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Equity is expensive. But some founders give it away like it’s a LinkedIn endorsement. I spoke to a founder a while back ...
07/29/2026

Equity is expensive. But some founders give it away like it’s a LinkedIn endorsement.

I spoke to a founder a while back who told me they couldn’t raise pre-seed because investors said the team lacked industry experience.

So they did what they thought they were supposed to do.

They recruited FIVE advisors… and gave away 15% of the company.

Last week, I asked, “So… how’s the raise going?”

“Investors now say we have too many people on the cap table.”

It didn’t solve the fundraising problem. It created a bigger one.

So I asked, “What have the advisors done so far?”

“Nothing at all yet. They won’t even respond to my emails or calls.”

15% of a startup. For people who don’t even answer emails.

Every desperate fundraising decision feels temporary. But the impact is permanent.

Founders hear one piece of feedback, then overcorrect. One piece of feedback turns into a permanent decision.

“Need advisors?” Give away equity.

“Need traction?” Slash prices.

“Need customers?” Spend six months building features nobody asked for.

But sometimes the response isn’t to DO MORE. It’s asking whether the advice actually solves the problem.

Equity is one of the most expensive assets you’ll ever own. Don’t spend it trying to buy credibility.

Spend it on people who create measurable value.

Because once you give away equity… you’re not getting it back.

Most founders can't explain their startup in two sentences. It isn't that they don't know what their business does. They...
07/28/2026

Most founders can't explain their startup in two sentences.

It isn't that they don't know what their business does. They just don't know how to explain it in a way that investors, customers, or normal people can digest.

So here's a challenge.

👇 In TWO sentences:

1) What does your startup do?
2) Why should investors care?

Rules:
- No pitch deck.
- No buzzwords.
- Just two sentences.

I'll reply to as many as I can with honest feedback on whether I'd keep reading... or pass.

Drop your two sentences below 👇

An 80-page business plan isn’t impressive to investors. It’s a red flag. A founder recently asked me for an Investor Rea...
07/27/2026

An 80-page business plan isn’t impressive to investors. It’s a red flag.

A founder recently asked me for an Investor Readiness Breakdown. Cool, no problem.

She submitted her materials. Great.

I opened the attachment expecting a pitch deck. But instead… it was an 80-page business plan.

She clearly spent weeks, maybe even months, putting it together. She planned out multiple scenarios, listed out every assumption, and addressed every part of the business.

But she still wondered why investors weren’t emailing her back. I think I had a good idea why.

The problem wasn’t her effort.

It was the AUDIENCE.

Founders think fundraising is about answering every question. But it’s not.

It’s about EARNING the next question.

You don’t earn an investor’s attention by overwhelming them with information. You earn it by communicating one thing very clearly: “This startup is worth another conversation.”

Once you’ve earned that…

Only then do you get into customer acquisition.

Only then do you explain your financial model.

Only then do you get into diligence.

You can’t compress the entire fundraising process into a single document.

That’s exactly what this founder was doing. She wasn’t missing information. She was showing the entire movie… before she’d convinced anyone to watch the trailer.

Fundraising happens one conversation at a time.

The founders who raise money usually aren't the ones who explain everything.

They're the ones who leave investors wanting the next conversation.

“But Mike, my startup has so much POTENTIAL!” Blah… potential is overrated. “You have SO MUCH POTENTIAL!” is what we tel...
07/10/2026

“But Mike, my startup has so much POTENTIAL!” Blah… potential is overrated.

“You have SO MUCH POTENTIAL!” is what we tell our kids when they are going in the WRONG direction. When something is impressive to us… we say, “It’s amazing! It’s incredible! It’s everything I ever wanted!” Not, “It has potential.”

Nobody watches Michael Jordan in the flu game and says, “Wow, he has so much potential!”

Nobody looks at Space X and says, “Wow, they really have so much potential!”

Nobody eats an amazing chicken wing and says, “MMM!!! It has so much potential!” (Sorry, I”m hungry right now)

Founders love talking about potential because potential doesn’t require proof. Potential is a complement reserved for things that haven’t happened yet.

