I got rejected by 144 investors before raising $150M for my $200M+ rev/year startup.
After 144 rejections, I started questioning our approach.
Were we solving the right problem?
What were we doing wrong?
Why weren’t investors seeing what we were seeing?
Were we the right team to build this?
We tried everything: different pitch angles, new deck structures, and reframing the problem.
Then came the 145th meeting, where we closed our first growth round.
That yes made everything worth it. But getting there took years of mistakes and hard work.
We went through a lot of trial and error just to figure out what resonates with investors.
We tried dozens of approaches to figure out what made investors engage.
Some landed, most didn't. But each iteration taught us something about what builds conviction versus what just sounds good on paper.
And once we cracked that code, our Series C closed faster than expected.
And today, I see so many founders in the exact same position I was in 10 years ago: grinding through rejections, questioning everything, and trying to figure out what works.
So today I want to give you the resource I wish I had back then:
Something that shows you exactly how to structure these conversations and navigate the entire process
(because the fundraising cycle can be a big distraction and take a toll on you as a founder).
So I've partnered with Notion's Startups Team to create the essential fundraising resource that helps you avoid the mistakes that cost me years.
Here's what you are getting:
• The actual decks I used to raise $150M for Super[.]com (Series B, C)
• 50 real examples from funded startups like Eleven Labs and Artisan AI
• A searchable database of 10,000+ investors - angels, VCs, and accelerators you can reach out to immediately (this alone would take months to build manually)
• An AI-powered fundraising agent built into Notion with step-by-step prompts (no separate ChatGPT needed)
Want access?
• Like and share this post
• Comment "FUNDRAISE"
• Follow me so I can DM you the link
I'll send it over ASAP.
P.S.: If you are serious about fundraising (now or in the future), you should grab it right away.
@alexisohanian@sevensevensix I can totally related. I have been part of the founding team of Amazon Italy, when it was a small startup of 8 folks based in Paris. I loved it. I knew everyone and everyone knew me. I still have contacts with those Amazonians!
@sama But Sam, it does not pick up my company name and only my first and last name. How can I change that? I cannot disable my name since my GPTs have been published on the marketplace...
Over the past 4 months, I've made over $320,000 selling one digital product.
I made a full video course breaking down the salespage copywriting strategies.
If you'd like it for free, just:
• RT
• Comment 'copy'
And I'll DM.
(30 hours only - must be following for DM 🥂)
Tiktok Shop is the next big thing
This is the easiest way to make 100k revenue this Q4, and you guys are sleeping on it
I’ll be dropping an A-Z blueprint on a secret Discord server very soon
Retweet + Comment “Q4” to get invited
(Must follow so I can DM)
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