Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • Meet My Latest Investment: Querio 

    A man who comes to America alone at 17 and makes himself a success is someone I want to be in business with. More than any details of product or financials, that story drove my latest investment. 


    The founder is Rami Abi Habib. His startup, Querio, is basically ChatGPT for your data. 


    Any non-technical user can ask questions based on company data. Which products are selling well lately and which aren’t? Which sales reps give the most discounts? 


    Querio hooks into your data warehouse and gives you the answers. 

    It would’ve taken data analysts weeks to get you that information before Querio. Now, you can grab it yourself in seconds. 


    Many companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Tableau, Looker, and data analysts. Querio can replace all of that at a fraction of the cost.

    A smart, scrappy guy making a product a ton of people need – that’s the kind of investment I’m looking for.

    Check out Querio and save your company time and money!

    There will be no blog tomorrow. See you guys on Monday and have a great weekend!

    More on tech:

    Meet My Latest Investment: Recall

    Test the Product!

    I’m About to Close the World’s Tiniest Venture Fund

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • The Coming Robot War with China

    Since 1945, our nuclear weapons have made us invulnerable. Those days are over.

    Chinese companies are well ahead of us in robotics. Soon, they will turn these technologies to military uses.

    Unitree recently demoed an android that can run fast on hills, gravel, or stairs. It will cost just $16,000.

    Robot dogs on wheels from DEEP Robotics can speed through snow, streams, and rocks. Massive numbers of drones can descend on a city and surround it.

    Today, none of these robots have weapons attached. Soon, they will.

    Imagine a conflict with China in 5 years.

    They shut down our 911 and water systems with hacking. 100 million drones descend on all our major cities, dropping bombs. 10 million robot soldiers storm the coasts.

    I’m not trying to be an alarmist here. But given the incredible speed at which China is advancing in robotics, is this really that far fetched?

    All these robots will be powered by AI and Large Vision Models. They’ll simply be given a goal (“destroy the 3rd Infantry”) and will act autonomously to do it.

    No one mass produces like China. Even if we manage to field some capable robots, China may massively outproduce us and still win.

    Our fail-safe is a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons. But if we launch ours in self-defense, they will launch theirs.

    In this scenario, we would face 2 choices:

    1) Total destruction of America and much of the world in a nuclear war.
    2) Surrender to China to try to save lives.

    As awful as it would be, we would pick #2.

    The only way to prevent this scenario is to catch up with and surpass China’s advances in robotics.

    We must have better robots than China. Even more importantly, we must be able to produce them at incredible scale.

    Slow defense procurement and cockamamie environmental regulations cannot hold us back. We have to build these weapons as fast as humanly possible.

    I’m encouraged to see moves like the Arsenal-1 plant from Anduril and the $500 billion Stargate plan to build out AI data centers. We need a lot more rapid, bold action like this.

    Angel Jason Calacanis put it well on a recent episode of This Week in Startups:

    “This is now the race for the nuclear bomb, all right. This is the Manhattan Project.”

    We did it once. We can do it again.

    More on tech:

    How to Build a Drone Botnet for World Domination

    Is This the End of Manual Labor?

    Climb, Crawl, Fly, Swim: Jake Loosararian at the All-In Summit

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Test the Product!

    I usually help startups by introducing them to other investors. But lately, I’ve been working on a new way to help…

    It started when I got an e-mail from the founder of one of my companies. He asked the investors to test the product, a great SaaS tool.

    “Hmm, that’s unusual,” I thought. “Let’s give it a try.”

    I ran through the whole flow. It was a super impressive product, but I found a couple little glitches. I also had a few ideas on how to make it better.

    I wrote those up into a brief e-mail and sent it off. A few minutes later, I got a reply: “Added to the product roadmap.”

    That was quick!

    Fast forward about a month…

    Same founder messages me again. They’d added a ton of features, and he asked if I had time to re-test.

    I got you, pal!

    These guys have some amazing developers in-house. So why do they need me?

    Those developers already know exactly how to use the product. I don’t.

    In that respect, I’m a lot like their customers.

    You know everything about your product. You built it! But to your customers, it’s foreign and potentially confusing.

    Having a fresh set of eyes makes a big difference.

    I actually did a certain amount of product testing when I worked in medical software. I had to run through some complex workflows — everything from heart surgery to organ transplant.

    Any mistakes could have dire consequences.

    So, I learned how to test software carefully and thoroughly. I never thought that experience would come in handy for anything else. But lo and behold…

    I can’t commit to doing testing for every company. It depends on my schedule.

