Mar 8, 2024 · 36m · product-market-fit
How to Raise Your First Round | Marc Boscher, Founder of Unito · PMF Show
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The Product Market Fit Show, Unito founder and CEO Marc Boscher details his journey of fundraising from early pre-seed serendipity to a structured Seed round. He shares practical strategies for engineering networking opportunities, maintaining investor momentum through transparent updates, and choosing the right venture partners.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Pablo holds 26.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Pablo as informed peer 5.3 Guest teaching 3.9 Guest disagreement 1.3 Pablo pushing back 1.7
speaking balance: gold is Pablo, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 31:02 Marc rejects concealing bad months
Marc firmly dismisses the premise of sending selective updates, noting that 'nobody is a fool' and experienced VCs know when founders are hiding problems.
Hardest push from Pablo ▶ 30:28 Pablo challenges strict monthly investor updatesPablo challenges Marc's disciplined update schedule by sharing how he personally ditched monthly cadences at Gymtrack because some months were simply bad.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 23:36 Marc breaks down the marriage analogy of VC roundsMarc educates the audience and host on why optimizing purely for valuation in a rushed process backfires, framing early equity partnerships as marriages with asymmetric divorce penalties.
Pablo holds their own ▶ 12:09 Pablo exposes survivor bias in founder advicePablo demonstrates sharp venture expertise by explaining why repeat founders can afford to 'say no to everything,' whereas first-time founders must treat network-building as an explicit priority bucket.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Pablo as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Pablo pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joining the Founder Institute Accelerator | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Pablo sets up a clear contrast between tier-one accelerators and smaller programs like Founder Institute. Marc reframes the purpose of joining FI, stressing that accelerators are networking leverage points rather than educational institutions that feed you success. | |
| Early Network Building and Bootstrapping Choices | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Pablo inquires about the transition from bootstrapping to fundraising. Marc shares a vivid narrative about hacking Startup Fest with DIY t-shirts, which led to a serendipitous introduction to a VC via their mutual advisor Bruno. | |
| Serendipity and the Spark of Pre-Seed Fundraising | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Pablo shares his own parallel experience from Gymtrack to demonstrate how serendipity operates in early-stage rounds. He asks whether Marc immediately ran a structured VC process, prompting Marc to explain how angel momentum snowballing over the holidays triggered institutional interest. | |
| Networking Mindset and Systematic Momentum | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Pablo provides sharp commentary on the survivor bias among repeat founders giving advice on focus versus networking. Marc agrees and elaborates on building a systematic cadence to provoke serendipitous momentum. | |
| Asking for Advice to Raise Early Capital | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Pablo asks whether early founders should run formal processes or keep angel discussions casual. Marc unpacks the adage of asking for advice to raise money, emphasizing that early-stage investors back human behavior and character over formal pitch decks. | |
| Transitioning to Seed Round Preparation | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Pablo probes runway strategies and tactical timing for starting a Seed raise. Marc explains using non-dilutive Canadian grants for leverage, while Pablo complements this by outlining how to tap into regional cap tables through peer founders. | |
| Investor Pipeline Scoring and Selection Philosophy | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Marc describes his CRM scoring rubric for prospective investors. Pablo presents two competing fundraising philosophies—timing a compressed FOMO process versus building long-term relationships—asking Marc to defend his stance. | |
| Engaging Investors Through Practical Micro-Projects | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Marc compares taking on an investor to a marriage with no fair divorce, advocating for deep mutual vetting. When Pablo asks how to execute this with busy VCs, Marc details assigning them micro-challenges and advisory questions to test working chemistry. | |
| Utilizing Monthly Investor Updates to Build Momentum | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Marc details how he segmented monthly updates on Mailchimp to track prospective investor engagement. This consistent communication eventually served as the catalyst for institutional partner interest. | |
| Transparency and Cultural Fit in Investor Communications | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | Pablo pushes back on strict monthly cadence, explaining that at Gymtrack he abandoned regular updates to avoid sharing down months. Marc counters directly, arguing that sophisticated investors see through selective reporting and value intellectual honesty. | |
| Closing the Seed Round Amidst Chaos | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Marc tells the humorous story of closing the seed round while the lead partner was hospitalized and his wife was giving birth. Pablo asks how he preserved competitive leverage without running a rigid simultaneous process. | |
| Key Takeaways and Episode Conclusion | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Pablo synthesizes the core takeaways of the conversation regarding systematic networking, founder-investor fit, and intentional serendipity. Marc gives a brief concluding remark. |
Statements from this episode (15)
Boscher: Startup accelerators do not spoon-feed success without clear founder goals
“I think a lot of people go into these programs They don't have a goal. They think that the program will change the trajectory of their business. But that's not how it happens, right? It's like, what do you want from it? How are you going to go and get it from …”
Boscher: Raising venture capital limits a startup's strategic options and trajectories
“When you raise, you kind of, you're taking on a certain path, right? You're limiting some of the options or trajectories or directions your business can take.”
