[Fundraising for Startups] Lesson 13: If you make it, they will do absolutely nothing.

This applies to products.

This applies to pitch decks.

This applies to everything you do in your personal and professional life.

You have to actively pursue your first customers, investors and supporters.

But you're paying attention to this course because you want to raise money. I get it. So let's just focus on investors.

If you're planning to raise $250,000, you need to go in with the mindset of booking 250 meetings. If you're planning on raising $1,000,000 for your company, I want you to be ready for 1,000 meetings.

And no, you're not actually going to take hundreds of meetings but your mindset through the fundraising process is extremely important. And yes, this sounds hard but the good news is that you can do this, and do it well, even if you've never raised money or spoken to an investor before. And that's because most investors are predictable.

If an investor doesn't give you a "yes" then it's safe to assume that they either (1) don't agree with your assertions or (2) don't see how they can generate a return on their money.

In either case, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR PRODUCT.

This is where most founders get hung up: they think they had a great meeting but then blame the investor for not understanding things.

Just say it with me: IT'S. MY. FAULT.

You're the entrepreneur. It's your responsibility to properly target your investors. It's your responsibility to pitch your business properly. It's your responsibility to close the investor. It's also your responsibility to end the conversation when things aren't going well.

[Side note: this email's a bit rambly -- I'm sitting in a Starbucks on the corner of 15th and U St in DC this morning and I'm two venti cold brews deep into pitch deck teardowns this morning...]

The lesson here is that you should not go through the fundraise process expecting people to be excited about what you're doing. You need to show investors (and customers) what's in it from them.

And when things don't go your way, it's your responsibility -- and yours alone -- to iterate your pitch.

-P

P.S. I'm not having a third cold brew today. #wired