André Miranda

Me: What’s the hardest part of raising capital? Vitor Asseituno 宋伟明: You don’t just raise money from VCs — you build a pipeline and convert it like sales. Most founders approach fundraising backwards. They blast pitch decks to hundreds of VCs, hoping someone will bite. This spray-and-pray approach fails because it ignores a fundamental truth: fundraising IS sales. Just like you wouldn't sell to unqualified leads, don't pitch VCs who don't invest in your stage, sector, or geography. Study their portfolio companies, recent investments, and thesis. A VC who just backed a competing startup isn't your prospect. Start conversations 6-12 months before fundraising. Share updates, ask for advice, get introductions to their portfolio CEOs. When fundraising time comes, you're not a cold email—you're a known quantity. Handle Objections Like a Pro. When a VC says "it's too early" or "the market isn't ready," don't just accept it. Dig deeper. Understand their real concerns and address them with data, analogies to successful companies, or strategic partnerships that de-risk the investment. Follow up systematically. Track every interaction, follow up on commitments, and keep momentum alive. VCs see hundreds of deals—staying top of mind requires intentional effort. The founders who master this raise faster, at better terms, and from investors who truly understand their vision. Stop hoping for luck. Start building your conversion funnel. 👉 Swipe through for more of insights from my conversation with Vitor Asseituno 宋伟明, founder at Sami 🎧 Search The J Curve podcast with Olga Maslikhova on Spotify or YouTube for the full story. 🗞️ Read the most tactical and practical insights from this interview in this week's Insider (link in comment)

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A Founder’s Guide to Seed Fundraising by Mike Wilner and Max Nussenbaum This book is for founders who are considering raising money, founders who are in the middle of raising money, and founders who have already raised an angel or seed round but find themselves needing to raise another one. It covers everything from the basics of seed fundraising for first timers to the advanced tactics that enable founders to create urgency for investors and close rounds quickly. This book is broken up into six chapters. If you’ve never fundraised before, you should read all six chapters. If you have fundraised before, you’ll get the most value out of Chapters 2–6. Chapter 1: Seed Fundraising 101: This chapter will give you a baseline understanding of the seed funding landscape, along with the implications of seed funding for founders, angel investors, and VCs. Chapter 2: How to Run a Swift Seed Fundraise Chapter 3: Fundraising Narrative Preparation Chapter 4: Researching & Engaging Angels Chapter 5: Researching & Engaging VCs Chapter 6: Pitching & Closing This book provides simple answers to address all of the issues. ~~~~~ ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost it so your network can learn from it, too. And follow me, Fazlur Shah, for more content like this. #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #investing

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Distribution First, Monetization Later   Some of the most fascinating tech cos start with deceptively simple playbook: get distribution first, figure out monetization later. It sounds obvious, but it’s one of the hardest journeys. As they ride on the back of a sharp entry wedge - product that spreads like wildfire, with low CACs, but with limited ability to charge users Think of content plays - Whatsapp, TikTok, Pocket/Kuku or Fintechs -PhonePe, CRED (CC bills), Groww (direct MFs). They cracked an urgent painkiller use case but the trade-off was low ARPU.   Consumers voted with time / freq of use, not with wallets. So the real battle begins not in Act 1, but in Act 2 - converting eyeballs into $$.   The Act 2 Battle Act 2 is when the narrative shifts. Valuations, which in private markets can be driven by story/ user love, eventually have to converge with public market metrics - revenue, profits. Suddenly Q is: what will these users actually pay for? This is where the best founders earn their stripes: - CRED expanding to instant line of credit - packaged not as “loans” but as lifestyle liquidity, with single-bank partnership + <5 min approval (vs Paisabazaar catalog model) - Groww layering F&O on top of MFs - catering to India’s gambling instinct with a mobile-first, clean UX. - ShareChat/Eloelo driving creator gifting/ PK battles through live rooms via micropayments. - TikTok extending into TikTok Shop, micro-drama series These have produced some of the largest outcomes. Implicit bet is that owning demand is more valuable than owning supply early on. For every success, there is a death valley: cos that couldn’t crack monetization.   Few realizations stand out: 1) Cross-sell isn’t easy. It only works if the adjacency feels obvious. Avg cross sell adoption for any player lies in 10-15% range. CRED doing lending makes sense. Doing travel/ commerce? Less obvious. 2) Each new revenue line is a mini start-up. CRED’s PL or Groww’s F&O were not “features,” they were 0 to 1 journeys of their own. Distribution helps, but it doesn’t guarantee right-to-win 3) High freq use case is non-negotiable. It means higher shots at goal to cross sell. It also has to be quality of engagement, e.g., 2 sec UPI payment is too short to provide visibility to lending/ insurance offerings 4) Quality of data becomes moat. Consumertechs often rely on cross walk - offering what user is most likely to watch; in fintech, it's prop data that can help banks/ AMC match-make accurately 5) Act 1 wedges are “low friction” (bill payments, messaging, short videos) → habit-forming but shallow. Act 2 wedges require high trust + complexity (credit, investing, commerce). Often requires DNA shift 6) Fundraising is oxygen (often initial moat). Most players live on story-driven capital until monetization arrives. Virality ensures low CAC, but cash burn remains essential   History suggests that Act 1 is about love, Act 2 is about money. Only founders who master both build enduring outcomes.

