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Key Takeaways I walked into fundraising with credentials but quickly realized investors cared about something very different.
I share how I turned early skepticism into support and what truly drives investor confidence.
When I walked into my first investor meeting, I had no co-founder, no track record and no backup plan. I had just left a stable career in finance to chase a vision I couldn’t stop thinking about. With an MBA, a CFA and years in wealth management, I assumed investors would see me as the ideal founder for a fintech startup.
They didn’t.
Within minutes, I realized investors weren’t evaluating my résumé. They were evaluating me. Not where I’d worked, but how I thought. Not my credentials, but my conviction. They wanted to know whether I could execute.
That first pitch was humbling — but it became the most important lesson of my fundraising journey: You don’t need a track record to raise capital. You need clarity, credibility and confidence.
Here are the seven strategies I used to turn investor skepticism into investor support.
Related: Before You Start a Business, Make Sure You Have a Safety Net. Here are 13.
1. Borrow credibility until you build your own
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