    But if a founder needs that fresh set of eyes, I love providing it.

    Testing the product also helps me from an investment perspective. The only way to truly understand what a startup is doing is to use their product.

    The better I understand what the company does, the more informed I’ll be when it’s time to place a follow-on bet.

    If you invest in startups, consider doing some testing for your companies. And if you’re a founder, get some use out of those money guys — put them to work!

    More on tech:

    I’m About to Close the World’s Tiniest Venture Fund

    Lessons From My 3 Most Challenged Investments

    Learning From My Top 3 Investments

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Inauguration Day

    “From this moment on, America’s decline is over.” Watching President Trump’s inauguration today, I felt an incredible sense of relief. I felt comfort and trust.

    But I also felt trepidation. “Will this work?”

    Our country faces huge problems right now. Fixing them will take enormous effort.

    We have to believe that we can do it.

    I was chatting with someone this weekend and she said, “Trump is a gamble.” I responded with one of my favorite quotes…

    “No gamble, no future.”

    I’m told they say that in Vietnam. It’s a motto we have to adopt.

    As I write this on the afternoon of Monday, January 20, 2025, our country is $36.2 trillion in debt. That’s growing by a trillion every 90 days.

    We are at the beginning of a debt spiral. We borrow to pay off existing debt, which drives up interest rates. Then we have to borrow even more to pay that interest.

    If we don’t do something right now, we will never get out of this spiral.

    I like Jason Calacanis’ suggestion of a 5% across the board cut, every year, for 4 years.

    We are also at the edge of World War III with Russia over Ukraine. If that conflict goes nuclear, it’s a war that no human being will survive.

    Frankly, I do not envy President Trump. I would not want to have to take on these problems.

    But he led us to peace and prosperity before, just a few short years ago. I’m confident he can do it again.

    Here’s to a great 4 years. Let’s Make America Great Again! 🇺🇸

    More from the blog:

    Three Priorities for the Trump Administration

    Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump

    114 Days

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • How Elon Built the World’s Largest Computing Cluster in 122 Days

    I used the world’s largest computer cluster to make a picture of Donald Trump eating ramen. Good thing engineers worked day and night on this.

    But seriously, xAI’s Colossus computing cluster is an incredible sight. With 100,000 GPU’s, the cluster is 2-4x larger than anything else on earth.

    A computing cluster of this size should take years to stand up. Incredibly, the xAI team built the whole thing in just 122 days.

    How Elon and xAI pulled this off can teach us a lot about how to solve big problems.

    Go Big or Go Home

    How was Elon able to secure 100,000 NVIDIA GPU’s when the demand for these chips is so intense?

    No one knows for sure, but the scale of this project may have been a key factor. When you place a massive order from a supplier, you go to the front of the line.

    In a sense, building a huge cluster is easier than building a small one.

    Making a massive bet without regards to the odds seems to be Elon’s approach to life. As a young man playing poker with Max Levchin, he lost repeatedly. But he doubled down over and over until he won.

    That may not be an ideal poker strategy. But as an approach to life, it seems to be working for him!

    “How Can I Do It?”

    Most of us see an obstacle and say, “That means I can’t do it.” Elon sees an obstacle and asks himself, “How can I do it?”

    Power is a huge limiting factor for data centers. They need a ton of it, and with everyone building AI clusters, power is running short.

    Elon could’ve waited for years to secure a steady supply and get a million permits. But instead, he and his team came up with a creative solution: portable, methane powered gas turbines.

    These turbines use methane, a fossil fuel byproduct. Because they’re portable, they don’t need many permits.

    Despite concerns about pollution, portable methane gas turbines of this type appear to be very clean. Moreover, I expect that these turbines are a temporary solution until xAI finds a permanent power source.

    Wrap-Up

    The problems we face in our businesses are nowhere near as hard as those Elon and xAI faced when they built Colossus. If they can pull that off, what can we do?

    The key is to make an audacious goal. Then, instead of thinking of reasons why we can’t succeed, let’s start thinking of some reasons why we can!

    Have a great weekend, everyone!

    More on tech:

    Tesla FSD 13 vs. Manhattan Rush Hour

    Your First Cybercab Ride

    I’m About to Close the World’s Tiniest Venture Fund

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • I’m About to Close the World’s Tiniest Venture Fund

    In April 2021, I started the world’s tiniest venture fund. In the next few months, I’m about to close “Fund 1” and open “Fund 2.”

    My goal for my startup investments is to learn and to make returns that beat the stock market. The best way to learn is with small bets.

