Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • I Built a Meeting Prep Agent That Saves Me 30 Minutes a Day — Here’s How You Can Use It Too

    You’ve got a Zoom in 6 minutes. Who the heck is this person, anyway? If only you had an agent to prep you for your calls. Well, I just built a great one you can use for free…

    Most Agent Builders Stink — Back to the Drawing Board

    I’ve used a bunch of Agent Builders. Most are unreliable.

    They’ll get the prep for my meetings right once, but then stop sending the emails. They’ll pull the right information sometimes, other times not.

    So I went back to my old standby, Grok.

    Building My Meeting Prep Agent in Minutes with Grok Tasks

    I told Grok Tasks to search through my Gmail and the open internet to prep me for my meetings. I want to know the following for every call:

    • Founder names and backgrounds
    • One sentence vision
    • Current traction
    • A few good questions I should ask

    I want everything in concise, bulleted lists. I need Grok to deliver this to my inbox every morning, early.

    I wrote a very elaborate prompt, which Grok actually helped me craft. That’s a useful trick: have AI help you write prompts.

    Let’s see if this thing works…

    Eureka! I’m Ready for My Meetings

    Nailed it! Grok did a beautiful job of collating all the information from my email.

    All I need to do is quickly read through this, take a couple of notes on questions I want to ask, and I’m ready to meet these awesome founders.

    This agent did as good a job as an excellent human assistant. Even if I hired one in the Philippines, it would still cost me $40,000 a year.

    I had two founder meetings on the slate today. Without this agent, it would have taken me around 40 minutes to prepare.

    With my new agent, that’s down to 10 minutes.

    Every Minute Saved Is Huge

    A 30-minute savings every day is huge over time. We’re talking over 100 hours a year.

    If I value my time at even $150 an hour, that’s $15,000 that just went into my pocket for a few minutes work. I run the agent for no additional cost — it’s covered under the $400/year X Premium Plus plan.

    Best of all, automated prep encourages me to meet more founders.

    If I know I’m going to have to spend a bunch of time prepping for each meeting, I don’t want to take as many.

    But if the prep is easy, I take more meetings. This gives me a better chance of meeting the next Travis Kalanick or Brian Chesky.

    What’s exciting about AI isn’t just automating stuff. It’s what we do with the time we get back.

    Please Steal My Agent!

    If you want to make your own meeting prep agent, here’s the Skill.md file below.

    Use it as instructions in a Grok Task, run it every morning, and you’ll have the same setup I have. It should work in other agent builders too, although I haven’t tried that myself.

    This is heavily tailored to an investor meeting founders. It might not work for other types of meetings. 

    Act as my expert-mode assistant for daily investor meeting prep. Always format information in bullet points. Follow these steps exactly and thoroughly for TODAY's date (use current date in America/New_York timezone):
    1. Search Google Calendar for all events on today (use precise time_min/time_max for the full day in -04:00 or America/New_York).
    2. Identify every meeting where I am meeting with a startup founder, company representative, or investor-related person. Skip purely personal events like workouts.
    3. For each such meeting: extract the person name, company, emails, description, time, location/Meet link.
    4. For each person/company: thoroughly search Gmail (use from:, to:, subject keywords, company name, has:attachment, recent dates). Read full messages with gmail_get_message. Download and analyze any attachments (decks, PDFs, docs) using available tools. Extract all links and browse them.
    5. Use additional context from any recent self-sent briefs or related emails.
    6. Go deep on the open internet: web_search extensively, browse company website, LinkedIn profiles of founders, Crunchbase if available, Twitter/X, founder videos, news, YC/Techstars pages, etc. Gather detailed info on:
       - Exactly what the company does (concise description)
       - All of the founders' full backgrounds (not just the CEO), past accomplishments, education, previous exits/roles (detailed bullets)
       - Current traction: revenue, ARR, users, paying customers, pilots, pipeline, funding raised, key metrics
    7. Summarize EVERYTHING for each meeting in this EXACT clean, concise, easy-to-read format (with space between sections, bold where appropriate):
    [Time]: [Person] of [Company]
    *[One-sentence what the company does.]*
    *Key traction bullets (e.g. X paying customers. $Y pipeline. etc.)*
    [Founder Name], [Title]:
    - Detailed background bullet 1
    - Detailed background bullet 2
    - etc.
    [Co-founder if any], [Title]:
    - ...
    Possible questions:
    1. Smart investor question based on research
    2. ...
    3. ...
    4. ...
    5. ...
    Make questions assume I am an angel investor evaluating for investment. Be concise overall. Prioritize high-signal info. If no meetings, say so clearly. At the end, if there are multiple, keep sections well-spaced.
    Finally, after generating the full brief, also create a Gmail draft to myself (fpsantora@gmail.com) with subject "Daily Meeting Prep — [Today's Date]" containing the exact brief as the body (use plain text or clean HTML). This ensures I get it as email too.
    Run in expert mode: be maximally thorough, use multiple tool calls in parallel, cross-verify facts, dig into attachments and links deeply.

