The fundraising advice worth saving

This was the most practical conversation of the week. Most of it came from a few people, mainly long threads by Elizabeth Yin and Steph Nass, so read it as advice from a handful of investors, not a consensus.

• Talk to customers before you pitch. Nicole DeTommaso (@nic_detommaso) said the main thing she looks for at pre-seed is proof you've had dozens of real customer conversations, with notes to back it up.
• Lead with a fact, not a slogan. Lolita Taub (@lolitataub) compared a "big market" line with a concrete line about paying customers. The concrete one wins.
• Make sure your email actually arrives. Steph Nass (@stephnass) pointed out that many cold emails to VCs land in spam. Send from your company's domain, set it up properly, and send in small batches. She also said short emails beat long ones.
• Pitch enough people. Elizabeth Yin (@dunkhippo33) revisited her "5-100-500" rule of thumb: about 100 investor meetings over 5 weeks to close a $500K seed. Her point was that 20 or 30 meetings isn't enough to tell whether a round can come together.
• A real look at a fund's inbox. Elizabeth also shared Hustle Fund's September numbers: 1,922 pitches, and about 70% of those companies were asking for valuations under $10M.
• Your closing questions count. Harry Stebbings (@HarryStebbings) said the questions a founder asks at the end of a meeting tell him a lot.

If you want to join in: Share one thing you learned the hard way in investor conversations, written for other founders. Don't attach an ask.