Nicholas Kovalsky

KR CHALLENGER UNC STILL GOT IT

@SurbhiTodi Jesus & Mozart

Who are the best early stage founders out there? I'm writing pre- seed and seed checks. Willing to be the first one in, will make sure you have a fantastic next round (I work with all of the top investors in the valley). I write 3 checks a quarter so you know I'm focused on making sure you crush it.

@lsodesign dope shiz

Also check out what project they featured @NickBuildin 👀

Skarlo 🤝@masonwenlaunch 🤝 @framer 🥀💫🥀💫

@hthieblot Based

In 2009 we were running out of cash. I met our lead investor hoping to discuss a bridge. Instead: “Hubert, you need to step down. We need a professional CEO. You’ll always be remembered as the founder, don’t worry.” WOW. Nice, thank you. I walked out, raised $600k from angels in 2 weeks, and went on a 10-year run that ended in an acquisition by Twitch. Investors should never replace founders as CEO but instead support them. Founders will make operating mistakes, I absolutely did. I hired too many people and wasted cash. But only founders can truly lead a startup, hold the vision, and make the 50 bold decisions over 10 years that it takes to build a large company.

@jn_jackk Fundraise

Have any plans to raise money for a startup? Or already are? I've built a searchable database of 10,000+ investors - angels, VCs, and accelerators you can reach out to immediately. It comes with verified emails, LinkedIn, and even some phone numbers. Want access? • Like this post • Comment "FUNDRAISE" • Follow me so I can DM you the link I'll send it over ASAP. P.S.: If you are serious about fundraising (now or in the future), you should grab it right away.

@HankCouture @_LeapYear_ Well I can tell u I would not have had those backgrounds on paper

@HankCouture @_LeapYear_ Crazy

@hthieblot But u do 150k checks?

Also, I think we should normalize 500k pre seeds for most companies. 3 people team can get to 1 mil in revenue easy in this AI productivity world. If you do deep tech and models research it’s différent.

I’m seeing way too many founders hit the fundraising market with totally unrealistic expectations because of what they read on Twitter. Here are some facts: •A $2M pre-seed at a $20M+ valuation is not the norm. Most rounds are still in the low teens or even single digits. “But my friend on x did it??” You are not your friend. Don’t compare yourself. If you price too high, you’ll kill your fundraising dynamics — not enough momentum, not enough yeses. Early yeses matter more than a fancy valuation. •Yes, you will have to talk to 50+ investors. SAFEs don’t get signed after one meeting (unless you’re one of the rare outliers). •For most founders, no product + no traction = hard fundraising. Go build something. Build a great team. •When new ideas or capabilities appear, the first few teams in the market raise much more easily. If you’re the 15th team doing the same thing and don’t have exceptional traction, it will be tough. •AI companies are getting massive premiums right now; everything else is slow. Deep tech is quietly roaring back. •One big outlier: YC companies. Their fundraising ecosystem is extremely liquid because so many funds bid on them simultaneously. More bidders = higher prices. You can recreate these market dynamics by going viral and also running a crazy good fund raising process and talk to 100+ investors. •Another major outlier: repeat founders. They’re statistically more likely to win and usually have existing investor networks who will back them automatically, often on reputation alone. If you’re struggling to raise, go back to basics: strong team, ambitious idea, clear founder–market fit, and early users. Build. Ship. Iterate. Momentum solves most fundraising problems. Sorry the game is unfair, do your best!

@raphaelschaad U actually read them?

Locked-in reading W26 applications! So much cool stuff 🚀

@nickco How was Spain

Portugal is a beautiful country - visiting the parents - learned about Goa - quick dip over to Spain - tasty tortas - nice long ocean walk by the beach

@ishaansehgal We actually got 90 paying users first & are now doing free trials to build out our onboarding process as fast as possible. We have no churn tho

@NickBuildin For sure - payment is necessary but not sufficient

The real validation is 100 people paying you Not investors writing checks or users signing up free

@StuartBlitz Just make it work

"Hey man, this health tech business it totally going to work. I am sure it will. I get that it has never before, but now it has AI. And that's transformative."

@emily_yu I only listen to MBAs

listening to advice from founders or vcs is like outsourcing your future to their stage of development. don’t. take it as data, not direction.

@ajhodls Ur mom

if you can’t say what your company does in 1 tweet you don’t know what you’re doing

@HankCouture Convince them of a new reality in 10 mins. A better reality to their moral system

the secret of sales is to tell someone something they know is true but not articulated yet product version of this is to show them something they want but not seen before

@galeforceVC We’re 2,000 clinics behind (10m waiting). Still not taking a meeting with us.

Wise words i heard recently at a portco board meeting: being engineering constrained is always where you want to be as a startup, which means the sales team is selling, and new product can't be built fast enough to satisfy demand.

@GaddipatiHarsha Lmao can’t even bench 225 wtf Kidding btw

@NickBuildin Nah I need to get back to real working out first. Can't even bench 225 or run a 5k without cramping yet

I started getting back into the habit of doing push-ups 3 times. a day about 2 weeks ago after 5 months of no physical exertion. I struggled initially to do 10, now I'm at 55 3x a day. I remember the first time I did a similar thing, I started at 5, and it took me 3 months to get up to 55. That's the thing with anything in life. The first time you do something it takes exponentially longer. But you can't ge to the speed of the second without the struggle of the first. No shortcut for experience unfortunately :)

@angelonuoha7 The show Silicon valley lied

When I was young I used to think going to conferences like TC Disrupt was the best way to get into tech not sure I’ve ever been more wrong