One of the hardest parts of starting a company isn’t building the product. It isn’t hiring people. It isn’t even convincing customers to take a chance on something they’ve never seen before. It’s raising money. If you’ve ever dated, you already know the feeling. You put your best foot forward, hope that special someone sees the potential, and more often than not, you hear, “No thanks.” This reminded me of my high school years. My friends started calling me “Bedspread” because I’ve been turned down so many times. I don’t say that bitterly – I say it because it still makes me laugh. And for the record, I can assure you , I ended up outkicking my coverage on that front so no need to worry.
However, I realized somewhere along the way, I had to quit taking it personally, or I would have crumbled. Every “No” taught me something and I tailored my pitch. Some attempts taught me to simplify, some taught me to explain better, some taught me to be more patient and some simply reminded me that timing matters. After each one, I’d pick myself up, dust myself off, showing up to the next a little bit better than the last. Looking back, I wouldn’t erase a single one of those conversations. Every rejection helped me sharpen my thinking, refine my story, discover what really mattered (just ask my wife), and ultimately build a better company. Eventually, I stopped hearing rejections and started listening for the lesson.
But the most important lesson didn’t come from meeting with investors -It wasn’t our technology or our pitch deck. It was something far more important: the privilege of having customers who believe in us. As we worked through the fundraising process, potential investors wanted to talk with the people actually using our system. And many of you didn’t just take a call – you stepped up. You shared your story, answered difficult questions, talked about the problems we solved together, and became our biggest advocates. There isn’t a PowerPoint slide in the world that carries as much weight as a farmer looking an investor in the eye and saying, “This actually works.”
You trusted a small startup when there were plenty of reasons not to. Then, when it mattered most, you trusted us again by telling our story better than we ever could. For that, I simply want to say thank you.
For the first time in a long time, “Bedspread” is taken.