Sep 30, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
Selling your pitch to an investor is one thing. Showing that you understand how to sell your product to customers is another. Amy Cheetham, partner at Costanoa Ventures, sometimes watches founders…
Amy CheethamGuestWalter ThompsonHostA lot of founders, first-time founders, don't realize that talking to VC and cultivating that relationship, it's a sales job.
I want to hear what you think it means or what it means for you, though, in that kind of how you want to be sold to, I suppose.
And I think what's interesting is that a lot of founders maybe don't realize that it's not just fundraising as a skill.
We're going to be judging how you show up in a pitch and assuming that that's also how you show up with customers.
we're also gonna assume that how you show up in the pitch is how you show up with prospective employees.
And so if you think about every aspect of company building, whether that's hiring, selling customers, leading a team and selling a vision to your team, and then ultimately also selling that vision to investors, So much of that is can you weave together this narrative that explains, like, why are you the right person to build this? Why is it the right time? All of these important components of weaving together a narrative.
And I think sometimes founders don't recognize that that's what we're actually judging.
It's not can you necessarily sell us for the sake of selling us? It's how does it bleed over into these other categories? And I...
just was having lunch with a friend right before this, and we were talking about founders that struggle to kind of like really, I don't want to say brag, but at least like talk about their wins in a very tangible way.
And look, I think we're in a moment in Silicon Valley where you have some people on this end of the spectrum that are, talking about things that haven't even happened yet as though they are foregone conclusions in their business.
And then we have founders over here who have actually achieved things that are having a harder time weaving together that narrative and really talking about their wins.
And I think there's a middle ground, right? I think there's a way to be truthful, but also highly convicted.
And I think sometimes finding that balance can be really challenging for founders.
And so it's something we talk a lot about both in terms of Coaching the founders that we already work with, but also in terms of how do these founders show up in early pitch meetings with us? Because it really ultimately is a skill.
But I think it's one that becomes more and more important the bigger your company is and the more stakeholders you have to tell that narrative to.
I mean, let's say there were let's say there were 10, you know, seed stage founders in your waiting room right now.
How many of them would be able to tell their story in a way that was convincing, authentic, you know, portable?
A lot of founders, first-time founders, don't realize that talking to VC and cultivating that relationship, it's a sales job.
I want to hear what you think it means or what it means for you, though, in that kind of how you want to be sold to, I suppose.
And I think what's interesting is that a lot of founders maybe don't realize that it's not just fundraising as a skill.
We're going to be judging how you show up in a pitch and assuming that that's also how you show up with customers.
we're also gonna assume that how you show up in the pitch is how you show up with prospective employees.
And so if you think about every aspect of company building, whether that's hiring, selling customers, leading a team and selling a vision to your team, and then ultimately also selling that vision to investors, So much of that is can you weave together this narrative that explains, like, why are you the right person to build this? Why is it the right time? All of these important components of weaving together a narrative.
And I think sometimes founders don't recognize that that's what we're actually judging.
It's not can you necessarily sell us for the sake of selling us? It's how does it bleed over into these other categories? And I...
just was having lunch with a friend right before this, and we were talking about founders that struggle to kind of like really, I don't want to say brag, but at least like talk about their wins in a very tangible way.
And look, I think we're in a moment in Silicon Valley where you have some people on this end of the spectrum that are, talking about things that haven't even happened yet as though they are foregone conclusions in their business.
And then we have founders over here who have actually achieved things that are having a harder time weaving together that narrative and really talking about their wins.
And I think there's a middle ground, right? I think there's a way to be truthful, but also highly convicted.
And I think sometimes finding that balance can be really challenging for founders.
And so it's something we talk a lot about both in terms of Coaching the founders that we already work with, but also in terms of how do these founders show up in early pitch meetings with us? Because it really ultimately is a skill.
But I think it's one that becomes more and more important the bigger your company is and the more stakeholders you have to tell that narrative to.
I mean, let's say there were let's say there were 10, you know, seed stage founders in your waiting room right now.
How many of them would be able to tell their story in a way that was convincing, authentic, you know, portable?
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