Talking to 100+ founders changed how we think about fundraising (so we built a tool)

Over the last few months, we spoke 1:1 with 100+ founders: college students, first-time builders, repeat founders, and even a couple from Shark Tank.

What surprised us wasn’t how hard fundraising is. Everyone knows that.
It was why it’s hard.

Most first-time founders don’t fail at fundraising because their idea is bad. They fail because they don’t know:

• who is actually relevant to reach out to

• how investors think at the earliest stage

• whether they’re even “ready” to raise

That confusion creates a vacuum and it’s often filled by fundraising consultants. We repeatedly heard stories of founders paying large retainers, getting generic pitch decks or financial models, and signing vague success-fee agreements while still feeling lost.

As we spoke to more people, our thinking evolved. Instead of teaching founders to send better cold emails, what if we helped them avoid cold outreach altogether?

We noticed something interesting:
Founders almost always trust other founders more than platforms, lists, or consultants. Warm introductions especially through someone with a similar background or location change everything.

So we started building Capitall, an AI fundraising copilot that:

• helps founders identify the right investors

• finds founders who can actually make warm intros

• brings clarity to a process that’s usually opaque and stressful

We’re still early and learning fast. Would love feedback from this community:

• How did you raise your first round?

• What confused you most about fundraising?

• If you avoided consultants, how did you do it?

Happy to share learnings, mistakes, or numbers if that’s useful. Thanks for reading 🙌