Believe the no, but not the why.

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

There are a couple pieces of advice that we give to YC founders when talking to investors. I think the first is: believe the "no," but don't believe the "why." You're going to get a lot of "no"s when pitching, and more often than not, the investor will not be transparent as to why they're saying "no."

I think the second is that we say often is, you know, a good investor is respectful of your time, responds to your questions, makes a decision quickly, and leaves you alone. There are very, very, very many people who aren't that good, and there are very few people who add value.

So, if I were to kind of summarize our advice, it is really hard to tell whether you're interacting with a great investor or not. Oftentimes, as an early-stage YC founder or startup founder in general, you don't get to choose, right? Like, you don't have this wealth of choice.

I might say the first optimization is to try to go for people who regularly invest in startups and who are respectful of your time, respectful with you, and who move quickly.

George Ought to Help

Lecture 18 - Legal and Accounting Basics for Startups (Kirsty Nathoo, Carolynn Levy)

View All

Warren Buffett Leaves the Audience SPEECHLESS (Inspiring Story)

These people had one thing in common. You know, they knew they had it in themselves. They knew they could be something beyond where they were. They were willing to put their time, their energies to better themselves. And behind them, as I saw when I got t…

Ionic bonds and Coulombs law

I bonds are the bonds that hold together ionic compounds. So basically, it’s what holds together cations and anions. An example of a compound that’s held together with ionic bonds is sodium chloride, also known as table salt. So here, we have a close-up …

Alan Watts and the Illusion of Time

When I started this YouTube channel, I became fixated on the day it would succeed. I stopped going out with friends and spent almost every waking moment working towards and dreaming about the future. When I did manage to go out with friends, I spent all m…

Peter Lynch: How to Invest in 2023

Peter Lynch: The man, the myth, the legend. He ran the Magellan fund at Fidelity between 1977 and 1990, where he achieved a 29.2 percent annual return. The guy is an investing master. He also wrote the book “One Up On Wall Street,” which you know at this …

Rebuilding the World of 1620 | Saints & Strangers

I’ve covered myself a little. I do not sleep safe, nor do I seek glory at war. If it’s something like this, where it’s 1620, you finally got to get yourself immersed into the era. To start with, I did a lot of research on the pilgrims themselves: who they…

These Tiny, Stunning Moths Are Only Found in One Place on Earth | National Geographic

A lot of people will think moth, and they’ll think dark gray fuzzy thing that they don’t want flying around their lights at night. These things don’t look like that at all, and in fact, most moths don’t. You say to anybody “microscopic moth,” they’re some…

Believe the no, but not the why.

More Articles