Recently, I interviewed Rob Snyder, PMF expert, for my podcast. We dug into his method for accelerating product-market fit: stop pushing and start aligning with demand. Find the buyer who’s already looking for what you sell, show up where they look, and close the gap they can’t bridge alone.
Shortly thereafter, I spoke with a founder mid-raise. She’d done dozens of meetings that had “gone well”. But there were no follow ups, due diligence processes or any momentum.
As we talked, something Rob had said earlier popped into my head: If you’re not clear whose demand you’re serving, you’re not pulling, you’re pushing. That rarely works.
Was she stalling because her startup did not match the demand investors had for a specific type of startup investment opportunity?
I dug in to find out:
The PULL Method Applied to Fundraising
The first step of the PULL method starts with who you’re selling to.
#1: Who Are You Serving? Pick One Capital Customer
Many founders think that their raise strategy is articulating the money they need: “We’re raising $1 million,”. It’s not. Money is not generic. Different capital “buyers” have different jobs, constraints, clocks, and channels. Like with your product and your beachhead market, you have to narrow down to one customer to succeed. In the early stages, your most typical “buyers” are venture capital (VC) firms, angel investors or grant and mission funders.
Your choice impacts everything downstream about your raise: how much you’ll raise, terms, and of course, your ownership. It’s hard to serve more than one customer at a time early on.
#2: What’s Their Job to Be Done? Become the Obvious Vehicle
An investor or funder is looking to “hire” startups they fund to perform a specific “job” for them. VC’s, angels and grant funders want their money to perform very different jobs.
Your capital ask must fit the exact “job description” for their funding agenda. If your target buyer can’t explain in two sentences why you’re a great fit for the job to their “boss”, whether that’s an investment committee or their angel group, you’ve got work to do.
#3: Why Now? Align to the Buyer’s Urgency
In sales they say that “time kills all deals”. Also true in fundraising. You’re more likely to get funded if you strike when the iron is hot. What drives timing is different for different types of funders, but if you’re hearing, “We love the story but can’t move forward now”, it’s a clear sign that you have a timing problem.
#4: Where Are They Looking? Be Findable in Their Channels
Different buyers shop in different places for deals. Visibility is more important than volume in your hunt. If you’re struggling to get meetings, the issue is probably your channel, not your pitch.
#5: What Are They Lacking? Supply the “Wow” Factor
Most funders already have overflowing pipelines. They’re not looking for more deals, but fewer deals they actually like. To make the cut, you must offer a standout advantage they’re not seeing with other contenders for their money. This is the link most founders miss.
Designing PULL for YOUR Raise
So how does this apply to the round you’re NOW raising?
Here are three typical funder archetypes:
- Venture capital (VC): VC’s are professional buyers of high growth options. Each check must be the right Lego block in a portfolio built that will deliver big returns to limited partners. So your startup must be the best available fit with thesis, ownership and exit targets.
- Angels: These are belief buyers risking their personal wealth. They look for credible founders, meaningful problems, local or sector resonance, and coachability. Returns matter; but meaning matters too.
- Non-dilutive or impact funders: These funders are buying a mission. Grants, or programs that deploy capital to achieve measurable outcomes like R&D progress, public health, jobs, climate.They’re buying outcomes on which their funding depends.
The VC Playbook
- Job to Be Done: The VC’s job is to deploy LP capital into a portfolio that can credibly return 3- 5X the fund. To be “hired”, your startup must be the best vehicle within their thesis and ownership model they can bet on for huge growth and a credible path to a 5-7 year exit.
- Urgency: Your best chances are when they just raised a new fund because the clock has started ticking on their returns. The next best is when they have a clear gap in their portfolio, but this is harder for you to tell from the outside. Or you can be building in a “hot” sector and they need to get in on the trend.
- Channel: For VC’s, the ticket is warm introductions, portfolio founder referrals, trusted accelerators, curated demo days, and known ecosystems like research universities.For VC’s to find you, you must feel like a known and trusted quantity to someone in their network, or a participant in a credible startup program or accelerator, or referred by one of their portfolio CEO’s
- The “Wow” Factor: Groundbreaking technology, and a great team are usually table stakes. To stand out, growth and exit for your startup must feel inevitable. You do this with a vision of what “tomorrow” looks like when your product has transformed the world. When this seems obvious, you’re in the right zone.
Targeting Angels
- Job to be done: Angels want to make smart, meaningful bets where their experience and network add more than just money. To be “hired” show that you, the founder, are a great fit for your market, and solving a big problem with a compelling product, are coachable, and can be relied on to execute against a solid plan.
- Urgency: Angels move when they have had recent exits, have formed a new group, or created a fund. Look for signals that they’re actively investing, via application cycles, or through networking with group members, operating partners or managers.
- Channels: Angels look for quality deals from regional groups and syndicates, their network within the sector, and innovation hubs and events. Show up locally and thematically, and build credible advocates who can back you behind closed doors like respected industry experts or investor-mentors.
- The “Wow” Factor: Angels love a passionate, coachable founder with a compelling mission and a well-thought out plan to solve a big problem. It’s the combination of head and heart in the specific spaces they want to invest in – and most startups miss one or the other.
Working With Grant Providers and Mission Funders
- Job to be done: Grant and mission funders seek to achieve specific outcomes with accountability. To be “hired”, you must translate your market, technology and plan in terms of their target outcomes, metrics, timelines, and requirements.
- Urgency: Grant funders operate within tight budget and deployment windows. There may be a “use it or lose it” condition attached to funding. Watch program RFP calendars, policy shifts and performance deadlines for timing cues
- Channels: Mission funders rely on official portals, agency programs (NSF/NIH/DoD), industry consortia, university tech transfer offices, etc. Build familiarity with the right communities, programs and calendars. Translate your ask to their criteria and funding standards. Often, small details can kill the deal.
- The “Wow” Factor: The key is a sharply tailored, believable plan to achieve a specifically shaped outcome carefully designed to fit their requirements. So you must customize for each funder, which is more work. Pick your targets with care, or you’ll burn through time with no results.
How to Debug Your Raise
A quick look at this founder’s pipeline showed she was making a common mistake: selling to too many markets at once. She was targeting VC’s, angels, applying to grants, and spreading herself too thin. Other founders get the buyer right but struggle with downstream parts of the chain.
Here’s a simpler method to reverse engineer your raise:
- Which investment “buyer” are you optimizing for? Why is that the best fit for where you are, and who you are, right now?
- Can you articulate in 1-2 sentences how funding your startup will get their job done to their specifications?
- Can you stage why the timing is right for them to “buy” your startup funding opportunity?
- Are you showing up credibly and consistently in the channels they trust, with validators they believe?
- Does your story offer the one thing they rarely see in other competing applications for their money?
Start at the top, find the first broken link. Fix it, then test again.
The final test:
Rob Snyder likes to say the true test is when it would be “weird” for your buyer not to buy the thing you’re offering. Can you build your 5-step logic so it feels weird for your buyer not to buy?
