Fundraising Is Sales

To understand capital raising is to understand sales.

As a founder raising capital, there will be endless objections, often repetitive ones, and with time you may think these objections, since they're repetitive, are true.

When a salesperson calls 200 prospects a day and hears 150 times, "I need to ask my husband," he doesn't start to believe that in 2026 so many women need to ask their husbands for approval. This is what we call an authority objection. Instead of saying no, she's deflecting authority to her husband, who is either at work, having a bubble bath, playing with the kids, watching TV, at the gym (maybe, unlikely). And this can easily be countered with, "So if your husband approved it, is it a yes?"

So when 50 investors say you're too early, does it mean you're too early? Well, if you're early then, duh, you're too early, but you can't be anything else. So when an investor rejects you on this basis, especially when it's an early-stage investor, then you know it's not because you're too early, it's because they're not convinced, don't like you or one of your co-founders, don't have money, are thinking about building what you're doing themselves, the list goes on.

So when is the objection real?

With luck, the true objection can be reached by handling all objections. "Yes, we're early... but." "Yes, we don't have LOIs, but..." "Yes, we don't have traction, but..."

And once you've handled every objection, you might hear, "Listen, we're investing in a competitor already." "We were curious, but our thesis is different and our partners have decided against it."

Little by little you'll see, "Wow, it's not me, it's them," as you move closer to the right investor.