Annoy Me

If I Decide To Help You, Make Sure I Am

Here’s some unsolicited advice. If someone decides they want to help you with your fundraise, for whatever reason — as a friend, advisor, or investor themselves — you have permission to bug the hell out of them until the raise is complete. In fact, they want you to.

There are so many founders I start advising, and then I hear from them maybe once a week with “how it’s going.” I make intros. Nothing. Someone passes. They don’t tell me. Someone’s taking forever to decide. They just let them keep deciding for longer. This is what I call a low-agency fundraiser.

My best founders? They use me and abuse me (in the best way). They text me after every meeting. They tell me all the good news. They wrap the bad news in good news right after. They make me hyped to help them. They remind me they exist, every single day.

I have a million things I could be thinking about, but the founder who’s hitting me up every day with updates, wins, and developments stays top of mind. That makes me want to work harder for them. And guess what? Founders like this make everyone want to work harder for them.

It’s not just fundraising. This attitude transfers to every part of running a startup. These are the founders who bend reality to their will. These are the founders who get the most out of every relationship they have. These are the founders who win. You can be like that, or you can get beat be someone who is.

If i want to help you, annoy the hell out of me to make sure I do.