The best fundraising method is 1. Know the space better than the VCs 2. Achieve results faster than the “silicon valley standard” 3. Believe in yourself and your team - as a founder you are always investor #1
The more successful the founder, the less they tend to know about fundraising technique. E.g. Zuck has only had to raise money a few times, and every time investors were already eager to give him money.
After talking to hundreds of candidates, I'm impressed by the level of independent thinking for candidates based in the Bay Area.
Though I wish it wasn't true though for a variety of reasons.
What makes leaders strong is failure.
When their employees or reports face the same failure - a great leader knows how to handle the situation and get the employee back up.
Failure is inevitable, it's how you deal with it that makes all the difference.
Imposter syndrome is still so crazy to me sometimes.
Being in Silicon Valley for 5-6 years has made me realize: no matter how stacked your resume is, you will never know 100% whether you're ready.
If you want something, just go for it. The only way to learn is trial and error.
You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want. Targeting the former is a goal; targeting the latter will set you up to suffer.
@GuyKawasaki said that lists should always be 10 points long as a standard. @reidhoffman has mentioned this before too. But I believe after 2020, the standard will be 5 in an attention span decreasing world.
For all engineers complaining about how hard it is to learn non-engineering skills: it's much harder the other way around (non-engineering -> engineering).
And even that's possible in 3-9 months through code camps like @lamdaschool or @hackreactor.