    Grok Tasks Gets an A

    Grok tasks did a beautiful job here. I’m giving it an A!

    The only thing I’d change: the email makes me click “Continue reading”, which takes me to the Grok app. I’d rather just see the full text in the email.

    But this is a minor point. I’m in Grok all the time anyway!

    Wrap-Up

    No matter how much you love your job, parts of it are a drag. AI is great at automating the scut work.

    Now I can focus on what’s actually fun: meeting great founders and writing checks!

    Try using my agent and let me know how it goes…

    More on tech:

    How I Built a Slick Landing Page in 28 Seconds with Grok 4.5, Elon’s New Coding Agent

    Are You Pre-Revenue? Here are 5 Signs Your Startup Is On the Right Track. 

    China’s GLM 5.2: The Most Powerful Open-Source Model Yet — But Does It Deliver in Real Life?

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • I Helped Close $500K with One $10K Check — Here’s How to Get Your Investors Working for You

    Verustruct Founder Nick Callegari (second from left) and team

    I invested $10,000 in Verustruct last fall. $500,000 more came from my intros. Lesson: use your first investors to get more investors…

    How My $10,000 Helped Close Another $500,000

    Last September, I invested $10,000 in a startup called Verustruct. Founder Nick Callegari is 3D printing houses out of concrete to solve the housing crisis.

    Then, I fired off a bunch of intros to investors.

    Some of the investors I introduced Nick to wrote a check. They also introduced him to more investors.

    The chain reaction I started led to Nick closing around $500,000 for his pre-seed round. He explains how the whole thing went down on a recent interview with OpenVC.

    How to Get the Most Out of Your Investors 

    If you have even one tiny investor, ask him to introduce you to more investors.

    Give him a very short blurb he can use. Include a brief deck, no more than 10 slides.

    Ask for intros to specific people in his network. Look through his X and LinkedIn and see who he knows.

    Tell him to include any other investors he thinks would be a good match.

    If you make it super easy for your investors to do intros for you, you’ll get more of them.

    How $500,000 Could Become Millions

    That $500,000 I introduced Nick to? That’s not the end, not by a longshot. 

    Several of the VC’s I introduced him to are considering term sheets for their much larger seed round. In time, my intros may yield many millions. 

    When your investors make intros for you, those intros keep paying off. 

    What Do You Have to Lose?

    Until I read Nick’s interview yesterday, I had no idea what my intros had led to!

    It took me about 30 minutes to send the necessary emails. That’s $1,000,000 an hour. 

    I definitely can’t promise this for every founder. 

    The credit goes to Nick. He did an amazing job of closing the people I introduced him to!

    There’s no guarantee your investors can help you. But don’t you have a better shot trying this than sending another cold message?

    What Made Me Believe in Nick?

