Raised 1M in one meeting with no deck
I can spend an article telling you why it is so a few orders magnitude harder for the rest of us entrepreneurs if you are not connected, loaded, and pedigreed. And that means I will not be able to accomplish everything. Like the story, I heard today of Lazada Indonesia's ex-CEO raising a seed round without a deck, and had the money in the bank the next day. That is probably not something I can accomplish in my lifetime because I am not of a particular pedigree. But I do not have to accomplish everything. I need to accomplish something.
Clocking the miles
Like a marathon runner, the endpoint is far, but the next kilometer is just a few more minutes away. To get to the endpoint, you have to clock the miles.
If we compare the execution of a business model to a marathon, then the search for product-market fit is the training exercise before the actual marathon. It feels like a marathon, but it is not the marathon. You tweak your shoes, you tweak your gait, and you tweak your routes. Our search for product-market fit has been in progress for two and a half months. Are you ready for the big race?
On the big day, you come decked out in your home shorts while everyone else came donning tights and skin-tight outfits. They look the part, and you don't. Who cares, outrun them. The real winner is the one that emerges at the finishing line.
I have never run a marathon
But boy, have I been thinking about building businesses literally since I was 16. Not just any business, but a super-scale company. But like most people, I am not connected, loaded, or pedigreed. But I have a brain and a grit.
Where I cannot simply wing it, I will maneuver around it. Sans pedigree, traction speaks volume. Without accessible seed funds, I will bootstrap to profitably as fast as I can.
Life is slightly more manageable now. I have a great team and a teeny weeny bit of track record to speak of. Life isn't fair, so play cheat. Hack your way around it like how I am focused on traction building now instead of pitching an empty shell of an idea.