James Sinclair explains why investors ask founders how they got here. Angels and VCs use your origin story as a vibe check to gauge passion and whether you'll stick around through the brutal years ahead. Put it early in your pitch deck.
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Your origin story, especially if you're raising money, is critical to get down. And it's why the first few slides on your deck are going to be you and your team. It's why often when you walk into a meeting with an angel or a vc, before you even open up the deck, they're going to say, hey, how did you even get here? Like, talk me through how you found this problem, why you're even here, why you're excited about it, because they want to get a vibe check on you and that origin story. And the reason it's so, so critical is if you're raising money, this, this is a four to ten year journey. And so they want to understand that when the times get tough, when everything seems awful and it looks like you're not going to make it, and you're days away from not making payroll and everything is just collapsing on you, where any normal human would just give up, you aren't. You're going to carry on and do this because you feel so passionately and strongly about this problem. That's why your origin story is so critical to the fundraising process. Good luck.