    Why did I invest in Nick, anyway?

    This was a founder bet. Nick led the team of engineers at SpaceX that built the extravehicular assembly for the Dragon spacecraft. 

    This enabled the world’s first commercial spacewalk. Had he failed, those astronauts would’ve died. 

    He did not fail.

    My logic: if he can do that, 3D printing a house should be easy. 

    I shared this very basic thesis with Nick on our first meeting. 

    “That’s what we’re hoping for,” he said. 

    Humble guy!

    Wrap-Up

    I don’t care if you only have one investor that put in $1,000. Milk that guy for all he’s worth!

    Making intros will only take him a few minutes. The ROI can be huge.

    If you’re raising money right now, go through every investor on your cap table and find out what intros they can make.

    This could be the key to closing your round.

    More on tech:

    Meet My Latest Investment: Verustruct

    Small Investors Lead to Big Investors

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • How I Built a Slick Landing Page in 28 Seconds with Grok 4.5, Elon’s New Coding Agent

    Is your landing page getting a little stale? I just built a beautiful new one in less than a minute with Grok 4.5, Elon’s new coding agent. 

    Elon Challenges Dario On His Home Turf: Coding

    Claude has ruled the coding world for a long time now. But now that Elon owns Cursor, things are changing.

    The team just dropped Grok 4.5, their most powerful model ever. It was trained alongside Cursor’s model and is geared toward coding.

    Every startup needs a landing page. Let’s see if Grok 4.5 can help… 

    Setting up Grok 4.5 In a Couple of Clicks

    To use Grok 4.5, you need to be a X Premium Plus or Supergrok subscriber. That runs about $30 a month.

    Then, paste this code into your Terminal: 

    curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh | bash

    Go through a couple prompts and you’ve got Grok 4.5 running in your Terminal! 

    Building My Landing Page

    I gave Grok 4.5 a very simple and rather vague prompt:

    “Make a landing page for an angel investor based on my X profile.”

    I told it to use the same type of DOS-like interface you see on my blog.

    In 28 seconds, my page was ready…

    Grok saved everything to a little folder on my desktop. Let’s open it up…

    The Moment of Truth

    Gorgeous! I’m really feeling the reddish text on the black background. I think it looks even better than the amber text I use on the blog.

    Grok took some liberties with the page, telling founders to skip the deck if they want. 

    Ixnay, Grok! I want my deck.

    But it’s easy enough to re-prompt Grok and remove that.

    Just out of curiosity, I ran the exact same prompt in Claude. The landing page it produced was too crowded with irrelevant information. I liked Grok’s better.

    It’s Getting Ridiculously Easy to Build Things

    I used to make websites in the mid-90s using NetObjects Fusion. Even with that largely graphical interface, making a website could take hours. 

    They didn’t look as nice as what Grok made in under 30 seconds.

    I already have the blog, so I’m not going to take this landing page live. 

    But I’m still going to get use out of Grok’s work. I made this landing page my banner background on my X profile!

    I hope it will make me look cool. 😆

    Wrap-Up

    Grok 4.5 crushed it, delivering something every startup needs: a spiffy landing page. 

    Grok 4.5 can do a lot more than landing pages. You can make entire apps in minutes.

    But landing pages are an awesome place to start!

    If you’re getting bored with your startup’s page, try whipping up a new one with Grok. And let me know if your conversion jumps!

    Have you given Grok 4.5 a try yet? 

    More on tech: 

    You Finally Closed Your Funding Round — Time to Panic?

    Tasklet: The Easiest Agent Builder I’ve Ever Used

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • Are You Pre-Revenue? Here are 5 Signs Your Startup Is On the Right Track. 

    You haven’t signed a customer yet. Is your startup on the right track…or heading off a cliff?

    Here are 5 signs you’re building a startup the right way, even if you haven’t made a dime yet.

