How 2 first-time founders from Florida closed 3 top Silicon Valley investors

2015 was a tough year for Nishant and me. We both left our cushy corporate jobs, started a company without prior experience, went all in with our first idea, and ended up pivoting 7 months later to what is now Flow Labs.

As first-time entrepreneurs, we’ve been scrappy, lean, and hard at work. But as two guys from Florida with only a few connections in Silicon Valley, one of the biggest hurdles we faced was rallying up top notch investors to get behind our vision. But over the past few months, we’ve kept at it and overcome that barrier. As a result, we closed deals with 3 of the top investors in Silicon Valley. Here’s how we did it:

1. We hustled.

If you‘re in the startup world, chances are you‘ve heard of the super angel investor, Jason Calacanis (an early investor in Uber, Thumbtack, and Wealthfront), founder of LAUNCH, and a host of the popular entrepreneurial podcast “This Week in Startups (TWIST).” We knew having him as an investor would be invaluable.

So, we started looking for ways to get in front of him. One way was to apply to his LAUNCH incubator. Our first idea was rejected. But, the second time around was different. We were targeting an industry in which Jason had already expressed interest. So we applied again, cold, and waited for the decision email.

A few days passed, and still no response. Expecting to have heard back, we logged into our application portal, and there it was, a message saying we were offered a first-round interview! However, within seconds of opening the message, we were hit with massive disappointment. Our interview time-slot had passed. We never received that email due to server issues. Enter, panic mode!

We discussed our options, and the only one that made sense was to show up at their office. So, Nishant ran to the LAUNCH office to talk to them. I mean, he literally ran! He got to the lobby and asked to be let in, but his request was denied — he didn’t have an appointment. He tried to express his urgency, but to no avail. Luckily for us, one of the Launch execs was also in the lobby and overheard this conversation. He told Nishant he would relay his message to the appropriate folks, but there were no guarantees. This wasn’t enough for us to rest on.

That day, Jason had a live audience TWIST podcast recording (the one with Eric Reis). So, Nishant went back and waited until Jason was done. As soon as he saw an opportunity, he went up to him and explained the situation. Jason listened, told him a few names to email, and just like that, we landed an interview.

The first interview went well, and shortly after, we were called in for a second interview with J-Cal himself. He was impressed by our story of how we had the courage to cold email 100 hotels and sell them our ugly, but well-functioning prototypes. It was our hustle that ultimately helped us land a spot in the incubator.

Moral of the story? Keep on hustling. As one of our advisers once said, “You don’t just get lucky. You’ve got to show up to get lucky.”

2. We were persistent.

Being a part of the LAUNCH incubator was awesome. We met several inspiring founders working on some cutting-edge ideas, and made great friends along the way!

We were also given opportunities to meet with some of the most respected investors in the industry. One of them was Cyan Banister. And once you meet the Banisters, you immediately want to do everything you can to get them on your side. That’s exactly what we set out to do.

After our pitch, we set up a coffee meeting with Cyan. Now, as entrepreneurs, we know investors are busy people, and Cyan is a super investor. In fact, she and Scott just won the 2016 Crunchies for Best Angel Investor. Between her family, Zivity, and her investments, she’s got her hands full! Needless to say, that coffee meeting, or the subsequent others, didn’t happen. We started to understand that getting a meeting with her wouldn’t be as easy as we thought, but we were up for the challenge. It took us a few email follow-ups, following her on social media, and showing up to another LAUNCH event we knew she would be at to get back in front of her.

One month later, we finally got our meeting, and a few weeks after that, we secured her as an investor.

Our biggest takeaway from this experience? Don’t lose hope, stay persistent. It isn’t a “no” until they say it. When an investor isn’t responding, it doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. It may simply mean they are busy and caught up with their own shit. When they make it clear that it’s not a fit, or they say “It’s not the right time,” that’s when you know it’s a clear “no.” Until then, the game is still ON. So, stay on top of your follow-ups, send updates, and get that meeting.

3. We worked REALLY hard on our pitch.

Jason is a pitch-guru.

Over the course of our 12-week incubator program, we had transformed — I mean, a complete 180°. Our pitch actually started to resonate with investors, whereas before, they had no idea what we were even building. By the end of the program, it was the opposite. They couldn’t stop giving us more ideas on where else we could apply our technology.

That’s exactly what happened when we pitched at one of the leading VC firms, Social Capital.

Social Capital was one of the firms Jason introduced us to, as a part of the incubator process. We had a 3-minute opportunity to pitch, and within these three minutes, we had to convey the problem we were solving, our solution (demo), why it matters (example), why the business was justifiable (unit economics), and why we were the best team to make it happen.

During our pitch, one of the founding members of Social Capital, Mamoon Hamid, was present, along with his team. He immediately resonated with our direction and vision. Turns out, the importance of the problem and our approach was a big part of what attracted Social Capital. We couldn’t have been more thrilled!

Ultimately, nailing your pitch is crucial — I mean, it’s the only way your future customers and investors will understand your business. Spend as much time as you can practicing. We would pitch to our friends, family, in the car, in front of the mirror, to each other, to other founders, at meetups, and to investors. And if you get into LAUNCH, you’re almost guaranteed to come out of it with a solid pitch.

Of course, there’s no magic formula, but that’s how we turned a bunch of lukewarm meetings and no’s from investors into actual progress and yes’s.

The past few months will always be some of the most memorable days of our lives; it was when our startup started growing legs. We were no longer just two guys from Florida with an idea. We became entrepreneurs with a true product and vision.

We couldn’t be more thankful to our family, friends, supporters, and investors who have been pivotal in helping us get to this point. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us, and we couldn't be more excited to get started!

TL;DR — Get ready to Hustle, be persistent, have a kickass pitch!