I was a VC for 8 years. The same broken pattern kept showing up.
I spent 8 years as a VC. Invested in 47 companies, read thousands of decks, sat through hundreds of pitches.
And the whole time, from my side of the table, I kept noticing the same thing. The founders struggling to raise usually didn't have worse ideas. They were the ones who couldn't get in front of the right investors, or were emailing the wrong ones with the wrong message.
Then I started a newsletter. It grew to 18k founders, and I sold them investor lists, about $75k worth. I watched what they actually did with them.
Most either spammed hundreds of investors with a generic copy-paste, or froze completely and sat on a giant list with no idea where to start. Both ended the same way. No meetings.
That's when it clicked for me. The information was never the problem. Knowing what to do with it was.
So I built VC Boom to close that gap. Score your deck on what investors actually judge, match you to the handful who genuinely fit, and help you reach out in a way that earns a reply instead of a delete.
The most rewarding part so far has been founders telling me an investor wrote back saying it was the most thoughtful cold email they'd received all year. That's the whole point.
Curious what other founders here think though: what's been the hardest part of raising for you? Finding the right investors, getting the deck right, or actually getting a reply once you reach out?
Replies
Vokal
VC Boom
@zhen_han fair point, there’s definitely a ton more traction expected today. VCs expect full derisking.
That said, angels still play a more risky prone role, and invest pre traction
@zhen_han Yes, I think so, in the era of AI 2026, this is the case, lots of companies are making revenue even before raise a penny.
VC Boom
@zhen_han @sabber_ahamed since AI had commoditised product development, what’s left to derisk is marketing and commercial traction. So it’s fair that investors want more proof on this front
@zhen_han To be honest this is the way investments often works in other part of the world. I think it is a good think which force people to acquire key skills first (such as sales, marketing etc) before landing a tons of money. That is also great for the "learn startup" idea which I'm fan of.