    1. You’re Building Product. This is the most important factor.

    You don’t need a CS degree. But you do need to learn to build software, and it’s never been easier with AI.

    If you and your co-founders are all building, awesome! But if you’re surrounded by a bunch of “idea guys,” you’re in trouble.

    2. You’re Talking to Potential Customers. Say you’re thinking of making SaaS for architects. Have you talked to a bunch of architects?

    Maybe you don’t have a product built yet. Maybe your company has never made a dime.

    You still should be having these conversations. This way, you’ll build something they actually want!

    Once your product is live, they can be your first customers. 

    If you’re talking to potential customers every week, you’re on the right track. If you’re holed up in your bedroom and never speak to another soul, you’ve got problems. 

    3. You’re Sharing Your Idea With Everyone. Talk to as many smart people as you can about your startup idea. 

    If you’re learning from others, you’re winning. But if you hide what you’re working on because you’re afraid someone will “steal your idea,” you’re not going to make it. 

    4. You’re Keeping Expenses Down. This is important even for the biggest companies. John D. Rockefeller used to count the number of drops of solder on each barrel of oil.

    If the richest man on the planet needs to watch his expenses, so do you!

    Especially early on, expenses should be cut to the bone. 

    No fancy office. No expensive events. 

    Talk to customers, build, ship. Anything else is a waste of time and money. 

    5. You’re Incorporated Properly. If you’re planning on raising money, you need to be a Delaware C Corp. 

    That doesn’t have to happen on the first day. But you do need to get this squared away before you raise money. 

    I wrote a whole article on why startups need to be Delaware C Corps, which you can read here. 

    Wrap-Up

    The best part? Every single thing on this list is within your control.

    You can start building software today. You can contact 10 potential customers, even if you don’t have any money.

    Stay focused on what matters: team, product, customers. If you can do that, the revenue will come.

    More on tech: 

    You Finally Closed Your Funding Round — Time to Panic?

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    From Cold DM to Wire in 5 Days: Why I Move Fast on Great Startups

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • SaaS Trading at 3x Revenues — Is This the End of the Category?

    Public SaaS companies are trading at 3.2x revenues — the lowest in 14 years. Is SaaS finished?

    Some SaaS companies are slowly dying. But others are growing faster than they have in years. 

    The difference: product velocity. 

    The Good Bucket and the Bad Bucket

    I put SaaS companies into 2 buckets…

    Good Bucket

    1. Shipped an agent AND
    2. Revenue growth accelerating

    Bad Bucket

    1. No agent shipped OR
    2. Revenue growth flat or declining

    Most SaaS companies have shipped some form of AI agent product by now. Those few that haven’t, stick a fork in them.

    But is their agent any good? We should be able to tell from the revenue growth.

    If the new agent is super useful, it will drive new customers and expanding ACVs at existing customers. If not, people won’t pay for it.

    The Good Bucket: Twilio

    Twilio is a Good Bucket company. They’ve shipped some awesome tools that let agents make calls and send text messages using Twilio’s technology. 

    Developers are building tons of cool new products on Twilio. And sure enough, Twilio’s revenue growth has nearly doubled.

    The market recognizes Twilio’s good work. The stock trades at 6.2x revenues. Not a huge multiple, but a lot better than the market multiple of 3.2x.

    Let’s see what happens when you don’t ship a popular agent…

    The Bad Bucket: ZoomInfo

    ZoomInfo powers agents from Salesforce and others with its data.

    But it hasn’t shipped its own popular agentic product. Annual revenue is flat going back to 2023. 

    Compare that to hungry startups like Gojiberry. In just a few months, they’ve popped up a GTM agent that automates outbound. They’ve quickly scaled to millions in ARR.

    If ZoomInfo shipped that fast, maybe they wouldn’t be trading at 0.7 times revenues! 

    ZoomInfo still has great data. But it’s fading into the background, nothing more than a boring “system of record.” 

    How long until someone replaces it entirely? 

