Co-Founder & CEO, https://teapawt.org/t.co/jzl57KxIme
Miami, FL
Joined October 2011
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- Following1K
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We need to follow Singapore or NYC under Bloomberg who subsidize salaries, as examples of paying for talent to run the government efficiently. Otherwise we will never get there.
Palantir cofounder @JTLonsdale says he’d pay 90% of his fortune in taxes if it meant we could actually have a competent, functioning society:
“I’m fucking rich, Michael”
“I would pay a 90% tax rate if we could keep our society competent. If we could stop having illegals swarm into our country, if we could fire unaccountable bureaucrats, if we could put systems in place to make our government competent, if we could stop having regulators harass and destroy and impune builders.”
“I will pay whatever taxes that takes— I’ll pay 90% of my fortune. We need our country to be functional for my kids and grandkids and everyone else…”
Todd Abbott retweeted
I got rejected by 144 investors before raising $150M for my $200M+ rev/year startup.
After 144 rejections, I started questioning our approach.
Were we solving the right problem?
What were we doing wrong?
Why weren’t investors seeing what we were seeing?
Were we the right team to build this?
We tried everything: different pitch angles, new deck structures, and reframing the problem.
Then came the 145th meeting, where we closed our first growth round.
That yes made everything worth it. But getting there took years of mistakes and hard work.
We went through a lot of trial and error just to figure out what resonates with investors.
We tried dozens of approaches to figure out what made investors engage.
Some landed, most didn't. But each iteration taught us something about what builds conviction versus what just sounds good on paper.
And once we cracked that code, our Series C closed faster than expected.
And today, I see so many founders in the exact same position I was in 10 years ago: grinding through rejections, questioning everything, and trying to figure out what works.
So today I want to give you the resource I wish I had back then:
Something that shows you exactly how to structure these conversations and navigate the entire process
(because the fundraising cycle can be a big distraction and take a toll on you as a founder).
So I've partnered with Notion's Startups Team to create the essential fundraising resource that helps you avoid the mistakes that cost me years.
Here's what you are getting:
• The actual decks I used to raise $150M for Super[.]com (Series B, C)
• 50 real examples from funded startups like Eleven Labs and Artisan AI
• A searchable database of 10,000+ investors - angels, VCs, and accelerators you can reach out to immediately (this alone would take months to build manually)
• An AI-powered fundraising agent built into Notion with step-by-step prompts (no separate ChatGPT needed)
Want access?
• Like and share this post
• Comment "FUNDRAISE"
• Follow me so I can DM you the link
I'll send it over ASAP.
P.S.: If you are serious about fundraising (now or in the future), you should grab it right away.
Todd Abbott retweeted
"You're lucky if 10% of your prospects are 'in market' at any given time. So much of your marketing strategy does have to be ... patient." with @kippbodnar
Come on @AmericanAir … flight 2172 … 2 planes and now 2nd set of crew because of course the first timed out … and yet, here we still sit on the plane at the gate 6 hours past scheduled departure. Your maintenance performance on domestic flights is really quite bad and you’re abusing your customers!
Can someone please start a new airline that can maintain their planes, have a computer system that enables them to schedule the planes and crew effectively and offer decent customer service… including not making us sit on a hot plane while you conserve $ by not running the AC at max. @AmericanAir and @united need not apply!
Great story on the power of the American Dream and the energy, appreciation and gratitude of our way of life that comes when we give immigrants an opportunity!
Yesterday I met someone from Cuba who was smuggled into the US by a coyote a few months ago.
He and his brother both fled Cuba and snuck into the US.
It was surreal to hear their story.
They are talented film makers with a promising future to do big things.
Here are two things they told me that blew my mind:
1. Their dad is a doctor in Cuba and only makes $30 a month.
2. Taxi drivers are the highest paid people in the country.
These guys were both polished, sharp, spoke English and were impressive.
Had they not told me I would have never imagined one of them was in the desert sneaking over the border a few months ago.
Because they are from a communist country they were able to get asylum in the US once they got here.
These guys had zero opportunity to get ahead in life prior to coming to the United States.
One of the brothers was asked “what is your American dream?”
His response was “just living in America is the American dream”.
Americans have no idea how good they have it because they don’t have perspective of what it’s like to live in a communist country.
These guys are going to become far more successful than the average American because they have drive, motivation and perspective.
They have already become valuable members of society.
This is not a political post but our country needs to open its borders to more people like this.
For their privacy I blurred their faces out in this photo.
There is a long list of growth tech companies that have done stadium naming rights deals and then became a failure. It’s all ego driven.
100% correct! The sales and marketing tech stack pendulum is about to shift hard toward consolidation. The disruption will be difficult for many to survive!
What a great story to start your day. There is so much kindness and good spirits in the world ... that gets lost and drowned out in all of the negative cable news broadcasts. The human spirit lives!
Spot on thought leadership from @AmandaMGoetz on building community! Well done!
I totally picked up on this as well. Success with a partner makes it so much more worthwhile!
Todd Abbott retweeted
"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks." —John Muir
Can a Walk in the Woods Improve Your Well-Being? | @PsychToday psychologytoday.com/us/node/…
Todd Abbott retweeted
I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share.
Great story of innovation driving disruption in legacy business model!
This is the most personal thing I have ever written. It's about why I needed to co-found @stem. I hope you read it: stemsha.re/1P7Sj4b
Good read on the situation in Russia
newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/s…. This is a brilliant interview with one of the sharpest observers of Russia.
Very good piece on dynamics between Russia and Ukraine.
