What’s Harder Than Getting Venture Capitalists to Say “Yes”?
For fundraising entrepreneurs, getting investors to say “yes” is hard, but there’s something more difficult (and almost as important).
When you’re an entrepreneur in the middle of trying to raise a round of capital, you probably think the hardest thing you’ll have to do is get venture capitalists to say “yes.” But it’s not. Sure, it’s the most important thing. But it’s not the hardest. The hardest thing to do when fundraising is get VCs to say “no.” It’s also almost as important.
That’s right — as difficult and important as it is to get VCs to say “yes,” getting VCs to say “no” is often much more difficult, but great entrepreneurs know how to get a “no” and actively try.
I’m pointing this out because it’s a subtle but important issue that creates lots of problems for inexperienced fundraisers. Heck, I know it caused me lots of problems when I first started trying to raise capital for my startups. I spent so much time obsessing about what I needed to do to get VCs saying “yes” that I didn’t consider the value of a “no.” As a result, I wasted lots of time and effort chasing VCs I had no business chasing.