    Wrap-Up

    If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

    Ship agentic tools customers want, and you’ll win new business. 

    Fail to ship anything compelling, and the corporate technology spend goes to someone else. Revenue growth slows, then stops. Investors leave your stock for dead. 

    The SaaS market is brutal right now. But the opportunity has never been bigger.

    What are you going to ship today?

    More on tech: 

    You Finally Closed Your Funding Round — Time to Panic?

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    Tasklet: The Easiest Agent Builder I’ve Ever Used

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • You Finally Closed Your Funding Round — Time to Panic?

    A founder on Reddit just closed his $1 million pre-seed. Jealous? Don’t be. He’s waking up at 3:00am, panicking…

    Before he raised money, this was a fun project. Now, people are counting on him and there’s serious money at stake.

    He’s not alone.

    One of the most successful founders I’ve ever invested in spoke publicly about having panic attacks. They started right after closing his pre-seed. 

    I was a small investor in that pre-seed. I had no idea about the tough times he was having until years later.

    I am very grateful to these wonderful entrepreneurs for caring so much about us investors.

    But let me be clear: this money means very little to us.

    I’ve got 42 investments. Each one is a tiny percentage of my net worth. For VC funds, it’s the same story: dozens of investments, each just a small portion of the fund. 

    If an investor bet more than they can afford to lose, that’s their problem — not yours.

    By all means do your best! But don’t make yourself sick worrying about investors. 

    If I give you a check and you lose my money, that’s okay! All I expect from you is to do your best and keep me updated.

    And one more thing…

    When you start your next company, I want to be the first person you contact. You never know, this new startup could be the big one.

    More on tech:

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    38 Words Got This Founder on My Calendar — Here’s the Cold Email Formula That Wins

    I Left $157,000 on the Table: How I Missed a Great Investment

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • Tasklet: The Easiest Agent Builder I’ve Ever Used

    Tasklet was one of the hottest companies in YC P26. This morning, I used it to build an agent that preps me for my founder meetings. The hype is justified!

    Automating One of My Most Annoying Tasks: Meeting Prep

    Digging through emails to find information on the folks I’m meeting is an annoying task. 

    Where did that message go? How many customers did they have?

    I want to see all the information in one place. This lets me focus on actually talking to the founder.

    I built an automation to do this in Grok Projects. It works okay, but sometimes misses important information.

    Can Tasklet do better? 

    Building My First Tasklet Agent

    Tasklet has a very simple interface. You just type in a prompt, like ChatGPT.

    Tasklet whips up an agent to follow your instructions. You don’t need to write a single line of code.

    I told Tasklet to look through my Google Calendar and Gmail and prep me for each day’s meetings. I told it to use info from the open internet to supplement its research.

    I had it send a message to my Gmail with the information at 7:00 am each day. I also had it send a test message now.

    The Moment of Truth — Does It Actually Work?

    I’ve got three meetings on Monday. Let’s see how Tasklet did…

    For my first meeting, Tasklet had a lot of emails to go on. It collated them beautifully. 

    It would have taken me at least 20 minutes to do it this well. Tasklet did it in seconds.

    For my second call, Tasklet wasn’t able to find much info about the founders. I thought Tasklet screwed up.

    But when I Googled the founders myself, I couldn’t find anything either!

    Turns out, Tasklet was working just fine. Sometimes, there’s only so much data out there.

    My final meeting was the best test…

    Tasklet had a couple emails to go on, but not much more. Still, it summarized my conversations with the founder in a very readable format.

    Verdict: Tasklet Is the Real Deal

    My days of getting frustrated searching through emails are over! 

    What struck me most about Tasklet is how easy it is to use. It isn’t any different than typing a prompt into ChatGPT or Grok. Tasklet handles the API connections and task scheduling. 

    Best of all, it formats its outputs beautifully. They’re very easy to read. 

