During the MovieLaLa days, we learned something about my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way. that I still apply to every investment I make.
You can't outbid Google for AI talent, so you have to outsmart them. I'll share my unconventional strategies for poaching top-tier researchers and engineers by finding their pain points and offering a better life.
The Reality Nobody Talks About
Most people approach my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way. with assumptions that made sense five years ago. The world has moved on. When I look at my portfolio companies, the ones that succeed are doing something fundamentally different.
The first thing to understand is that your team matters more than your technology. I've seen this play out across dozens of companies. The pattern is unmistakable.
At RemoteTeam, we learned this the hard way. We spent months going down the wrong path before realizing that you need to move fast and break things. Once we made the switch, everything changed.
What I've Learned From 129 Companies
After investing in 200+ startups and running two companies to successful exits, I've developed a pretty clear picture of what works with my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way..
The biggest misconception is that you need to customer feedback is the only metric that matters. That's backwards. The companies that win are the ones that you need to move fast and break things.
I remember sitting with the Anthropic team early on and discussing how they thought about my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way.. Their approach was counterintuitive but brilliant.
The Counterintuitive Truth
Here's what surprised me most about my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way.: the best practitioners do less, not more.
When I was building MovieLaLa, we tried to do everything at once. We had the best technology, the smartest team, and we still almost failed because we spread ourselves too thin.
The lesson I took from that experience, and from watching hundreds of other companies, is that you need to move fast and break things. It sounds simple. It's incredibly hard to execute.
What I Tell Founders
When a founder in my portfolio asks me about my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way., I usually start with three questions:
- What's your timeline? Because the right approach for a company with 6 months of runway is very different from one with 3 years.
- What have you already tried? Most founders have tried something. Understanding what didn't work is often more valuable than knowing what might.
- Who on your team owns this? If the answer is "everyone" or "no one," that's your first problem to solve.
These questions seem simple but they reveal a lot about where a company actually stands.
This connects to broader themes around AI due diligence, AI pitch decks, AI competitive moats, AI market sizing, AI startup pivots that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Wrapping Up
I've shared a lot here, and I know it can feel overwhelming. But here's the thing about my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way.: you don't need to get everything right on day one. You just need to get started and keep improving.
The founders in my portfolio who excel at my failed pitch deck: 5 lessons learned the hard way. share one trait: they're relentlessly practical. They don't chase perfection. They chase progress.
That's the mindset I'd encourage you to adopt. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. And keep pushing forward.
As always, I'm rooting for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.
How has this view evolved over time?
My thinking on most topics has changed significantly over the years. Early in my career, I held many conventional views that experience proved wrong. I try to update my beliefs when the evidence changes.
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.