Boscher: VCs fast-track founders validated by trusted third parties
“This is like the warm intro or like the external validation for someone they trust. And it's like an extremely, it like ticks, checks a really big box and gets you in this fast track lane with an investor and because they, they're looking for proof signals. Ri…”
Boscher: Founders Must Intentionally Bucket Time for External Networking
“As founders, I think that's kind of the big challenges. You're kind of on one side, you're like, focus, focus on the business and the rest will fall into place. And like brutally and aggressively say no to a lot of things. But the other hand, if you don't get …”
Boscher: Founders can systematically engineer serendipity through consistent networking routines
“Networking is a very powerful way to build momentum, because people start hearing about you, and they talk to each other about you and it's not that hard to create. You can really spark that on your own, and I got introduced to Bruno, and then someone introduc…”
Boscher: Fundraising success stories obscure how difficult rounds are for experienced founders
“First of all, you only hear the success stories, like you only ever hear the success stories and they might sound like that, but the reality is often even that person that has a big track record wasn't that easy.”
Boscher: Early-stage founders cannot run compressed, rigid fundraising processes
“The earlier the stage, the more they're investing in the individual, right? They're going to be not so much into your idea. Or, you know, your pure charisma, but like they want to see how you're reacting, how you're behaving, how you're operating, how you're e…”
Boscher: Always start fundraising with at least 9 to 12 months runway
“I've always raised with like, oh, like around still a year. I could say I still have a year of runway or so, or at least, you know, at least nine months.”
Boscher: Most founders will take calls to share investor experiences
“Like most entrepreneurs are willing to take a call with a fellow entrepreneur saying, share their experience about investor, good or bad.”
Boscher: Test fundraising pitches on lower-tier targets first
“You often pick a few that you have good relationships or you can get intros that aren't necessarily high value. And these will be your test subjects in a way that you're going to be, you're going to bounce, test the story on, see the reaction, get the feedback…”
Boscher: Portfolio founder intros are the best route to VCs
“The founder intro is one of the most powerful intros you can get to an investor. In my experience, like they trust their own portfolio companies. Or at least they know if they can or not. And if they say it's a good fit or like, you'll get the back door entran…”
Boscher: Bad-fit investors can be as destructive as bad-fit co-founders
“Bad fit investors in particular, like they're not necessarily bad investors. And so the bad fit can be just as a, as destructive for a company as a, the bad fit co-founder.”
Boscher: Customer intros provide vital traction proof when early startup numbers lack statistical significance
“And in early stages, they can't rely on a lot of statistically significant numbers because your numbers are small. So if they can get proof points from other companies that they know or things like that, like that's gold.”
Boscher: Sharing Growing Pains in Updates Demonstrates Intellectual Honesty to Investors
“The reality is nobody's a fool, right? Like, all investors have seen companies from the inside, and they know what goes on, right? It's not all pretty, and there's good and bad months. So if you're just showing your good side, they know you're just covering on…”