Misaligned investors can quietly distort decision-making long before metrics break. In some of the work around Growth Motions with Agritech and climate startups, that alignment piece tends to show up as a bigger determinant of long-term outcomes than initial valuation.
Hence the importance of making sure you, as Founder, have a values match with any potential investor.
Like a female Founder client of mine, who walked away from a funding deal when the VC partner reached out to her CTO privately and said that they'd get the funding if they "ditched the Alpha Female b*tch in charge"...
I am currently thinking about how to finance the prototype development out our farming robot (HW development very close to research and quite far from customer value). I think we will need investor money in addition to funds. This article names a lot of the reasons why Iām reluctant to do so. Thanks for confirming my thought are real āŗļø
That sounds like the exact kind of tradeoff founders run into.
The tension is real.
If youāre planning on fundraising, this might be useful.
Weāve recently launched Frontier Deal Flow.
Itās a monthly curated database connecting high-quality companies with thousands of investors, including angels, VCs, family offices, and institutional funds.
The goal is simple: cut through the noise and get the right companies in front of the right investors.
Yes.What Iāve noticed is that sustainability in systems isnāt driven by motivation itās driven by irreducible problem alignment. When the problem stays compelling, the loop maintains itself without external forcing.
Strong framing of fundraising as a tool, not a milestone.
Iāve seen teams optimise for the signal of raising, then burn the runway and take-off speed it was meant to buy.
I'm curious where you think the tipping point is, when capital starts distorting decisions rather than accelerating them?
I think it starts when the round becomes the goal instead of the next step
Misaligned investors can quietly distort decision-making long before metrics break. In some of the work around Growth Motions with Agritech and climate startups, that alignment piece tends to show up as a bigger determinant of long-term outcomes than initial valuation.
Alignment can save you a lot of pain later, even if the valuation looks good on day one
Hence the importance of making sure you, as Founder, have a values match with any potential investor.
Like a female Founder client of mine, who walked away from a funding deal when the VC partner reached out to her CTO privately and said that they'd get the funding if they "ditched the Alpha Female b*tch in charge"...
The founders who treat a closed round as the win usually find out quickly it wasn't.
100 percent. The round is just the start. The work starts after that
"frontier deal flow" š
Glad that stood out š
I am currently thinking about how to finance the prototype development out our farming robot (HW development very close to research and quite far from customer value). I think we will need investor money in addition to funds. This article names a lot of the reasons why Iām reluctant to do so. Thanks for confirming my thought are real āŗļø
That sounds like the exact kind of tradeoff founders run into.
The tension is real.
If youāre planning on fundraising, this might be useful.
Weāve recently launched Frontier Deal Flow.
Itās a monthly curated database connecting high-quality companies with thousands of investors, including angels, VCs, family offices, and institutional funds.
The goal is simple: cut through the noise and get the right companies in front of the right investors.
You can check it out here: https://www.22ndcenturyfrontier.com/p/frontier-deal-flow
If youād like to be considered for the next issue, you can submit your company here (submissions are completely free): https://dimovzp.wixforms.com/f/7438271976927396931
Yes.What Iāve noticed is that sustainability in systems isnāt driven by motivation itās driven by irreducible problem alignment. When the problem stays compelling, the loop maintains itself without external forcing.