Natty brings a perspective that's rare in early-stage VC: he's a founder-turned-Techstars MD-turned-fund partner, giving him an almost uniquely high volume of reps with early-stage companies. One of his most actionable frameworks is how founders should think about investor qualification. Rather than casting a wide net, Natty argues your top priority is finding the investor who already believes in your thesis and has been looking for you. Your second priority is the open-minded investor you can convert into a believer. The anti-pattern is trying to convince a non-believer, which is just a waste of time. He also flips the perceived power dynamic, reminding founders that VCs literally don't have a job without entrepreneurs building companies.

On the fundraising process itself, Natty emphasizes that fundraising is sales with one critical twist: unlike normal sales, you want every "customer" to close at the same time. That means running a disciplined, compressed process where you're actively speeding up some investors and slowing down others to get multiple parties near a decision simultaneously. He also prefers memos over pitch decks ("sizzle vs. steak"), gravitates first to team and competition slides, and wants founders to have three "must-airs" for every meeting, regardless of format. His advice on ending meetings is practical: always leave with a follow-up that's your responsibility, and create lots of small touchpoints rather than long updates.

Perhaps the most distinctive advice comes post-close. Natty's concept of "hiring in arrears vs. hiring in advance" is a framework every seed-stage founder should internalize. His recommendation: raise the round and don't spend any money for three months. Hiring in advance means filling roles you think you need; hiring in arrears means waiting until you're drowning in a specific task, so you know exactly what success looks like in that role and you hire better for it. He ties this directly to why most startups fail: they didn't make enough progress relative to the capital they had. The ratio of progress to capital is the most important metric for a startup.