Mercedes Bent

one of the most common frustrations i hear from founders crafting a fundraising narrative is: "VCs want to hear this grand future vision, but i'm only at the preseed stage. I see a big customer need that i can solve right now. But i don't know exactly what it becomes in 10 years" first off, I hear you. So much of success is post-rationalized. its hard to tell which parts of a decacorn founder's story is "Hindsight is 2020" versus....not. AirBnB is a classically debated example....those first experiments when they couldn’t afford rent and realized hotels were sold out around a design conference and put airbeds in a living room.....it wasn't exactly the "we will change hospitality" pitch in 2009 when they went to YC. it is one step at a time. but the founders with the biggest visions have spent a LOT more time "living in the future" They're able to sell the bigger vision because they spend more time thinking about 2nd and 3rd order effects. They have insights about why the recent tailwind will change how everyone does X thing and that makes this new vision possible. it really all boils down to depth of thinking in a specific area with hypotheses & constraints. what will change, what will not, now that we have this new tailwind. depth. i think this is ultimately why VCs obsess over having that big vision so much. it's one of the stronger signals for depth of thinking. in my experience, VCs are looking for 2 things in a vision: 1) a huge future vision 2) a credible path to get there 1) A huge future vision: - VCs want to walk away feeling like they learned something entirely new - VCs want to feel like the founders has spent way more time living in the future, have a vocabulary and clear mental picture. almost like how an author has built a world for its characters and then later builds the story through that world - you've already thought about where all the ecosystem actors will be and how they'll behave economically 2) credible path to get there - working backward from th?at future vision - what would need to be true to get there - why is the first wedge you've set up the right first step to get to that future vision, what does it unlock? - this is is where depth of thinking really shines. - this credibility part is what makes or breaks vision in a fundraise narrative ok that's my fundraising 2 cents for tonight

just closed our first fortune 500 customer 499 to go

@contextconor let's do Conor!!!

@lizwandersworld a million 🤖🤖🤖 congrats Liz!!

Today we're launching Era and announcing $11M in funding. We're building the intelligence layer for a new ecosystem of AI devices — the platform that lets any device manufacturer, brand, designer, or creator make objects that think, respond, and act in their own style. We're entering a Cambrian explosion — new form factors, new creators, new objects worth desiring. Made by people who've never had the tools to make them, before today. Welcome to the new Era. Backed by @AbstractVC, @BoxGroup, @topology_vc, @betaworks, @CollaborativeFund, @MozillaVentures, and @AIResidency.

we just launched agent-to-agent hiring at @hyperspell we're hiring engineers and your agent is your application no resume, no leetcode apply with your own agent or spin one up via @SuperMeAI we will interview every single agent

Janitor was profiled in Forbes yesterday. A few of the things they recognized 👇

@adamguild oh and my favorite local restaurants: 1) Marcella's Lasagneria and 2) Chez Maman in SF !

@adamguild you are always crushing! incredible Adam

Introducing Grader: the world's first AI CMO for restaurants. It’s helped us drive over $1 BILLION in sales for our customers. Grader outperforms human marketing teams. See how:

@benspringwater this is what epic cold emailing looks like

In 2019 my girlfriend (now wife) sent Patrick Collison a cold email for the ages. Patrick replied 3 minutes later, warmly, with a yes. A few weeks later I met Patrick at Nopa at 9pm. He ordered tea, I ordered something stronger. He was congenial and energetic, and 90 minutes flew by. The whole episode was special. My wife sending that email was a remarkable gift. Ditto Patrick's generosity. They say never meet your heroes but I think the better advice is to choose the right ones.

Moonlake Creator Cup is now live! $30K in rewards for creators building interactive 3D games and environments. Build something original. Make it playable. Get rewarded. Live now → app.moonlakeai.com QT this post with what game or environments you plan on creating to get your Creator Cup account created.

@danliu micro geopolitical rage-bait right here

sfo is an under-appreciated perk of living in sf: - close to the city - well run (e.g. no crazy security line) - nice terminals all 3 airports in nyc are disasters in comparison.

