Hey - it’s Jason Yeh 🕺🏻

Quick note before this week’s essay…

This is my Friday recap of thoughts I’ve had while helping founders solve their fundraising challenges this past week (3.18.22)

If you have any questions, please reply! I try to get to every comment/question I get :)

On to the Fieldnotes for 3.18.22…

Avoid this “detailed” mistake

A couple weeks ago, an old friend reached out and asked if I’d do him a favor. We used to play in a basketball league together so we shared some good memories. More importantly though, this was a talented friend who helped me when I was building my last company. I never forget people who have helped me in the past so I was excited to return the favor. 

He wanted me to review a company’s pitch and see if I could help refine it. He knew it wasn’t clicking but didn’t know exactly what was wrong.

The company is developing a deep science-based technology and using it to solve an urgent problem for a massively growing industry. 

Awesome, right?

Yes… but the issue is, that wasn’t my takeaway after hearing the 15-minute pitch. I needed to dig in afterwards and ask a series of questions to uncover the gems.

The pitch lost me just 2 minutes in. Without industry expertise or context, I couldn’t get excited by the content in the pitch. But as my quick one-sentence summary above shows, there is something very compelling that would excite even the least technical investor.

Learning from this

Much of what I write about regarding fundraising can sound theoretical. I often worry that founders may think it’s written for clicks or SEO. It’s not. Everything I write is based on the approach I use in real-life engagements with founders.

Instead of writing about the frameworks I would have used to help the company above, I’m sharing a recording from my session with just my coaching segments (with no identifying information included). Listen and see how it applies to your pitch:​​​​

(Click through to read the full post with transcript!)

Smart Twitter Takes

100000% These people took the biggest risk. Reward them. They SHOULD make a lot of money with you if you’re successful

So much of the early days especially in fundraising is borrowing credibility…

Till next week. Stay adamant and be chased.

Jason

P.S.  Not the biggest soccer fan, but I can appreciate this:

In case you missed it…

Last week, we explained why fundraising preparation is so difficult for founders to prioritize, despite being a crucial responsibility:

Small asks!

If you thought this was helpful or enjoyable in anyway, I’d love for you to:

• Forward this newsletter with others who would enjoy it

• Follow me on Twitter where I’ve begun building in public (my course, my podcast, etc)!

• Ask me your fundraising questions so I can help you and cover them in a future issue

• Listen with a friend to Funded, my podcast that tells the rollercoaster stories of how founders raised millions (and subscribe🙏)