My Experience Not Raising Money for my Startup Part 4

This is a continuation of a series on bringing an app to life, from nothing to something. Read the last episode Part 3 on how to build an app without knowing how to code.

The most dreaded task for most startup entrepreneurs is raising money. It’s a lengthy and emotionally-draining process. Before I go any further, let me be upfront and share I did not raise any money for my company other than a small check from my family.

I did, however, meet with a few top-tier VC’s and a couple dozen or so angel investors when I was focused on fundraising so I will share what I learned from those meetings, my readings and conversations with other entrepreneurs.

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My first meeting with an angel investor came about through a poker game. It was an event for startup founders and techies to play poker and network. It was a good connection as he was an investor in the company I had worked for. We setup a time to meet and things went… decently well, I thought. We met at a Starbucks in Mercer Island. Below is our interaction, with his only response in the bottom left-hand side of the page.

Ghosted.

Although I had worked in sales and been rejected by hundreds and even thousands of people before, this was a whole sort of sunken place to be ghosted by…