When Investors Say No

The Numbers Game

When you realize, as a first-time founder, that when people said for every 1 “Yes” you’ll get 100 “No”, they actually meant YOU WILL GET 100 NOs. I mean do not get me wrong I am very used to rejections, as I had the choice to go sit in a cozy office for a summer internship, and decided to go do door-to-door sale in North Carolina for Brinks instead (Remind me that I actually have to sue the company for not giving me the entirety of my money at the end of that summer). I think all-in-all, I am sitting at about 40-50 “Nos” so far for 5 “Yes’” which quite frankly, is incredible. The only reason I do not have more No’s is that I stopped fundraising for a while to focus on building the product. But I am back on the horse now working on getting more doors shut in my face :).

An Unexpected Lesson from Door-to-Door Sales

You know what? Let’s talk a little bit about that door-to-door experience before we move on. It was during the summer of 2022, from May to August. They were probably the hardest 3 and a half months of my life. The amount of rejection that a door-to-door salesman gets in a day, most people will not get in their lifetime. You get out of your apartment in the morning, not knowing in what mood the person whose door you are going to knock on is. You are lucky if they even open the door to hear you pitch. During that summer, I was bullied by residents, threatened with attack dogs, had the police called on me multiple times for just walking the streets (walking while black I guess), called racial slurs. I mean a really fun experience. What is very fascinating about that job, beside what I just mentioned, is the absolute quick turnaround of which you have to be capable of. Being rejected on door 1 and go with a smiling face on door 2 like nothing had just happened. You do not have time to process the rejection because it is a numbers game, just like raising money for a startup. One thing that I used to tell myself before knocking every door was “What’s the worse thing they can say? No?”. It set the expectation while lifting the weight of the rejection of my shoulders, allowing me to go in there, and perform the best I could.

A Blessing in Disguise: The Power of Being Clueless

I was truly clueless when I first started talking to potential investors at the beginning of the company. I did not know about angel investors, SAFEs, convertible notes, VCs, and more. I was truly clueless, and I think it was a blessing more than it was a curse because I approached every meeting with no apprehensions. I could go in there, receive the biggest rejection of my life, and walk out like “It went the way it was supposed to go, on to the next one”. If the meeting goes well, I am happy, if it does not go well, I am happy to move on to the next meeting. However, as I started learning a little more about the space, I started to notice that I have more say in those proceedings that I realized. Verifying my idea with potential customer, coming up with a good pitch deck, launching with scraps just to have an overview of what was the market’s feel about my idea. Being aware of those things was like getting my powers back in a sense. I felt as if, to a certain degree, I could lower the chances of being told “No” by actively putting my idea out and giving it life. This mindset developed after our first major rejection.

The First No: Debunking the 'Brilliant Idea' Myth

A little bit more than a year ago, our startup Strnger (Scrtly at the time) got introduced to the Founders Factory program, where ultimately we got rejected. Thinking of my first ever rejection, the fundamental element that got debunked was the assumption that an idea was just what it took. When you hear about the Jeff Bezos’ of the world, the Zuck’s of the world, you hear about their brilliant idea, and you focus on the fact that you too need to come up with a brilliant idea. I was even gatekeeping my idea (LMAO); making people sign NDAs and stuff. Man, I had no idea what I was doing.

This email was a wake-up call because it showed me that my “idea” was not going to be what would tip the scale but the execution behind that idea very much might.

The Mental Game of Rejection

As a first-time founder, the mental toughness that you have to arm yourself with will not be understood by most people. Making your way through the Nos until you hopefully stumble upon a Yes someday. It is mentally exhausting, but at the same time there is this unexplainable delusion that you’re building the next unicorn that makes you believe that eventually someone, somewhere, will say Yes to you. This journey can be very lonely, and your mental health will certainly take a hit. Whenever it does, remember that we, first-time founders, are also around, and we can very much feel your pain. I think by building Strnger, I make people aware that their loneliness is not because there is no one who can understand their struggles, but that they just do not know that those people are in fact around them. And as founders, especially first-time founders, we enter the space at a disadvantage, being newbies wanting to prove that we belong, all the while staying hopeful through a sea of rejections.

A Sweet Reminder

In a slam entitled “Hello Stranger” I said somewhere:

Whenever you feel alone, remember this quote, and go get yourself some ice-cream. I might actually create a “Founder Ice-Cream” group (haha) where we encourage one another to get some ice-cream whenever we feel lonely building. While writing this, I actually went ahead and created the group, so you can join here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14606028/. No fuss, just ice-cream.

Final Thoughts

Founders, especially at the earliest stage, live in a constant state of uncertainty, which can be both frightening and exhilarating. However, at the end of the day, what will get you over the hump is the strong belief that what you are building will truly make a difference in the world. I believe you will make a difference in the world, I believe in you 😊.