The way to fundraise

Greetings, Chief Storytelling Officers.

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote the last issue. I think 6 to be exact.

Dune 2 came out and blew me away. I could write this entire issue on why it’s such beautiful storytelling on so many levels but I spare you for now (except for this video where Hans Zimmer breaks down how he put together the film score in the first movie).

In my work directly with founders we’ve had multiple funding rounds close over the past 6 weeks so I’ll share some thoughts on what I’m seeing work.

As far as the newsletter, it will be more occasional. If you’re looking for weekly deep dives, check out my YT where there’s hundreds of videos.

-Robbie

Fundraising in 2024

When I was at Dune 2 (both times), they played a trailer for the new Furiosa movie. The ending line of the trailer…

“The question is…do you have what it takes to make it epic?”

That’s the question if you want to raise in 2024.

There’s no way around the fact that investors have access to more deals right now than ever before. This means they can afford to wait for something epic to act.

They aren’t looking for good companies.

If you want to raise in this environment you had better be able to show your company can be worth tens of billions of dollars. I’m seeing far more scrutiny on market size and the math behind it than ever before. Not only are investors looking for huge markets, they are also looking for markets you can get into and dominate.

Any founder I’m working with I want to highlight the unique insights or advantages that founder has for the industry. If there aren’t any unique insights or advantages, I won’t work with that founder because the fundraise is unlikely to succeed.

So you need to hit 3 things out of the gate.

1. Huge market

2. Ability to dominate it

3. Unique insight or advantage

Beyond that you need to be positioning your company the right way. The right positioning helps an investor pattern match and quickly figure out if they think you can be successful.

This is one of the biggest differentiators when working with founders. I almost always switch the positioning because the frame is wrong.

Framing is a game to trial lawyers. We love it. We would constantly walk into each other’s offices and pitch our cases then see how different people would frame the case. That frame game allowed us to make sure the jury or judge always saw the case in the strongest light possible.

The same is true in fundraising.

In fact, my entire approach is to turn founders into “trial lawyers” in the way they storytell, frame, and maintain power dynamics.

Which brings me to one of the biggest trends right now.

The level of polish needed to leave investors wow-ed by a founder is ridiculously high right now. Here’s what a16z’s Katherine Boyle had to say.

What she’s talking about is a concept I’ve named the U Shaped Graph Approach.

This is one of the key concepts to understand when it comes to your communication skills which is what you’re being judged on in fundraising. When you get to the top right of the graph you will be both polished and natural because you’ve internalized the story and all other aspects of your narrative strategy.

In other words you will be able to pull of The Voice from Dune (sorry, I had to make a reference to it).

The final thing I will leave you with is the idea of delusional confidence.

If you doubt yourself or your vision at all, the fundraise will fail. You have to be your biggest hype person. You have to push the limits and make people question you.

Investors look for it. They know you will need that level of delusional confidence to pull it off.

If you do this right, this is the response you will get…

Looking for help with your fundraise or storytelling?

You can apply here to get on the waitlist to work with me once a spot opens up.