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Several of my portfolio companies just closed rounds in this tough market. Not because they got lucky. Because they understood how fundraising actually works. Here's the fundraising playbook nobody tells you: The Fatal Numbers: • Seed stage: ~10% get promoted to partner meeting • Of those: ~10% get a term sheet • Your odds per pitch: 1% To get one term sheet, you need 100 conversations. Maybe more if you're outside the typical pattern. Most founders pitch 10 investors and wonder why they can't raise. The ones who close? They pitch 100. But here's what kills most founders: They treat every investor equally. The 3rd Meeting Test: If you're on meeting #3 and they're still "sizing the market" - it's dead. They're being polite. Move on. VCs rarely will say "no." I watched a founder waste 3 months on an investor who kept asking for "just one more data point." Meanwhile, another fund that was excited from day one was ready to wire. The Truth About Data Rooms: No investor finds conviction in a spreadsheet. Data rooms are for confirming what they already believe. Not for convincing skeptics. One of my founders shared this: "The investors who funded us barely looked at the data room. The ones who spent weeks in it all passed." The Winning Playbook: Week 1: Cast wide. 50+ intros queued. Week 2-3: First meetings. Quick yes/no filter. Week 4-6: Double down on believers only. Week 7-8: Drive to term sheets. Track everything: • Response rates • Meeting conversion • Speed of follow-up • Quality of questions Fast no > slow maybe. The Position of Strength: My companies that raised successfully all had one thing in common: They didn't need the money yet. They raised with 6-12 months runway, not 2-3. They had leverage. They could walk away. Desperation is visible in every pitch. Confidence comes from options. The Simple Framework: Think of fundraising like dating. Wide funnel, quick qualification, then depth with the right matches. The investor who's excited after meeting one? That's your champion. The one who needs 5 meetings to "get comfortable"? They're just not that into you. My advice to every founder: Start with 100 names. Expect 10 first meetings. Fight for 1-2 term sheets. Those aren't depressing odds. That's reality. Plan accordingly. Of course, it also helps having your existing investors champion you! #Fundraising #Startups #VentureCapital #FounderAdvice #SeedFunding

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The biggest mistake founders make, according to YC. I see it happen every single week. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬: 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. A lot of founders read startup books and watch endless YouTube videos about entrepreneurship. Sure, it helps — to a point. But beyond that, it becomes excessive. And worse, it kills your bias for action. You start seeing all the potential risks so clearly that you freeze. You try to prepare for every possible scenario, design the perfect strategy but most of those “risks” will never actually happen. In reality, if you’re making money, you can solve most small risks along the way. But if you’re spending more time watching Y Combinator videos than talking to customers, you’re doing it wrong. If you need advice, ask your customers what they actually want. If you need expertise, move faster, run smaller experiments. Execution always beats expertise(a Doordash founder said this) When I started my first company as a university student, I read exactly 76 startup books in one year. That’s why I believe I failed. Execution is everything. .................. 🌎 If you want to be featured in GVP newsletter, drop your pitch deck. [email protected] .................. 📌 Follow me for more startup insights. 📌 Give me a Like if it resonates with you 📌 Repost this if it could help your network

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2009: The financial crisis had crushed fundraising. Barely any new capital went into venture funds. Yet the vintages from those years went on to deliver some of the strongest returns in history. Fast forward to today (2024/2025): Venture capital fundraising is at its lowest point in more than a decade. What does that mean? - ⁠Less money will be available to startups over the next years - The bar for raising capital goes up again: quality matters - ⁠Entry valuations will reset to saner levels --> Funds raised now are likely to outperform, just as history shows The paradox of venture: the best time to commit capital is exactly when most people hesitate. Investors (Limited Partners) should lean in now, not when the next boom makes it easy.

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