
What I learned raising money as a first-time founder - Elof
https://orbit.love/blog/what-i-learned-raising-money-as-a-first-time-founder
======
mdorazio
One thing not mentioned here that would be helpful to others: what did the VCs
you met with _actually_ care about in your deck vs. what you thought they
would care about? My personal experience has been that first time founders
tend to misjudge this.

~~~
someproduct
Author here, thanks for the question.

For one we _thought_ they'd care about TAM — most did, but the way the cared
differed. In other words, some immediately required a firm answer to "How can
this become a billion-dollar business," while others asked questions that
seemed to pressure test our hypotheses and assumptions, but were more
interested in quality of thought rather than our ability to see the future.

We _thought_ they’d care about product mockups, but most didn’t. My assumption
is that they knew it would all change drastically (they were right).

They did care _a lot_ about how prior experiences would confer advantages, so
we ended up leaning into that heavily the more we pitched.

~~~
mdorazio
Thanks for sharing! Great post.

