\n<\/p>\n
Over the last couple of weeks, I\u2019ve been working with some truly spectacular founders. One guy was a three-star general at one point. Another is in the U.S. because his research is so far ahead of the AI learning curve that the U.S. State Department issued him an O-1 extraordinary ability visa. Another had a doctorate and a stack of patents in his name.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re working at a VC firm, it isn\u2019t unusual to meet such extraordinary people. You\u2019ll see a steady stream of people waltzing in with pitch decks, prototypes and r\u00e9sum\u00e9s. VCs are on a perpetual quest to discover and invest in extraordinary startups, those rare gems with the potential to disrupt markets, innovate industries, and disrupt the hell out of everything in sight. And if you\u2019re an aspiring startup founder, you may wonder if you have what it takes to attract such investment and thrive in the competitive startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, what I\u2019m seeing out on the fundraising trail right now is that if you don\u2019t have perfect founder-market fit, fundraising is getting hard<\/em>.<\/p>\n Of course, that got me thinking about my own startups. If I map myself against the standards of fundraising today, none of my startups would\u2019ve had a gnat\u2019s shadow\u2019s chance of raising money.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n