Going Up
By: Jenn Herseim | Categories: Featured Stories
The Expert
Paul Judge, MS CS 01, PhD CS 02, has cofounded three companies, including Tech spin-out Pindrop, and invested in over 100 startups. He’s been an ATDC entrepreneur-in-residence and he’s managing partner of Open Opportunity Fund, where he invests in outstanding, overlooked entrepreneurs.
How to stand out
The best pitch is really simple, clear, and human. It’s not about impressing someone; it’s about making a connection. Don’t fill it with buzzwords. Explain the problem you’re solving and why it’s important. The goal is to spark enough curiosity to get to the next meeting.
Traits investors look for
Insane passion about a problem. It can’t just be about having an idea and wanting to make money. That’s not long-lived enough because building a company is hard. It typically takes 7 to 10 years to work out. There are going to be bad times that make you want to quit, so you need persistence and perseverance. That requires you to be tied to the problem in a way where it’s part of your purpose.
Mistakes to avoid in fundraising
Some people start chasing funding too early, when they should be chasing a team, customers, and partners. There are proof points you can build around your business to make it more fundable. With AI, you can build a prototype faster than ever and use it to reach out to more customers.
Managing cash flow
Funding is like an oxygen tank, and you’ll run out unless you do one of two things: either get to profitability or hit a certain number of milestones to earn the next set of funding. One mistake I see is spending too long on a victory lap after a funding period and not making progress. You might waste three, four, or five months and that could be the difference between surviving or not.
Building teams
Think of it as building an Olympic team. You need to recruit the best. That might mean calling 10 people just to find that one person who believes in your vision. A new entrepreneur might want to take the easy route of only calling their friends, but you have to go beyond that to truly build a world-class team. That’s one of the first tests: Will you swing for the fences in the level of talent you aim to recruit?
Advice for Yellow Jackets
Take the chance. Be more afraid of not trying in the first place than of failing. And the second part is don’t quit. The thing that separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones is mostly perseverance.
