Naseem SayaniInvestor | Innovator | Ecosystem Builder | Board Director

“People kept handing me airplane parts. But I was building a rocket ship.” #femalefounders

Name: “People kept handing me airplane parts. But I was building a rocket ship.” #femalefounders
Uploaded: 2026-04-08T14:15:08+00:00
Duration: 1 min 4 s
Channel: Naseem Sayani
Description: In this monologue, the speaker—a female founder—reflects on the barrage of discouraging opinions she received while fundraising. She recounts how many…

8 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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1:04

In this monologue, the speaker—a female founder—reflects on the barrage of discouraging opinions she received while fundraising. She recounts how many male founders publicly warned her not to aim too high, warned that she wouldn’t secure a half‑million‑dollar round if she didn’t close quickly, and dismissed her venture as unrealistic. Despite continuing meetings with investors, she emphasizes that a key skill for women founders is learning to sift through this external noise, identifying the truthful, actionable feedback while discarding the persistent naysayers. The talk underscores the constant presence of skeptics and the need for resilience and discernment during the fundraising journey.

Chapters

Another thing that I have had to process was outside voices and, you know, how much weight do you give to other people's voices? So during the fundraise, there are a lot of male founders who are quite outspoken about the situation that I found myself in. There she goes, the girl raising the super seed. Don't fly too high to the sun. If you can't close this in the next 30 to 60 days when you're the flavor of the month, you won't be able to raise half a million dollars. People like you don't get money from people like them. You are foolish to think this would ever go through. People have discounted the seat I was in. Oh, it was never real. You should have never believed it. It was never going to happen. All of those things, even though I've continued to meet with those investors. But I think one of the greatest things that you have to learn to discern as a female founder is how to cut through the noise, how to take what's true and apply that to yourself, and how to throw off the rest and the naysayers, right? There will always, always, always be naysayers.