Cassia Trusty

Providing fundraising insights from pre-seed to Series C for founders 👇

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@farhanmohamed @holmisthename Thanks! Here’s my NL: https://t.co/tMv9r0fiCL

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@CreatingJas @holmisthename This is what I’ve been thinking too (as someone doing mid $0 in newsletter revenue 😅). I’m working on getting my first ad. Did you do phone outreach to get your first ad, or did you focus on email?

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@farhanmohamed @holmisthename What prompted splitting the sections to different days? A reader shared they want Mon and Tue events (I only cover Wed-Sun), but I’m waiting until I have some revenue before putting out more content

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@farhanmohamed @holmisthename I split the difference and send on Wednesdays, news and restaurant openings seem to be more interesting click-wise than events for some editions

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@alexlevberg @holmisthename Is your target audience cybersecurity professionals or aspiring cybersecurity ppl? If it’s the former, I’d do a survey to know who the readers are then sell ads for B2B cybersecurity. If it’s the latter, then cybersecurity certs/education companies/bootcamps may make more sense.

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@alexlevberg @holmisthename What’s your newsletter? I think Half Baked (daily editions too) got a year long sponsorship deal when they’re first started (3 or 4 editions in?) You might be able to do the same depending on your subject + audience

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@giress69 @iamrofe @holmisthename Reoccurring, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet, still trying to write an email I hear back from

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@iamrofe @holmisthename I know @lifeof_scoop had a luxury porta potty business attached to his local newsletter for a while that turned out well 🤔

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@iamrofe @holmisthename I’m trying to figure this out too. Started with emails outreach + a CTA in each edition, but I think phone calls may be something I need to try as well.

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@jasminedotsmith @DoorDash Always happy to chat! I love being a PM :)

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@Timb03 https://t.co/T6NLN2BQdO if it’s still around:)

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@stephmui Startup Finance newsletter topic 👀

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@jakobgreenfeld I think indiehackers are going to get a *lot* less press compared to VC-backed and even social media strategic bootstrapped founders, so it’s harder to see the revolution. At least in my tech circles, I’m seeing people want to build something of their own more

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

Every time you dig deeper into the “You can earn $$$$ in just x weeks”, you’ll quickly find that there’s no course, PDF, or eBook that can replace long-term *intentional and consistent* effort. But that’s admittedly not as exciting as “$$$ in 3 weeks” 😅

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

“As the founder, you have a lot of power to shape the narrative”. - Maria Barrera, CEO @clayfulhealth

Founders need to become powerful storytellers who understand how to weave their story based on their audiences. It’s critical for fundraising.

[Liam Gill @realLiamGill]

What's a common startup myth you've found to be untrue?

Easily for me it's that the best companies raise venture capital.

Once you talk to a few VCs you'll realize the best storytellers raise capital, it has little to do with how good your company actually is.

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@ItsKyleAdams I wanted to learn more about pre-seed fundraising and help pre-seed founders learn and apply the knowledge!

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

This is why you can’t skip talking and **listening** to your users. You need to be a subject matter expert on what they want, which is also why you can’t start off trying to build for “everyone”. For everyone = for no one

[Startup Archive @StartupArchive_]

Jeff Bezos: “You don’t understand my audience”

When Charlie Rose asks him if the iPad is a “Kindle killer” in this 2012 interview, Jeff gives an incredible response:

“It’s a very different product, and I can give you an example. If I came to you and said: ‘Charlie, I love your show, but we’ve got to sex it up. We need fast cuts and vicious arguments between your guests.’ You would rightly say to me: ‘Jeff, I love you man, but you don’t understand my audience. We have a cerebral conversation here. It’s what we do, and it’s how we’re differentiated.’”

He continues:

“When people come to me and say: ‘You’ve got to have full-motion video and color on the Kindle.” I say: ‘Why? You think Hemingway is going to pop more in color?’… You don’t understand my audience.”

Jeff goes on to explain that the vision for the Kindle is: a purposeful device for reading where no tradeoffs have been made—every single design decision is optimized for reading.

And knowing exactly who his audience is gives him conviction in the Kindle team’s design decisions—even when everyone at the time was saying that the iPad would crush them.

To drive home the point of just how different the audiences for the iPad and Kindle are, he points out:

“The #1 thing people are doing on their iPads right now is playing a game called Angry Birds… The #1 thing people are doing on their Kindle right now is reading Stieg Larsson.”

One of the laws of marketing is that if you try to make a product that appeals to everyone, it will end up appealing to no one. Jeff understood this as well as anybody, and this interview demonstrates that.

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

@SeenaMakari Let’s go!! Looking forward to this

[Cassia Trusty @ctrusttea]

Currently reading the Indie Hacker newsletter editions that I missed…kinda wish there was an Indie Hacker-type community for newsletter creators. Maybe there is and I haven’t seen it yet?

[Amber Illig @AmberIllig]

Awesome data.

I share a lot of deals w/our angel community. ~1/30 founders I offer that to opts out bc they want $50k+ checks. Huge loss on their part!

A $5k angel check can result in customer intros, investor intros, advice around the clock, round momentum, etc.