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Share YC said his idea "would never work". So he lived in his office for months—then raised $17M from a16z in 14 days. | Marty Kausas, founder of Pylon
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YC said his idea "would never work". So he lived in his office for months—then raised $17M from a16z in 14 days. | Marty Kausas, founder of Pylon
Marty and his co-founders lived full-time in their office for several months. They worked on their startup 24/7. To come up with the idea, they messaged 120 potential customers every day for 3 months.
Originally, when they pitched YC they were told their idea would never work. YC said they'd seen it several times and it was destined to fail. So in 2 weeks Marty landed a customer and built a product-- and YC let him in. He went on to raise a $3M seed round from General Catalyst in 6 days and later a $17M Series A from a16z in 14 days.
We go deep into how to come up with massive ideas, how to get to product-market fit, and how to quickly fundraise from tier 1 VCs.
Why you should listen
- Why all 3 founders living in the office was the best decision they ever made.
- How to raise a seed round in 6 days and a Series A in 14-- all from tier 1 VCs.
- How to leverage LinkedIn to get exposure and lots of leads.
- How to get more mindshare from your employees.
- Why Pylon has almost no meetings.
- How to come up with an idea using both top-down and bottoms-up processes.
Keywords
founders, startup, customer support, Pylon, co-founders, omnichannel, B2B, venture capital, product market fit, entrepreneurship, startup, Y Combinator, fundraising, product development, market trends, customer support, AI integration, team dynamics, venture capital, entrepreneurship
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:35) Why he chose to sleep in the office
(00:07:11) Project Management instead of People Management
(00:11:24) How it all started
(00:23:33) Cold Messaging Potential customers
(00:28:02) Finding the Trend
(00:35:49) Building V1
(00:38:32) Getting into YC as ChatGPT Comes Out
(00:42:37) Why fundraising is a "social game"
(01:01:21) Raising Series A from A16
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
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By Mistral.vc
4.9
7878 ratings
Marty and his co-founders lived full-time in their office for several months. They worked on their startup 24/7. To come up with the idea, they messaged 120 potential customers every day for 3 months.
Originally, when they pitched YC they were told their idea would never work. YC said they'd seen it several times and it was destined to fail. So in 2 weeks Marty landed a customer and built a product-- and YC let him in. He went on to raise a $3M seed round from General Catalyst in 6 days and later a $17M Series A from a16z in 14 days.
We go deep into how to come up with massive ideas, how to get to product-market fit, and how to quickly fundraise from tier 1 VCs.
Why you should listen
- Why all 3 founders living in the office was the best decision they ever made.
- How to raise a seed round in 6 days and a Series A in 14-- all from tier 1 VCs.
- How to leverage LinkedIn to get exposure and lots of leads.
- How to get more mindshare from your employees.
- Why Pylon has almost no meetings.
- How to come up with an idea using both top-down and bottoms-up processes.
Keywords
founders, startup, customer support, Pylon, co-founders, omnichannel, B2B, venture capital, product market fit, entrepreneurship, startup, Y Combinator, fundraising, product development, market trends, customer support, AI integration, team dynamics, venture capital, entrepreneurship
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:35) Why he chose to sleep in the office
(00:07:11) Project Management instead of People Management
(00:11:24) How it all started
(00:23:33) Cold Messaging Potential customers
(00:28:02) Finding the Trend
(00:35:49) Building V1
(00:38:32) Getting into YC as ChatGPT Comes Out
(00:42:37) Why fundraising is a "social game"
(01:01:21) Raising Series A from A16
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
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