they want it to be usage
based. Start to use some of these words
that also signal to the investor that
you're thinking about different
monetization models so that they can
also give you feedback. They can say,
"Oh, you know what? I've seen companies
like yours who have tried this approach.
this is typically the size deals they
get and then now you can start building
momentum with them to say like okay this
is where I think we can go from a
revenue trajectory and then the there's
a few there's obviously more but the
last one I'll talk about here so as not
to be um to overwhelm is uh team team is
so so so important as everyone says um
but being a VC and being on the inside
it is probably the most important thing
that we do in the early stage so do not
like overlook what your unique per like
who you are as a and the people that you
can attract how important that is. So we
will ask you like you know who are the
first folks you want to hire how do you
attract them because we want people who
can attract the best AI engineers. So if
you know you have an amazing network of
your friends who are also engineers at
top companies say that say like I know
five engineers from X company that I
know would want to join me even if they
don't join it's okay like talk about
what you could do and how you can build
that momentum of attracting the best
people to your company. Um, so there's a
longer list of things we asked, but I
say those were like the four or five
core things.
We um wanted to focus on what does a
good answer because VCs hear a hundred
answers uh to every question. And so
then you're kind of stackranked like was
that a good answer or an okay answer.
And so we want you to hear exactly what
a good answer might sound like to a
couple of questions that usually
engineers don't get asked in their
engineering roles. So um Chelsea, how
what what does a good answer sound like
when you're asked about competitors?
Great um question. And yes, competitors,
I didn't mention that, but obviously
will be a very important question that
we're going to ask you. So, typically
the best answers for competitors is one
to acknowledge that there are
competitors. Like, let's start there.
Whenever we go into a pitch and we ask
competitors and the founder tries to
convince me that there's no competitors,
it doesn't usually end well. So, I would
say acknowledge that there are likely
competitors, even if you don't think
they're exactly the same. Then I would
say begin to and it's often what folks
will do is kind of um you know kind of
uh I guess aggregate where competitors
sit on a spectrum compared to
themselves. You've all seen this. Um but
I would say really focus on that so you
can maybe think of different axes in
which your competitors work upon and
then help VCs understand like why you're
filling that wide space that is
different than those competitors. And
then this all goes back to like we said
at the very beginning why you why now?
What's your unique insight? It's okay to
acknowledge if you are building
something in I don't know AI go to
market saying like okay there's already
tools like zoom info that exist for data
enrichment but then clay comes along and
says well we think it's going to be
different because we're going to
aggregate the most data sources and no
one's been able to do that like that
actually was pretty compelling they've
raised a lot of money they have a lot of
momentum so again I think acknowledging
competitors level setting for people how
you see those competitors sitting in the
market and then how does your company in
relation to That is typically the
strongest answer.
One thing I've heard Chelsea say in the
past is like as a VC your job is to not
only know all the competitors but also
to have talked to all of them. And so
they they know who they've had
conversations with them. And so if you
try to hide it, suddenly you become a
person that's untrustworthy to work with
versus acknowledging and saying like
like it's a really exciting space. A lot
of people are chasing it. Here's how
we're doing it differently. I'd also say
use it if the VC's again read the room
with the VC, but like like Danny said,
I've likely met all the competitors when
I'm meeting a company. So try to get
information from me. The best founders
ask what why did you like that company
or why did you pass on that company if
you'd met them already? Like help me
understand. And I actually really like
that question.
That's cool. Um how should uh how should
an AI founder answer a question about go
to market when they're raising their
first round?
Yeah. So the best thing to do here is
again because go to market is going to
be very nent is to talk about your
vision of what you think go to market
could look like and also provide some I
would say some frameworks of how you're
thinking about it based upon other
companies that have similar models to
you. So for example if you know that
you're going to go after kind of a usage
based model say you know I think our
company is going to follow a go to
market or I'm thinking more monetization
but maybe we're going to follow a PLG
approach. We want to follow other PLG
companies like X. We think this is
successful for Y and we want to pursue
this with these kind of tiers
understanding pricing is going to change
a lot but this is what we're
directionally thinking of how it will
work and then ask for like how have you
seen this work? Do you work with a lot
of PLG companies and get feedback? So
I'd say try to come in with some sense
of like what the motion will look like.
have some directional sense of what you
think pricing could look like, but then
obviously then anchor it on we need to
experiment and test um versus saying
that you're going to know exactly what
it is.