    I’ve tried a couple of different agent builders. Tasklet is definitely the best I’ve seen.

    Will the Base Models Win the Agent Race?

    As a user, Tasklet is fantastic. But I wondered: is this something foundational models are going to do soon?

    You can already build agents with tools like Claude or Grok. They don’t work as well as Tasklet does. With Grok for example, I have to prompt and re-prompt, being very specific. 

    But with the enormous resources of the AI labs, I expect them to catch up.

    Agent builders is a brutally competitive market. But whoever wins, users like me benefit. 

    Wrap-Up

    Tasklet is a great product!

    My new agent makes sure I’m well prepared for meetings. No more frantic searching and scribbling. 

    If you’re a intimidated by the idea of building an agent, don’t be! If you can type, you can build an agent on Tasklet.

    AI is automating the frustrating parts of our jobs. This frees us up to do the fun stuff!

    Give Tasklet a shot and build something to make your life easier.

    Have a great weekend everybody!

    More on tech: 

    The Simple Automations That Let Me Meet More Awesome Founders

    My Top 3 YC S26 Startups So Far: Robot Maids, AI Health Insurance, and AI-Proof Security

    China’s GLM 5.2: The Most Powerful Open-Source Model Yet — But Does It Deliver in Real Life?

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • I Looked at 431 Startups to Write 1 Check — Here’s What Actually Gets Founders Funded

    Here’s how my latest deal came together: 431 companies, 74 meetings, 1 check. Raising money is brutally competitive. Here’s how to win…

    A Look Inside My Deal Funnel

    I wired for a new investment on June 29th. To find it, I looked at over 400 companies and did 74 Zoom meetings. 

    Finding great investments is not easy. Neither is raising money for your startup.

    Founders start thousands of startups in America every year. Only around half successfully raise a seed round.

    Bottom line: there’s too many startups chasing too little money. 

    Investors Are Dying to Eliminate You

    Investors are looking for a reason to eliminate you. They say no to hundreds of people for every check they write.

    Founders not builders? Pass.

    No revenue? Pass.

    No product built? Pass.

    Any obvious problem gets you disqualified instantly. 

    It’s harsh, I know! But that’s the way the market works.

    Before You Raise, Ask Yourself “Am I Fundable?”

    Don’t get disqualified right off the bat. Before you go out to raise, make sure you’re fundable.

    Do you have these 3 key elements?

    1. Team of builder founders
    2. Launched product
    3. Couple of customers

    If you have those 3 things, you’re ahead of 90% of startups. You’re going to get meetings, and you should grab at least a few checks.

    Putting Your Fundraise on Pause 

    Not getting anywhere with your fundraise?

    Put it on pause. Go out and sign three more customers.

    You don’t need funding for that. You just need to message leads, show your value proposition, and close them.

    Then, try raising again. Watch how much easier it gets.

    Wrap-Up

    To raise that round of funding, you’ve got to beat hundreds of people. 

    Be undeniable.

    Assemble a team of builders. Launch a product. Get paying customers. 

    With those 3 elements in place, you can start to bank some real cash.

    More on tech: 

    What Actually Counts as Traction When Raising Money

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    38 Words Got This Founder on My Calendar — Here’s the Cold Email Formula That Wins

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • What Actually Counts as Traction When Raising Money

    “Get back to us when you have more traction.” Bet you’ve heard that before! But what the heck is “traction,” anyway? 

    Traction is evidence your company is succeeding. 

    Traction comes in many forms. Some types of evidence are more persuasive than others.

    Here are 6 common types of traction, from most compelling to least…

    1. Recurring Revenue

    This is the gold standard.

    Top-tier seed stage deals today usually have between $500,000 ARR and $1.5 million ARR. That’s a lot higher than when I started doing this. A couple of years ago, $200,000 would have been quite impressive.

    But everything is accelerating with AI. Like it or not, standards are going up.

    2. Paid Pilots

    This is still real money. But it’s valued lower than recurring contracts because pilots typically end after a few months.

