In a crowded space like voice AI, pitches sound generic. The founder of April found that investors who converted were those who used the product before the first meeting. The direct experience of a working product bypassed skepticism and made fundraising calls short and successful.

To win the best pre-seed deals, investors should engage high-potential talent during their 'founder curious' phase, long before a formal fundraise. The real competition is guiding them toward conviction on their own timeline, not battling other VCs for a term sheet later.

YC now provides founders an investor's conversion rate (meetings vs. checks). A low rate signals to founders not to prioritize that meeting, forcing VCs to abandon a "catch-all" meeting approach in favor of being highly selective upfront to avoid damaging their reputation within the ecosystem.

Since startups lack infinite time and money, an investor's key diligence question is whether the team can learn and iterate fast enough to find a valuable solution before resources run out. This 'learning velocity' is more important than initial traction or a perfect starting plan.

Investors like Stacy Brown-Philpot and Aileen Lee now expect founders to demonstrate a clear, rapid path to massive scale early on. The old assumption that the next funding round would solve for scalability is gone; proof is required upfront.

To win highly sought-after deals, growth investors must build relationships years in advance. This involves providing tangible help with hiring, customer introductions, and strategic advice, effectively acting as an investor long before deploying capital.

Prepared's founder rejected running a formal fundraising process. Instead, he had infrequent 'coffee chats' with investors to share progress. This built relationships and momentum, leading to preemptive term sheets and much faster closes without the distraction of a full-time fundraise.

Founders can get objective performance feedback without waiting for a fundraising cycle. AI benchmarking tools can analyze routine documents like monthly investor updates or board packs, providing continuous, low-effort insight into how the company truly stacks up against the market.

The most sought-after YC companies have rounds that fill and oversubscribe on the first day of fundraising, often within hours. This extreme velocity means VCs who require multiple meetings or lengthy diligence will lose the deal, necessitating a process built for one-call decisions.