#98 Hello! You’ve Reached The Pitch Helpline

Co-Founders

Finding the right co-founder is a significant challenge, especially during the COVID pandemic when traditional networking is limited. Josh Muccio discusses the importance of not rushing into co-founder relationships, suggesting that founders should work with potential partners on a contractor or volunteer basis to build trust and understanding over time 1. He emphasizes that attracting talent and building a founding team around a single founder can be a viable strategy 1.

All sorts of red sort of alarms go off for me when I think it's a co-founder that just sort of grabbed somebody after knowing them for a little while and made them partners in their company.

--- Josh Muccio

Confidence is also crucial for single founders pitching to investors, as Shwetha Maddur highlights the need to instill confidence in investors despite being a solo founder 2.

   

Remote Strategies

Operating remotely presents unique challenges and opportunities for startups, particularly in pitching to investors. Josh Muccio notes that remote pitches can make it difficult to gauge team dynamics, especially when founders are not in the same room 3. This requires investors to adapt their questioning to better understand the interpersonal relationships and decision-making processes within the team.

The challenge, I think sometimes, especially when you're talking to, you know, teams that are two or three founders, is I really care about the dynamics between those founders, and sometimes it's harder to read those across three different zoom windows.

--- Josh Muccio

Furthermore, Elizabeth Yin and Hunter Walk offer advice to founders on navigating the changed business climate post-COVID, emphasizing the importance of clear communication and leveraging digital platforms for customer acquisition and investor relations 4.