Fundraising Rule #1 Decides Your Entire Round 🤯

19 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, Leon Eisen, PhD walks through the first of his five fundraising rules, emphasizing that Rule 1 determines the rest of the fundraising process. He instructs founders to first identify the market they operate in and then decide whether their round will be priced based on "pedigree" (the founder’s or team’s reputation) or on "proof" (tangible achievements). If the round is priced on pedigree, Eisen advises drafting a single concise sentence that names a concrete prior result—such as a shipped product, a built team, or an acquired company—complete with the relevant name and date. This statement serves as the core narrative for the pitch deck before any other slides are created.

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Now let's go through the 5 fundraising rules one by one. Fundraising rule 1 decides everything else in your race. Fundraising rule 1: Know which market you are in. Before you write a single slide, decide whether your round will be priced on pedigree or on proof. If it's pedigree, write one sentence naming the prior result your investor would be backing: the product you shipped, the team you built, the company that was acquired, with a name and a date.