Aug 16, 2017 · 27m · y-combinator
Founders of Science Exchange, Goldbely, and The Flex Company Discuss Fundraising · Y Combinator
Vanessa Torridilla · 7m spoken Elizabeth Iorns · 6m spoken Kat Manalac · 5m spoken Erica Jensen · 4m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In a Y Combinator Female Founders Conference panel hosted by Kat, the founders of Science Exchange, Goldbelly, and The Flex Company share candid strategies and insights on navigating fundraising stages, refining pitches, and balancing business operations.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The partners as informed peer 2.2 Guest teaching 1.2 Guest disagreement 0.1 The partners pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is the partners, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:35 Erica calls out dismissive male investor reactions
Erica frankly criticizes male investors who avoided engaging directly with a feminine hygiene pitch and deflected by suggesting they ask their wives or assistants.
Hardest push from the partners ▶ 14:39 Kat prompts panelists on female founder funding disparitiesKat directly introduces the harsh industry funding statistics for female founders, pushing the panelists to address gender-specific barriers head-on.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:28 Elizabeth explains why cool science stories fail to raise moneyElizabeth educates the audience on why impressive technical milestones like NASA projects fail as investor narratives unless tied directly to market size and economic return.
The partners hold their own ▶ 6:40 Kat frames the demographic disconnect in venture pitchingKat articulates the structural communication challenge startup founders face when pitching products to demographic groups entirely outside their user base.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The partners as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The partners pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panelist Introductions and Company Milestones | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kat moderates the opening panel smoothly, polling the audience and asking the founders to rate the difficulty of raising their seed round on a 1-to-10 scale. The founders give collaborative, candid overviews of their early stages. | |
| Product Maturity During Initial Fundraising | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Kat asks about product readiness and how many investors the founders pitched before closing. Erica, Vanessa, and Elizabeth detail their varying levels of product maturity and how practicing with peers helped refine their pitches. | |
| Tailoring Business Narratives for Investors | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Kat prompts the panel on how they tailored technical or niche narratives for investors who were not their end users. Elizabeth explains transitioning from storytelling about scientific novelty to demonstrating market size and unit economics. | |
| Overcoming Stigma Pitching Taboo Products | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Erica details the awkwardness and dismissal faced when pitching menstrual products to male investors, while Vanessa shares Goldbelly's tactic of bringing nostalgic food to meetings to bypass lengthy conceptual explanations. | |
| Identifying Key Metrics Across Funding Stages | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Kat inquires about identifying key metrics for early pitching. The founders advise asking tier-two investors directly for feedback and relying on early seed investors to clarify KPIs for later rounds. | |
| Late-Stage Expectations and Proving ROI | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Elizabeth outlines how expectations dramatically escalate between Seed and Series C, and Kat asks about specific hurdles faced by female founders. The panelists give balanced, pragmatic views on how business traction outweighs bias in later stages. | |
| Data Preparation and Strategic Investor Targeting | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Kat asks for concrete advice for founders pitching soon. Vanessa emphasizes building comprehensive financial models and knowing all metrics cold before scheduling Series A meetings. | |
| Targeting Investors and Utilizing Networks | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Kat asks how founders identify target investors and leverage networks. Erica and Vanessa discuss researching investor portfolios on LinkedIn and requesting warm introductions from peer founders. | |
| Balancing Fundraising with Daily Operations | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Kat asks how teams balance day-to-day operations with intense fundraising demands. The founders describe dividing responsibilities between co-founders so one maintains business growth while the other pitches. | |
| Founding Advice and Panel Conclusion | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Kat closes the panel by asking for retrospective advice. The founders reflect on avoiding 24/7 burnout and finding peer support to normalize the inevitable chaos of building a startup. |
Statements from this episode (9)
Jensen: The first check is the hardest to close in fundraising
“I think the first check is the hardest check you're ever going to close, and that was for sure a really solid nine. And everything beyond that was kind of a four.”
Jensen: Fundraising is like hiring because founders must align with investors
“Fundraising is a lot like hiring. Like, you really want to align yourself with people that you want to continue working with, and that you genuinely like.”
Iorns: NASA used Science Exchange for the blackest material ever measured
“NASA used science exchange to develop the blackest material ever measured.”
Jensen: Do not make Sequoia your first pitch meeting
“If Sequoia is your, like, super hot dream boat, don't set that up as your first meeting. Go in to, like, find an angel that you're also interested in, but, like, it's not your number one pick, and start practicing there, and ask them, like, what metrics do you…”
Iorns: The median Series A has grown to nearly $10 million
“When we raised our Series A, we, our Series A was like three or four million dollars, and that was great. That was like totally normal back then, and now I think the median is close to ten million.”
Jensen: Assuming fundraising is harder for women concedes the upper hand
“You don't want to go into a negotiation or into a meeting thinking like, oh, this is going to be harder for me because I'm a woman, because you're giving that person the upper hand.”
Torrivilla: Goldbelly reached profitability before raising its Series A
“The reason we did it pretty quickly is because we had gotten profitable before we went out for a Series A, which I forgot to mention.”