I walk and talk a language I learnt five months ago in Boston. It’s the language of an entrepreneur fundraising on the East Coast. It’s emotionless, it’s static and it represents everything that I am not.
But I’ve learnt it. I was told I had to, so I did. I became a master and a cookie cutter, and somewhere along the 30 point font decks and KPI recitals, I lost… Me.
My passion. My spontaneity. My life.
I lost me.
But I met someone along the way, who was also traveling the path of an entrepreneur. Let me correct that, of a foreign entrepreneur on the East Coast. And that person was my token when I drifted into a dream within a dream.
He reminded me that I’m not a robot… that I don’t have all the answers, and that that’s okay. He listened for hours, not minutes… unfortunately, he moved back to Spain shortly after we met, but for that brief moment, he became my reality check.
It’s called a startup because it’s not perfect. If it were, I wouldn’t be fundraising.
No, my UX is not incredible. That can be fixed.
Are we revenue producing? Thankfully, but I need help.
What’s my traction? Instead, why not ask me how much I need to meet your expectations.
Our company is too young. Yes, I understand that and so should you. It’s called a startup.
An entrepreneur is expected to listen to an investor for hours. But we only get 5 minutes in return. And in those 5 minutes we’re supposed to make the investor understand our product, our passion and our future. In those 5 minutes we need to always, always tell a story and tell it well.
As an entrepreneur, we get one chance and that seems to me like a one-night stand. One after the other, after the next.
But I want more.
I want hours. I want a relationship. I want to be understood and understand. I could say all the right words, I can speak like you want me to. But I’m woman in the 21st century. I have a voice. I have an opinion. And I’ll listen, but expect the same consideration in return.
Fundraising is a two way street. It’s a negotiation and it takes time. It’s not the entrepreneur who hands his hard work over to the investors and is asked to make something different of it. It is about the entrepreneur who works with the investor and makes their product, better, more solid and profitable.
What I’ve learnt in these 5 months, as an entrepreneur on the East Coast is that we are collectively, overestimating the power of Venture funds and setting aside our vision. Instead of improving our work, we are too occupied running around the city from one event to the next, pitching our product in a few minutes to anyone that will listen. We are underestimating our strength as founders and that strength is precisely what sets a successful founder apart from the crowd of headless dreamers.
My story cannot be pitched in 5 minutes. That story goes beyond metrics, beyond colorful decks… it starts in the US, moves through Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America until finding its way back to the East Coast. To an area in the United States that’s full of prosperity and opportunities, but that only those that fit a mold will succeed.
Luckily, I’ve shared this experience with many great entrepreneurs, mentors and investors that have come before us and who have taught us how to walk a path less beaten and more painful at times, but always worthwhile.
To those people, thank you.
Thank you for caring beyond a few minutes and a one-night stand.
Thank you for building a relationship with our team that will transcend cities and time.
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