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Mic Check by Rhetoric: Vol 2
How new founders can (and probably will) still win this year, despite Twitter panic suggesting otherwise.
Oof, it’s tough out there. Venture funding took yet another dip last month to pre-2021 levels and the Twitter rants about the state of the fundraising market are pretty exhausting to read through (@Elon, plz add to the fix list?).
Now, we’re not investors and we’re definitely not macroeconomic fortune tellers, but it’s does seem like the brunt of these tough times are falling on later-stage companies that need cash and to manage their burn. The rules of the fundraising game have very much changed for these players and, not surprisingly, warrant a new operating manual.
However, I'm curious: has the definition of an investable and exciting pre-seed or seed stage startup changed? Last time I checked, pre-seed and seed investors were not diving into quarterly earnings forecasts and EBIDTA figures.
While Twitter will always sow the seeds of panic, we’d bet that the pre-seed / seed startup with:
1. a unique insight
2. a motivated and passionate team
3. an engaging story
will be just fine fundraising this summer. Our unsolicited advice? Your story matters more than ever. Iterate on your insights, schedule more user interviews, build your team, and take the time to carefully weave it all into an engaging presentation that gets investors out of their seats. Need some inspiration? We love Suneel Gupta’s advice in his book, Backable, on the importance of storytelling and practice.
Friendly reminder that there is nothing better than creating a product/side-hustle/startup/company of your own. Keep at it.
Happy Friday - here’s Mic Check Vol. 2.
- Raman
📚 Open tabs
What team Rhetoric is reading during those awkwardly-timed few minutes between Zooms.
Lev Kerzhner's tips for building your pitch deck—including the notion that you should create three different versions of your presentation—are an absolute goldmine. You already know what tool we'll recommend for creating your Reading Presentation.
Disregard the weird comment about winking (?) and this is a pretty clear endorsement for improving our communication skills from the Oracle of Omaha himself. Billionaire Warren Buffett: This is the ‘one easy way’ to increase your worth by ‘at least’ 50 percent.
With Notes beta and Revue, it's clear that Twitter is thinking about longer-form storytelling. Takeaways for founders: 1) start figuring out where you want to tell your story; 2) really, really good product walk-through videos can cost you $0.
✨ New ways to present better
Here's what's new in your Rhetoric account this month.
A small joy: you can now move a comment while it's in draft state. 😌
❤️ Your friends can be great presenters, too
Found this useful and know someone who wants to up their speaking game? Want to help us banish the grip that flat, written text has over our lives once and for all? Or perhaps you just like cool hats?
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A weekly roundup of what I'm learning and reading to become a better storyteller.