We've been hijacked. We're unhacked.
Um last question for you on this. What
do engineers specifically when they're
pitching AI startups tend to get wrong
in the pitch meeting?
I think we've addressed a few of these
points already and so um I won't belabor
it. I think the biggest thing that I
would recommend you not do is get so in
the weeds around your particular product
or technology. I think it's super
important. But typically what VCs will
do is they're using the VC pitch meeting
with the investor. Unless you're meeting
an investor who's highly technical,
which do your research beforehand, but
if you're meeting the average VC who's
probably not super technical, what
they're again betting on is person,
vision, product, vision, um, future
state. And usually what we do at our
firm is we set aside an entirely
different hour session with our VP of
technology to do a deep dive on the
tech. So don't spend that first meeting
where you're really trying to hook them
and sell them on your vision, going so
deep on the technology that you never
even talk about the vision, the go to
market, the future. So I'd say that's
probably the biggest. Um, and then the
last thing I will say is not using this
time to really test if you want to work
with them. I know it does feel like
early on that you want to make sure
you're just getting as much
opportunities as possible and you just
want to speak to VCs potentially. Um,
but I just as respect the founders who
have a firm sense of like this is what
I'm looking for. And when I ask them
like hey tell me what you're looking for
and who you want to work with, they're
like these are the things I need to get
to this next phase.
So you've just done your first pitch
meeting, you're raising your first
round, you're doing you just you've been
through the whole meeting and now the
meeting is wrapping up. How do you end
it? Do you ask about next step? What do
you say?
Yes. If the VC is not um asking next
steps, definitely prompt them. say to
them, you know, I really enjoyed this
meeting if you did and if you want to
work with them. Um, and then ask them
like, what does your process look like?
Help me understand what I should expect
over, you know, the next week, two
weeks, month as we go through this
process. And they'll walk you through
their bespoke process. And then I would
say h be prepared to provide materials.
So, we didn't talk about this, but um at
the preede and seed stage, you don't
necessarily need like a full data room
like you would at later stage rounds,
but you should have some materials
prepared and ready to send immediately
after. So, exactly, you're going to want
your pitch deck ready to send to them.
And in that pitch deck, obviously
include all the elements we said, but
also include how much you're raising and
what you're hoping to use that capital
for.
Our original pitch deck is still online
um from 2020 when we raised our first
round. It's at deck.jam.dev.
So when you go out to raise if you're
like what is another just another
example look like you can reference it.
Uh we just haven't deleted the DNS rule
on Cloudflare. Um so I think there's
something important. I think a lot of
founders imagine when they go out to
pitch that they're going to share the
pitch deck during the meeting. But have
you ever been in a meeting where someone
shares a slides? You like go into
webinar mode like your eyes glaze over.
And so in order to have a good meeting I
think you save the pitch deck for later.
You set it afterwards. And the VC you
met with probably isn't the one
reviewing the pitch deck. The pitch deck
is the brochure for all their teammates.
Are you saying time like wrap it up in
one minute or like five minutes? Like
yesterday? Okay. Okay. That's all we
got.
Yes. I will just say last closing thing.
Um as Danny mentioned the VC in the room
most likely hopefully they're a decision
maker. Hopefully they're a GP, someone
who can write a check. Sometimes they're
not. Sometimes they're a more junior
associate. And no matter what,
everything that you're doing is give
equipping the VC who you're speaking to
to go back to their team to sell why the
pool of capital should go towards you.
And so, like she said, having that deck
ready, prepared, super compelling,
having even like a quick blurb that you
put in addition to the deck that you
send that they can forward along to
their colleagues or even forward along
to other excellent seed or preede
investors is a great call to have like
ready to go.
When you do start your company, here's
how you reach Chelsea.
Yes. Uh you can reach out to me. This is
I think this is my Twitter, my ex, but
also my email is ctaylor notablecap.com.
Feel free, as I said, uh to to cold
outreach.
Can't wait to see what you build. Have a
great day.
All of you guys. Thanks everyone.