To get meetings with busy leaders before her product was ready, founder Janice Omadeke explicitly stated, "I am too early for you to purchase this." This non-threatening approach lowered their guard, reframing the conversation from a sales pitch to a collaborative session focused on learning their problems.

Top founders fundraise like a confident person on a first date. They project that their company will succeed with or without a specific investor's money. This shifts the dynamic from seeking capital to offering a strategic partnership, forcing VCs to justify why they should be on the cap table.

Applying the "weird if it didn't work" framework to fundraising means shifting the narrative. Your goal is to construct a story where the market opportunity is so massive and your team's approach is so compelling that an investor's decision *not* to participate would feel like an obvious miss.

Instead of a feature-focused presentation, close deals by first articulating the customer's problem, then sharing a relatable story of solving it for a similar company, and only then presenting the proposal. This sequence builds trust and makes the solution self-evident.

In initial meetings with enterprise prospects, Nexla's founder didn't pitch a solution. He focused entirely on validating the problem. By asking, "Do you see this problem as well?" he framed the conversation as a collaborative exploration, which disarmed prospects and led to more honest, insightful discussions.

Raising venture capital is often a network-driven game. If you don't already have a network of VCs or a clear path through an accelerator, your focus should not be on fundraising. Instead, dedicate your effort to building a product people want and gaining traction. VCs will find you once you have something compelling to show.

Early outreach often fails by pitching an unproven value proposition. Instead, founders should use "Founder Magic"—leveraging their unique background, story, or mission to make themselves so interesting that prospects agree to a meeting out of sheer curiosity. The outreach should be product-agnostic and focus on being compelling as a person.

In the first minute of a cold call, resist the urge to pitch your product. Instead, lead with a 'reverse pitch' that focuses entirely on the prospect's potential problems. This approach is three times more effective than using solution-focused language, as it speaks to what the buyer actually cares about.

To build immediate trust and demonstrate value, QED partners engage with founders by simulating a board-level conversation from the first meeting. This "pretend I'm your investor" approach showcases their expertise and builds rapport, proving their founder-friendliness rather than just promising it.