I'm a VC-backed founder. I've helped over 40 separate founders/teams raise big. AMA about stories 👇

@yashvardhan_chauhan1 Yash, playbooks are worth peanuts until you succeed anyway. In the first venture around DAOs, the market was so new that we were embracing uncertainty every step of the way. We started with a digital-first approach of creating awareness, only to realize that the best way to learn, build and grow was to hang out in the circles of DAO enthusiasts which are mostly based out of the US. In the current startup, what we're building is a SAAS offering. the technology is new, but the good news is that there are benchmarks to evaluate our efforts against at the very least. In both the cases what has remained true is building based on user feedback because in both scenarios what we started with and what we're building now is drastically different.

@sugandhraj_patel This is an unrelated question, but I'm assuming you meant asking it in the context of founding team members. Founding team members need to have a lion's mentality. I recently published a video on it (link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/v...). My goal is always to have someone who brings good energy, thinks through first principles, does not fear hard work and is a fast learner.

@nayan_kulshreshtha This is a great question! I always recommend founders to: - not stick to templates if they don't feel their story gets communicated well through the templates. - not ignore their elevator pitches. Elevator pitches help a lot depending on real-time interruptions, which more than often arise while pitching. - not lay out a grand vision forcibly but shoot for the moon when it makes sense. - not pitch when it feels artificial. Founders should pitch what they truly feel energized about, not what sells easier. - not messing up through complex analogies and keeping it simple. The evaluator is a human being. Talk logically, and they will always see things reasonably. - not fake confidence to the extent where they stop listening to real feedback or real signals. Founders need to communicate what they feel adds value really well. They need storytelling abilities for the same. A good pitch deck always helps, but that's when you have a good background yourself. You and your idea should feel like a match made in heaven. Thereafter they need to be relentless and forceful.

@donald_leka these are all great questions, and I would need you to frame them correctly. I've a course which touches many aspects in this but that aside, feel free to shoot me a question over Linkedin when you can add more context to the ask.

@sumit_sharma29 I see your DM, and I've replied there as well, but for everyone else following this thread, Crunch gives users the freedom to select what data gets captured and tracked. On-prem and other off-prem safety measures are also in place and getting more defined as the product hits more users everyday :)

@yash_binani Good question, Yash and I think the first point below is the one and only true learning that I would ask people to care about. I've laid down two other realizations. 1. Never set out to build the community. Care for people and the community builds itself. Give and give and your get back more and more. 2. Communities are like a date you're trying to impress. It needs constant effort, and you can not fake it. Make it fun. 3. Communities come with lots of learning and surprises. We often overestimate what we as individuals can do and underestimate what we as a community can achieve.

@anjanay_saxena, this is a question I can't answer in one thread. I have published several threads over this on my Linkedin (link in my profile), and I have a course coming up again (https://maven.com/forms/0b2a40) on this, but to those who're reading this, I'll drop one link that has helped me a lot when it comes to stories. It's from the SAAS giant, Salesforce: https://highalpha.com/the-second...

@nimishg Good question, Nimish. Funding is always an option, and though I help people who are raising, I always try asking really tough questions to change their find from going for a fundraise when there is not a good reason to. This has nothing to do with moat but everything to do with what you truly need. I would encourage checking my answer to @theterminalguy (second comment in this thread)

@shashwat_kapoor It depends. Most angels don't contribute significantly. That's because either their cheque size is not significant enough or, in most cases, they are not operator angels. In the early days, equity is a great way to pay engineers (it, in a way tests if they truly believe in your idea or not). On the other hand, raising from VCs also does not mean that you will have a lot of operators. To summarize, there is not much of a difference. You've to do the hard work. Sometimes, raising from VCs takes time. If you and your team are on a path where PMF depends on a few mon this of efforts, raise an angel round quickly and then hit PMF and then go to VCs and you will have a much better deal for yourself :)

@ilijarolovic Hahahaha! Good one, and there is a fine line. I've seen founders become friends with best investors whom they never hoped to speak with through snail mails, and I've also seen some responses where these mails were seen as disrespecting the personal space the investor enjoys. However, I prefer the digital medium given that most professional attention today is digital. If anyone reading this is thinking about snail mail, they should ensure that the investor has a track record of receiving those interruptions in a good way.