    If you’re learning poker, you want to play at the penny table first. Same idea here.

    These bets are small, but I want to run this professionally. So I think of my investments as the world’s tiniest venture fund.

    Here’s how it works…

    How Fund 1 Works

    I need 35-40 primary investments in a seed/pre-seed fund like mine. That gives me enough diversification so that, if I’ve chosen well, I have a chance of hitting a unicorn.

    Most of the returns in venture come from unicorns. I will almost surely need to hit one for this experiment to work.

    If I invest about $140k, I can get into around 35 primary investments. Then, I want about the same amount for follow-on.

    In total, Fund 1 is $280,000.

    What Happens When I Close Fund 1

    So far, I have 33 primary investments. I plan to invest in 3 more companies for a total of 36. Then, I will close Fund 1 to new primary investments.

    From that point on, two things will happen:

    1. Fund 1 will only do follow-on investments in the most successful companies. I’ve already done a few of those and plan to do several more. This follow-on period will extend indefinitely, until I’ve deployed all the follow-on cash. That should take a further 2-3 years (a total of 6-7).
    2. New primary investments will come out of Fund 2. Fund 2 will work pretty similarly to Fund 1.

    I expect to close Fund 1 in the first half of this year. But it could be sooner or later. It depends on how many great startups I see.

    I will have taken around 4 years to do all the primary investments in Fund 1. That’s on the slow side. The average fund takes 2-3 years, and 5 is usually the limit.

    I’m in no rush. I want the best.

    How Fund 1 Is Doing

    Venture capital is a game of outliers. And already, several companies in Fund 1 have distinguished themselves.

    Here is the leaderboard so far, by annual revenue run rate:

    • $17 million
    • $12 million
    • $8 million
    • $7 million

    Overall, the fund is up 2.3%. This number is not very meaningful right now, since it’s all on paper. You couldn’t realize any of these gains if you tried.

    However, it shows some good progress. Most funds nearly 4 years in are in negative territory. Indeed, I expect this fund to go negative as well in the next few years before the big winners (hopefully) start to break out.

    It has helped that so far, only 2 companies have shut down. That’s pretty amazing given the early stage I’m investing at.

    But the most important thing to focus on is that revenue leaderboard. That shows which companies are beginning to break out. And that’s where the returns will be.

    Where Did This Money Come From?

    These funds are all my own cash. I do not accept any outside investors for Fund 1, nor will I for Fund 2.

    In the future, that may change. But first, I want to learn this game with my own capital, not someone else’s. I would not feel good about running a crazy experiment with someone else’s money.

    Wrap-Up

    I started investing in startups during COVID. I did it mostly because I was bored and curious about angel investing.

    It wasn’t really about making money. That said, these investments have to make money. Otherwise, I won’t be able to keep doing it.

    I committed to myself to do this for 10 years. Then, I’d see if I was any good at it.

    Now I’m almost 4 years in, and things are going well so far.

    There are no guarantees in life. But win or lose, it’s been a heck of a ride. I’ve learned a lot and met a ton of fascinating people.

    Here’s to meeting more!

    More on tech:

    How to Get Started Angel Investing

    Lessons From My 3 Most Challenged Investments

    Learning From My Top 3 Investments

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • My Investment Process

    If you send me your company, what should you expect from me? Here’s how my investment process works…

    Qualification

    I focus on meeting companies with these characteristics:

    • Software business
    • Couple of paying customers
    • Team of multiple builder founders
    • Proper incorporation. (A Delaware C Corp is the right move — more on why here.)

    I qualify startups like this because I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. If the business is something I know nothing about (biotech, for example) or is incorporated in a way that is a dealbreaker for me, it doesn’t make sense to meet.

    When I see something interesting that meets those qualifications, I schedule a meeting, usually within a few days.

    Meeting

    When I meet with a founder, I like to do a Q&A. I’ve already reviewed the deck and any other materials before the meeting.

    My meetings are typically around 20 minutes, although we can go longer if need be. I want to get a basic idea of the vision for the company, the team, and the product.

    I never ask founders to meet multiple times. I’m a small check, and I don’t want to take up too much of their time.

    However, some founders ask me to meet with them more than once. They want to go over product updates, etc. I’ll often take that meeting.

    Decision Time

    My sweet spot is usually around $200-500k ARR, growing fast. I also like to see you closing enough funding to give you a minimum of 12 months runway.

    If you’re in that sweet spot, I can usually get you a decision within 24 hours after the meeting.

    If you’re not in that sweet spot yet, I will probably give you a “not yet.” It’s crucial to note that this is NOT a no.