    Still, paid pilots are a lot better than no revenue at all! Just be clear that they’re pilots, not normal contracts.

    A couple of paid pilots could get you into an accelerator. You might even be able to raise a pre-seed round. 

    But a full seed round isn’t likely unless you have a killer track record 

    3. Unpaid Users

    This is very relevant for consumer startups. For everyone else, it doesn’t matter.

    If you’re building a new consumer social app, monthly active users and retention are going to be key metrics. But if you’re building a SaaS app, paying customers are what count. 

    4. Launched Product

    Maybe you don’t have any revenue yet. But just launching a product puts you above most startups.

    A launched product may be enough to get you into an accelerator. But a product alone probably isn’t enough to raise a full funding round.

    5. Prototype

    A prototype and a strong team in place is usually enough to raise a seed round for a deep tech startup. Last summer, I invested in an awesome robotics startup with just a prototype. 

    For software startups, the bar is higher. You probably need to launch a product and get a few customers before you can raise money.

    6. Team in Place

    You don’t have any revenue. Your product isn’t finished.

    Do you at least have a team of builders in place?

    That’s a form of traction. Strong builders working full-time on the startup is one of the key things I look for.

    Having a good team in place could get you into an accelerator. But unless you have an incredible track record, you’re probably too early for a full funding round. 

    I’ve done 42 investments. I’ve never written a check without at least a prototype. 

    Wrap-Up

    Honestly assess what traction your startup has today. 

    Do you have several hundred thousand in ARR? You might be ready for a seed round.

    Do you have a solid team of builders but no product yet? Try an accelerator.

    Being realistic about traction will save you months spinning your wheels. Put that time into building product and getting more customers.

    When customers are flocking to you, raising money is a lot easier. 

    More on tech: 

    Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    From Cold DM to Wire in 5 Days: Why I Move Fast on Great Startups

    38 Words Got This Founder on My Calendar — Here’s the Cold Email Formula That Wins

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!

  • Why Some Founders Raise Millions with a Text — And Others Can’t Get a Single Check: Traction vs. Track Record

    Some founders raise millions with a single text. You’re struggling to get one check. The reason? It comes down to traction or track record…

    Track Record

    We’ve all heard crazy stories of founders raising millions in a weekend without even a deck. Behind those headlines, you’ll usually find a founder with an incredible track record.

    Maybe they sold their last company for $500 million. Maybe they were an early employee of a top startup.

    Last year, I invested in two founders who had co-founded billion dollar companies in the past. Founders like that go to the top of any investor’s list. 

    Sometimes, track record comes in unexpected places. 

    Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind, was the second ranked chess player in the world as a teenager. This isn’t an accomplishment in business, but it still shows exceptional ability.

    Traction

    So what about the other 99% of founders? To raise money, you need to show real traction. 

    Think $500k-$1M ARR in the first 1-2 years. Founders with traction like that can raise a multimillion dollar seed round. 

    Traction looks different for different sectors. 

    In deep tech, a good prototype and a strong team can be enough. For consumer social, investors are looking more for user numbers than revenue.

    Wrap-Up

    Traction and track record are two sides of the same coin. 

    Track record proves you’ve won before. Traction proves you’re winning now.

    I’ve bet on unknown entrepreneurs with incredible traction many times. Some of them have become huge wins.

    There’s nothing wrong with being unknown. You just need to bring more to the table.

    If you’ve racked up huge wins in the past, let investors know! If not, go all out to show explosive growth in the company you’re building now.

    Show you’re extraordinary, and investors will start chasing you.

    More on tech: 

    You’ve Got Your First Customer. Now, How Do You Raise Money?

    From Cold DM to Wire in 5 Days: Why I Move Fast on Great Startups

    Is Y Combinator — Gasp! — Actually a Bargain Now?

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Wispr Flow

    I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.

    My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.

    Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!