Molson Hart

It’s fascinating that founders can be stronger in general yet worse at fundraising. Though seemingly luck has a ton to do with fundraising success.

I’m 0 for 9 at raising money and startup competitions. I don’t think it’s bad luck (maybe a tiny bit). It’s my personality and how and what I present. There is definitely a personality type for the person who kills it at raising money but cannot do operations.

I've found coaching helped me get better. Started my pitches with "friendlies" or folks I assumed were insta-no's. I asked them at the end for no-holds-barred feedback. Most provide it.

Great technique. You want to go to the people who are the best bets last, after you've worked out the bugs in your presentation. I'm hoping that I won't need to learn these skills and I can just leverage recommendations from my network and evidence of past performance.

Also, I want to be clear. This isn't just the presenter's fault (it's best to think it is so you get better). I have seen some TERRRRRRRRRIBLE companies get funded over mine. A lot of these judges and investors make bad calls.

Pitch competitions are stupid for a myriad of reasons. The lack of skin in the game is #1. The format is #2. I could go on and on...

Yeah, I'm 0 for 7 in pitch competitions and 0 for 2 in investor meetings (angel investors in Albany and @ycombinator).