@gdibner i like this advice!

100% agree with one caveat Notion is NEVER the right answer. :) At every stage of DD, you need to distill complex ideas and make them simple. Raw data (excels, cap tables, customer lists, Google sheets) are great. Raw documents (patents, actual scientific papers, contracts) great. But these super long, AI-fuelled essays about nothing that require constant clicking in and out are just due diligence theater. Very negative signal. If you have a complicated product roadmap story to tell, for example, show us you actual product roadmap and a three-slide deck that distills it down to what matters. Facilitate the actual conversation.

1 big clarification on the memo fundraising advice....yes its a good idea BUT.... you still need a deck! why? Decks are better for first impressions. They're simpler to consume, better test of whether you're able to distill complex topics. They're for people who haven't decided if they want to invest 10 minutes into reading your memo need a faster way to consume your content. It's easy to make an okay deck today. It's still as hard as it was pre-AI to make a great deck today....so it also separates out for investors whether you invested in what you're giving them. If you got an intro for the first meeting + didn't need deck to get Yes to meeting, I would still share it before the meeting or right after to cement the concepts. Investors forget fast. Many of the Notion memos I read are not well put together and I still think the Deck would have done better. Decks overall are just less friction and you want less friction at every step in your process. The memos later on become less friction ONCE someone is bought into doing "Due Diligence"

Great stuff! a few other 101 highlights: 1) booked = contracted 2) live = recognized 3) if you're a marketplace business, report your Net revenue (not GMV) as revenue 4) misrepresenting revenue to investors is a crime known as wire fraud! not what people intend to do but it can get serious

Here's YC's official advice about being truthful and precise about what is pilot, bookings, revenue and recurring revenue. Founders, particularly first time founders, need to sear this into their brains. Don't mistake one tier for another. Be precise, and always be truthful.

the SF version of "kids flocking in the fields" 😍

@ycombinator @a1baseapi @Pashpops @pennepastaa congrats Pasha and Penny!!

A1Zap from @a1baseapi is the social network layer for AI apps. Starting with campuses, build apps and make interactive social content that spread through a unified social graph. Congrats on the launch, @pashpops & @pennepastaa! ycombinator.com/launches/Q24-a…

My rule of thumb: never sell more than 20-25% of equity on SAFEs why? if you raise too much on SAFEs, it will hurt your future fundraises i've seen this happen a lot. raising on SAFEs is so seductive because its simple + quick but the total ownership impact at the seed or A can be really large if too much was given away your first priced round can see 50% of the company being given away but an investor has to convert that to a priced round and if too much ownership has already been given away, it disincentivizes future investors from wanting to price a round where founders will end up owning too little then founders will say its okay you can clean up the cap table, can cram down my existing investors but VCs aren't set up to do recaps easily or well. its' just not our normal transaction. and it's a lot more headache than its worth most VCs want as clean a deal as possible so my rule of thumb is to never sell more than 20-25% of equity on SAFEs. If you're raising more, move to a priced round.

@JasonrShuman yes and normally their work ethic is insane and scary at 20-30 years in. they are not resting on their laurels.

The Midas List VCs I’ve spent time with and respect the most have some similar traits They all have a founder life obsessiveness with the craft and winning that they’ve maintained over decades Whether it’s: Martin at Index working at a wedding to get up to speed on a new space and win a seed deal Josh at First Round jumping on planes to win pre-seeds Or Neil Mehta grinding with 48 hour notice to win a highly competitive deal over the weekend or during the SVB crisis The best are the best for a reason. They grind. And they play to win.

@catboosted agree for the vast majority and then there are the founders who somehow sell tons of secondary in very early rounds....they're doing fine

I’ll say it again There has never been a worse time in history to be a founder.

@horwitzben taking away my only line of realism 🥲

I made the anti-Grammarly. Mess up your emails with AI. Sinceerly.com

@rexsalisbury i had no idea there was another half to McLaren Park with a golf course until your tweet! wow. now makes sense why its so big w/ Gleneagles side

SF's best idea...the parks. worst idea? putting golf courses in all of them.