HowardKaplan

I think about this stat at least once a week.

1 - As you raise bigger funds, VC investors make soooo much money regardless of how they do And since it can take a decade before anyone realizes how good you actually are, you can leverage the hype cycle to get phenomenally wealthy without driving real performance

Does your pre-seed startup need a financial model? I think yes. A lightweight model showing the main cost/revenue drivers, key KPI assumptions, cash flows, and 2-3 scenarios. That's it. Don't do it for investors, do it for yourself.

The old narrative that founders need to pitch 50+ VCs to get a term sheet is stupid. The truth is there's a small world of VCs who will actually be a great fit. Spend your time finding those perfect fit investors, instead of wasting your time spraying and praying.

These kinds of investor updates make me so angry. "Our revenue is still $0... so we've agreed a more aggressive hiring plan with [our lead VC] which will mean that we will be around 15 people by Feb next year." Why do VCs push pre-PMF startups to do this? 🤬

To all the entrepreneurs out there wrestling with conviction and doubt, this one’s for you. I see you, I feel you, and I salute you.

Founder with a "super hot round" a year back. I asked where it went wrong - "we listened too much!" @ founders: No VC has the intuition of your customers; they don't spend as many waking hours talking with your customers as much as you do. The best thing you can do is speak with customers, be introspective, and listen to your intuition. Bias for action 🖤 VC frameworks do not translate 1:1s to your company; they only translate 1:1 to other VC blogs that copy them. If they did translate successfully to your company, the VCs should be running it instead. Much too often, investors and portfolio staff expect a founder to immediately do something because they said so. But remember founders, when you signed your term sheet, you didn't sign an employment contract to report to this VC and their support staff, to be your BigCo manager. It's ok to ask for data points and reason from first principles if this is something useful to you vs follow the orders. Better than that, you can dilligence them before you sign the termsheet to see if you're actually getting a BigCo manager in investor's clothing.

Just met another founder whose company almost died because they were led along by a “lead VC” who hadn’t actually closed their fund. Turned out they were just looking for logos to show potential LPs their deal flow. There’s a special place in hell for these assh*les. 🤬

Early-stage product development isn’t about having the perfect idea—it’s about spotting an insight others miss. Often the best products come from seeing a simple truth, then relentlessly building around that core opportunity. The “ah ha moment” is the problem, not the solution.