Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

David Cross: Founders should send pitch decks upfront instead of teasing calls

David Cross · 10 - Investing in Early-Stage Cybersecurity and Enterprise Software Startups with Rain Capital Partner David Cross · Dec 10, 2024 · at 16:21

David Cross, Venture Partner at Rain Capital, gives fundraising advice to first-time founders reaching out to institutional venture capital investors.

0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.2s
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“For me personally, is an element is like, you send me the deck as the pre-read opening versus get on a call, right, is I say, be proactive. If you really have something that good, and you'll send me the deck right up front, and it's that good, I'm going to want to talk to you.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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