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- ♞ Pitching Yourself
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What are investors looking for in a founder?
Over the past few years, I have observed a shift in the qualities investors seek in a startup founder.
10+ years ago investors were always looking for the right mix of hustle, business sense, sales ability and technical ability. Whether that mix was found in 1, 2 or 3 people this is what they were looking for. This is why so many startup founding teams from 2007-2020 were two co-founders with one from a business background and one from a technical background.
Today, investors seem to be looking for something different. Here is what I’ve observed:
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Exceptionalism - Investors are looking for founders who are in the top 0.1% of a specific skill set. Often, this is something technical like AI, ML, Robotics, etc. YCombinator has even started taking idea-stage startups if the founding team has top engineers from big tech companies. The rationale is clear: it takes exceptional talent to build an extraordinary company. We are no longer at a stage where technology is being built to solve common problems and needs to be sold correctly to customers. Instead, we are at a stage where tech can be built instantaneously, and investors want to back the most cutting-edge tech.
When pitching, you need to be able to communicate that you (or your co-founder) have this level of skill.
Do you or your co-founder have top 0.1% skills? |
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Are you looking to grow your business? Here is how I can help:
📱 Book a Strategy Call to get 1:1 feedback on your pitch, pitch deck and/or fundraising strategy. (If you need general startup advice, then reply to this email, and I’ll let you know if/how I can help.)
Onwards and Upwards,