Stop trying to prove your startup has potential and start SHOWING what works.

Potential must be explained. Greatness speaks for itself.

I hate when founders say, “We don’t have any competitors.” Not ONLY because it’s a lie. But it’s a clear signal that you...
07/09/2026

I hate when founders say, “We don’t have any competitors.” Not ONLY because it’s a lie. But it’s a clear signal that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.

Everybody has a competitor, even if it isn’t implicit.

- Tesla was the only personal car with self driving. But they still compete with, ya know… REGULAR DRIVING.
- Before Airbnb, there was no other platform for peer-to-peer short term home rentals. But people could still get a hotel, stay with family and friends, or just stay home.
- Invisalign was the first with invisible teeth straighteners. But they still competed against traditional braces AND against people just choosing to live with crooked teeth.

There is always an alternative, and sometimes, that alternative is doing nothing.

Acting like that alternative doesn’t exist is irresponsible. Ignore it long enough, and it becomes the thing that kills you.

Not all startups lose to competitors. Some of them lose to INERTIA. They lose to:

- “Maybe next month.”
- “We’re perfectly fine with our current process.”
- “Eh, the problem is annoying, but not annoying enough.”

Sometimes, “nothing” is your biggest competitor. Because for a customer… doing nothing is FREE. No onboarding. No risk. No learning curve. No change.

The moment you stop asking, “Who are my competitors?” and start asking, “Why would someone choose NOT to buy this?” —- that’s the moment your positioning gets better.

The most dangerous competitor isn’t another startup. It’s the customer deciding they’re fine exactly where they are.

Founders who have never raised think fundraising is a science. Those who have stood in front of investors know it’s actu...
07/08/2026

Founders who have never raised think fundraising is a science. Those who have stood in front of investors know it’s actually a DANCE.

Science says: If X happens, then Y happens.

- If the air reaches under 32 degrees, water freezes. Correct.
- The earth rotates every 24 hours, causing the sun to rise and set. Correct.
- As long as my pitch deck checks all the boxes, I will get funding. Incorrect.

In fundraising, you can do X, Y, and Z perfectly… and still hear “No.”

Why? Because investors aren’t operating on formulas. Actually, they’re operating on rhythm, timing, and chemistry.

- Founders with better traction can lose to founders with better timing
- Founders with weaker products can win because it fits the investor’s profile
- Meetings can go from “probably not” to “send me more info” because the chemistry was there.

The best founders I’ve seen pitch know how to adapt when the choreography changes unexpectedly.

During the pitch, it’s a basic three-step salsa. You know what you’re supposed to say. You wrote it out. You practiced it.

You said your bit about the problem and the solution. Step left.

You mentioned that you already have 350 users. Step right.

Then the investor says, “Okay… but tell me about retention.” Oh, that’s a dip! Didn’t see that one coming.

You either trip over your other foot, or you do a spin move and adapt, falling right back in on the ONE beat like that was the plan.

You don’t need the best choreography; but you need to be confident enough not to freeze when the music changes.

So you think you can dance?

P.S. I don’t know s**t about salsa, so don’t kill me in the comments.

I spend 10-15 hours per week giving FREE Investor Readiness Breakdowns to founders. My peers think I’m crazy. Honestly… ...
07/07/2026

I spend 10-15 hours per week giving FREE Investor Readiness Breakdowns to founders.

My peers think I’m crazy. Honestly… they’re probably right.

Why? Because most of the founders I help never become clients. I spend hours evaluating their story, breaking down their deck… and most of the time, that’s where it ends.

But I keep doing them anyway.

Because every couple of weeks, I get a message like this: “Mike… that one thing you said changed everything.”

This founder in the screenshot isn’t a client. He’s someone I spent time helping because I believed in what he was building.

We identified weaknesses in his investor narrative. We gave some suggestions to tighten the story. We challenged assumptions.

We helped him step outside the “founder mentality” for a few minutes and think about things the way investors do.

Just a couple weeks later, he’s lining up angel meetings and VC conversations.

