Important tip for international founders who have recently relocated to SF and are looking to build their networks here for customers & fundraising:
As you meet new people, it’s important to have an abstracted-out, 10-20 second mission pitch that clearly outlines “why should anyone care?”.
More than market analysis, facts & data, this pitch should have a strong underlying emotion that can immediately connect with someone who might have an overlapping world view.
There is immense noise in the Valley right now, and every space/ vertical has tens of startups going after it. All pitches sound similar, most founders have similar backgrounds, and all content looks the same.
Breaking through this clutter is hard, especially for folks who don’t have a high-signal, prior track record in the Bay Area.
In these cases, dialing up the personal authenticity quotient big time, and having a clear “Mission-Pitch” with a strong emotional pull can be extremely helpful in winning over new relationships.
In an ecosystem where every decent startup is flush with capital and early traction, founders need to 1) go deep, 2) go sharp, and 3) manage the psychology of market participants in order to stand out.
