Had a wild chat with a founder at the Capital Factory demo day last week

We were grabbing coffee after the pitches and he said, 'If you're not getting 10 no's a week from investors, you're not trying hard enough in Austin.' He runs a SaaS company that just hit $500k ARR. I've always been told to focus on perfecting the pitch before reaching out. Now I'm stuck between grinding for perfect metrics or just blasting out way more meetings. What's the real move here for early stage founders in town?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren6381mo ago

That founder's advice hits different in Austin. My buddy spent six months tweaking his deck for some perfect launch that never came. Meanwhile his co founder just booked twenty coffee chats with any investor who'd listen, even the weird crypto guys at the food truck park. Guess who got the first term sheet? Sometimes perfect is the enemy of paid. What's your follow up rate look like on pitches you do send?

jade5171mo ago

My cousin in Denver had the exact same thing happen. He rewrote his whole business plan for the tenth time while his partner just emailed fifty angel investors with a three line pitch. The partner got three calls back in a week. My follow up rate is terrible, honestly. I send the pitch and then get scared to bug them.

wendy1311mo ago

Wow, that's the real talk right there! Perfect pitches don't get funded, conversations do. You need to be out there getting real feedback, not just polishing slides in a cave. Every no gets you closer to a yes and teaches you what to fix. Stop overthinking and start hitting send on those meeting requests.