We didn’t magically make his company better. We just helped him communicate it better.

Will every founder I help raise money? Nope.

Nobody can promise that.

But I CAN help founders stop making avoidable mistakes. Sometimes, that’s the difference between them getting another rejection… and finally getting a REAL shot.

These free Breakdowns make for a very s**tty business model. But they’re a great reminder of why I started doing this in the first place.

If they become a client? Awesome.

If they don’t… but they finally get the opportunity they’ve been chasing for months…

I’d call that a pretty damn good return on my time.

Last week, I asked a 2x exited founder one question: “What’s something founders consistently get wrong about fundraising...
07/06/2026

Last week, I asked a 2x exited founder one question: “What’s something founders consistently get wrong about fundraising?”

I fully expected another answer about pitch decks or market size. That’s not what I got. I got a MBA-level lesson in the art of “Investor Psychology.”

I’ve been involved in dozens and dozens of meetings, so there was one thing that initially rubbed me the wrong way. She said, “Investment is mostly HERD psychology.”

We all like to think great fundamentals speak entirely for themselves. But the more I thought about it… the more I thought about my own experiences through this perspective… the more I realized that she’s 100% right.

Belief is contagious.

Founders spend so much time trying to figure out how to convince ONE investor. Tweaking the deck. Presenting different metrics. Trying to find that one shift in messaging that will make that investor jump out of their chair.

But investors are asking something founders didn’t even consider…

“Who else believes in this?”

That’s why momentum is so important. That’s why a LEAD investor changes everything. That’s why the RIGHT warm intro can give you so much more credibility. That’s why the FIFTH investor is so much easier to find and convince than the first.

When an investor sees that someone else believes, the perceived risk changes. The same business. Same metrics. Same plan. But a whole different level of belief.

Once ONE respected investor believes, everyone else’s risk calculation changes completely. Suddenly, investors who ignored your emails for months start replying. Warm introductions become easier. Conversations move faster.

The company didn’t get better overnight. It just became SAFER for investors to believe.

Sometimes, a “no” has nothing to do with your company. It’s an investor asking themselves, “Am I the only one who thinks this is worth funding?”

“No” doesn’t even mean they don’t believe in you. It MIGHT just mean that they don’t know if they believe in THEIR OWN evaluation enough to be confident on if they SHOULD be believing in you.

Sometimes, investors aren’t even evaluating your company. They’re evaluating whether other investors will eventually agree with them.

Product still matters.
Traction still matters.

But fundraising isn’t just about convincing investors YOU’RE right.

It’s about convincing them that they won’t be the ONLY one who thinks you are.

07/03/2026

Founders… the more complex your business is, the tighter your messaging needs to be.

I saw a bio-chemist pitch an idea one time and lose the entire room. The idea was probably great. I remember something about “nucleic acids” and “nucleotides,” and I remember thinking, “I must have skipped science class that day in high school.”

But I looked around and I could tell that 99% of the room also had no idea what the hell was going on.

I have no doubts that it was an amazing solution. The problem was, nobody understood it. No one understood the industry. No one understood the language and terminology. Everyone could tell it was sophisticated. But no one could tell you what the opportunity was.

The problem wasn’t the solution. The problem was that nobody UNDERSTOOD the solution. Communication is the BRIDGE between value and belief.

Successful startups are simple on the surface.

- Airbnb is a short-term rental marketplace, not a “decentralized peer-to-peer transient accommodation facilitation platform.”
- Casper sells themselves as “perfect mattress for every one,” not as a, “multic-channel somnology enterprise specializing in the architecture of the comprehensive sleep economy.
- Illumina “unlocks the power of the genome,” it doesn’t market itself as a “global leader in high-throughput genetic-sequencing architecture and synthesized macromolecular array technology.”

People don’t buy what they don’t understand. Investors don’t invest in something they can’t describe to their partners.

Simplify your message, then simplify it again.

If a 10-year-old can’t understand your pitch, it’s not simple enough yet.

Have you had any yet? 🤔
07/02/2026

Have you had any yet? 🤔

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