    I met a great founder in mid-2023 whose company was just getting started. He really impressed me, but the startup was just too early stage for me.

    I kept in touch and at the end of 2024, I invested. He had grown the company a great deal, and it was time to place a bet.

    Check Size

    My first check is $5,000. I reserve $25,000 plus to go into the best companies, typically at Series A.

    That’s not a lot of money. But I am committed to giving you value beyond the cash.

    A while back, I met with a great SaaS founder. I introduced him to a VC firm that gave him an $800,000 term sheet.

    I’m not even an investor in that startup. I go even further for companies I have actually placed a bet on.

    Wrap-Up

    I want my process to be clear and transparent to every founder. Founders’ time is an incredibly scarce resource.

    If we’re a match, awesome! If not, we can keep in touch and we might be a great match later.

    Either way, you’ll know where you stand.

    More on tech:

    What To Do When a Company Fails

    Why It’s Easier to Raise $3 Million Than $300,000

    What Investors Ask Founders

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • One Billion Americans

    “China’s past thirty years of economic growth has been impressive, but they’ve also left the People’s Republic with roughly the per person income of Mexico. Nobody worries about Mexico dominating twenty-first-century power politics or asks how we’re going to stop them from winning the future.

    The difference is there are 130 million Mexicans, 330 million Americans, and 1,300 million Chinese people.”

    That’s One Billion Americans by Matthew Yglesias. I’ve been meaning to read this book for years. Last week, I finally picked up a copy.

    Matt makes a brilliant argument about why America is under threat and how we can stay on top. But when he tells us how to fix it, he falls short.

    Staying On Top

    America is not perfect. But a world dominated by America is a much better planet than one dominated by China.

    China has imprisoned over 1 million Uyghur Muslims who have committed no crime. The Communist Party surveils its people and punishes any dissent mercilessly.

    For America to remain the most powerful country, we need the largest economy. As China’s economy grows, we’re in danger of slipping to #2.

    But if we grew our population rapidly, we’d leave China in the dust.

    This is the crux of Matt’s argument. It’s very original and very insightful. I agree 100%.

    Boosting Fertility

    America’s fertility rate today is 1.67. At this rate, we are not replacing ourselves.

    Without immigration, population decline is assured.

    Matt prescribes a ton of new welfare policies in order to get that rate up. Free childcare, housing subsidies, you name it.

    The problem is, subsidies for families as a way to boost fertility have failed everywhere they’ve been tried.

    Hungary went so far as to spend 5% of GDP on these payments. Fertility jumped briefly, then settled right back down to where it was (a dismal 1.36).

    As I write this, our country is $36 trillion in debt. Shoveling trillions more at programs that don’t work will bankrupt us.

    Instead, the government should fund research on extending fertility. If women could have babies reliably throughout their 40’s, families would be highly likely to grow.

    We could fund a ton of this research for just a few billion dollars.

    New Americans

    In addition to boosting fertility, Matt urges us to go all-in on immigration. He’s absolutely right: if America can grab the most talented people from all over the world, there will be no stopping us.

    My favorite proposal of Matt’s is to allow open immigration from all our NATO allies.

    These folks are well-educated, English speaking, and friendly to America. This should be a no brainer, although I’d require they be college educated to make sure they can succeed in our job market.

    Immigration should be a growth strategy. Bring in highly skilled people, let them build new things, and everyone benefits.

    We should let in anyone from anywhere on earth with a STEM degree from a decent college and a clean police record. These people will create new companies and new technologies that will keep America on top.

    Wrap-Up

    Although this book came out in September 2020, parts of it feel very dated. This is no reflection on Matt’s writing. It’s because the world is changing really fast.

    Matt’s proposed investments in transit seem much less relevant in a world of Zoom and robotaxis. And his calls for higher government spending are hard to square with today’s high inflation.

    I also would’ve liked to see a concrete plan for getting to one billion people. How many immigrants do we need per year for how long?

    But overall, One Billion Americans is very much worth reading. Matt is one of the few people to point out a serious danger to our country and propose a radical fix.

    I hope to see America grow and prosper, filled with the best people on earth.

    More from the blog:

    The Fertility Crisis

    One Trillion Scientists

    Why AI + Humans 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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Make Investor Conversations a Dialogue, Not a Monologue

    In my best meetings with founders, we have a back-and-forth discussion. In the worst, only the founder talks. Here’s how to avoid those bad meetings…

    Take a Breath!

    Some founders talk very fast and never pause. Instead, pause after an important point. Let it sink in, and leave a space for a question.

