A friend of mine let me know that one of the VC firms they've been meeting with decided to pass yesterday. That's always tough to hear; along with the pass comes the self doubt, the temporary buzz in the brain that says "you're not good enough", "they don't get it", and "how am I going to explain this". You place your hopes with someone, and they let you down--that's what it feels like. The potential date that says no, no thank you. You get that sinking feeling. But the problem is you've allowed your hopes to become expectations, and have attached that to a single person, firm, date, or kickball teammate. Rejection sucks. But it sucks worse when you drink your own Kool Aid and expect that to be enough. The letdown is big. Now what? Raising capital is a sales process. Treat it that way. You want true believers as investors. If they passed, they weren't true believers (yet) and you didn't want them anyway. Y
Charlie Crystle writes about startups, startup ecosystems, tech, food systems, and random things.