fundraising Archives - Startup Economist

Founders, Stop Trying to Be Perfect

Monday, 23 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Perfection is the fastest way to look inexperienced. Not because ambition is bad and not because polish doesn’t matter but because the very definition of a startup makes perfection impossible. A startup is not a smaller version of a big company, it is a temporary organization searching for a scalable, repeatable business model. That language

Published in Startups

9 Comments

The Better Startup Pitch Test: Why Most Decks Fail Before Investors Ever Say No

Monday, 09 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Most pitch decks don’t fail because the startup is doomed (though I’ve explained how we know that’s the case just from how you pitch, here). They fail because the founder is thinking in PowerPoint instead of economics, incentives, and narrative logic. Every founder asks for the template to follow, as though there is some magic

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Published in Raising Capital, Startups

8 Comments

Why We Teach Startups to Pitch to Investors Even If They Don’t Want Venture Capital

Friday, 06 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

I realized this week, that this is a discussion point I have with almost every founder, and yet I’ve never bothered to write it up. Every founder. Particularly in our work in Founder Institute, when teaching or mentoring dozens of founders in the same room, the question is always posed, “why are we working on

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Published in Startups

14 Comments

Why Incubators Make You Practice the Pitch: Founder First Impressions Send the Loudest Message

Tuesday, 16 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

With the fall season of cohorts starting, I’m reminded that most founders will be asking of advisors why there is so much emphasis on practicing the elevator pitch. In every cohort I’ve mentored, a founder invariably raises their hand and asks why so much time is spent on the 60 seconds, with a look in

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

4 Comments

Your Startup Pitch is Bad; Let me Explain How I Know

Thursday, 27 February 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been pushing us to question traditional startup methodologies such as lean startup or how venture capitalists discern investments, through an exploration with you of First Principles Thinking and the Bell Mason Diagnostic. In fact, I’m not inherently a detractor of either, rather frequently advocating that founders need to

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Published in Raising Capital

13 Comments

Pipeline > Data > Community > Audience > Customer

Thursday, 19 December 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Why Pipelines Trump Customers: Rethinking Value Creation in Startups It’s often said that “every startup needs customers.” That’s true. Without someone paying for your product or service, you don’t have a business. But this oft-repeated mantra misses the mark entirely when it comes to understanding value creation—the kind of value venture capitalists care about. Owning

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Published in Data, Insights / Research, Startups

5 Comments

When Founders Need Referrals to Meet Investors, Fix This About Your Startup Ecosystem

Friday, 08 November 2024 by Paul O'Brien

In a well-functioning startup ecosystem, founders should know who their potential investors are and how to connect with them. In a supportive startup ecosystem, founders should know how to develop ventures that attract attention, supported by journalists and ecosystem leaders who promote fundable startups, so that investors engage them. Yet, we often see founders struggling

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Published in Raising Capital, Startup Ecosystems

20 Comments