    Founders often talk fast out of nervousness. And that’s okay!

    A great way to handle that is to be well prepared. The more you’ve rehearsed your presentation, the more calm you’ll be.

    Try a 5 minute meditation right before a meeting. Everyone has 5 minutes, and it can really help.

    The 1/3rd, 2/3rds Rule

    You can ensure a dialogue by following the 1/3rd, 2/3rds rule.

    The first 1/3 of the meeting is for your presentation. Take the investor through the deck and a quick demo.

    The remaining 2/3rds should be for Q&A. Some investors, like me, tend to skip straight to the Q&A, which is fine too!

    It’s very simple: when you leave time for a dialogue, you wind up having a dialogue!

    Track Your Talk Time

    You could take a guess at how much you’re talking. But in today’s world, you don’t have to.

    I use an incredible tool called Fathom that records and summarizes all my meetings. It also tells me what percent of the time I spoke and whether I went on any monologues.

    In my best meetings, I’m speaking around 40% of the time and the founder takes up the remaining 60%.

    In the worst, least productive meetings, I have a very hard time getting my questions in. By the end, I’ve only spoken maybe 10-15% of the time.

    I highly recommend you use this tool. It also has a free tier. I’m not an investor in this one — I just love it!

    Wrap-Up

    To get a check from an investor, you have to defeat a dozen objections. But if you don’t hear from the investor, you won’t know what those objections are!

    You need to pull the objections out of them. Then, you need to neutralize them.

    The only way to do that is to have a true dialogue, not a monologue. Practice this, and you’ll find yourself raising a lot more money!

    More on tech:

    Why It’s Easier to Raise $3 Million Than $300,000

    How to Run a Pitch Meeting

    What To Do When a Company Fails

    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!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • How to Run a Pitch Meeting

    You’re about to get on a Zoom with an investor. On this call, there’s one thing you must not do: just show up and talk. Many founders “show up and throw up.” They come onto the call and give a long, unfocused monologue.

    They quickly lose their audience. And they don’t get a check.

    You’re making a presentation, and that presentation needs structure. Here’s how to do it right…

    Know What’s Important

    Long before the call, you have to know the most important things to cover. They’re not hard to remember — I call them the Big 3.

    The Big 3 are Vision, Team and Traction.

    What’s the vision for your startup? Who’s on the team, and why are they the perfect people to take on this problem? What traction do you have to show you’re addressing the problem successfully?

    There are 100 other things you could talk about that don’t matter. Advisors, complex market size models, etc.

    Don’t bother. We need to be tight and focused.

    Rehearse Your Presentation

    Practice your presentation over and over. Keep doing it until it’s smooth, natural and easy.

    Figure out how long the presentation takes. That’s important, because you want to leave lots of time for questions.

    Your co-founder is a great person to rehearse with. Have them play the role of the investor.

    Deck and Demo

    Using a deck will help you stay on track. Don’t read the slides to the investor. Just use them as a guide.

    Include a brief product demo. Focus on showing the value the product gives the customer.

    Dan Siroker, founder of Limitless (formerly Rewind), did a beautiful job of using a deck and demo together to raise money. He pulled in $12 million at a $350 million valuation with his pitch, which I reviewed here.

    Leave Lots of Time for Questions

    Your presentation should take up the first third of the meeting. Leave the rest for questions.

    When you’re done presenting, don’t ask, “Any questions?” It’s too easy for the investor to say “no.”.

    Instead, ask, “What questions do you have?”

    Make sure your responses are precise. If they ask for a number, give them a number, not a story.

    Avoid long, meandering responses. It should take you about as long to answer a question as it took the investor to ask it.

    Some investors, like me, prefer to skip the presentation altogether and just do Q&A. That’s fine too!

    Just like you rehearsed your presentation, you should rehearse for Q&A. Have your co-founder play the role of the investor. The harder the questions, the better!

    Wrap-Up

    Fundraising is sales. And in most early stage startups, the CEO is the chief fundraiser and chief salesman.

    The investor meeting is a great opportunity for me to evaluate the founders’ sales skills.

    If he gives a long, meandering presentation, I’m picturing sales meetings going badly. But if his presentation is crisp and focused, I’m gaining confidence by the minute.

    Fundraising is a skill and you can learn it. It just takes focused practice.

    Know what you need to cover. Rehearse over and over. This is the way to raise millions.

    Have a great weekend, everyone!

    More on tech:

    Why It’s Easier to Raise $3 Million Than $300,000

    The Big 3: Vision, Team and Traction

    The Perfect Pitch

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