“I go through decks in less than 30 seconds. Bing. Bang. Boom. Done.”
That’s the reality most founders don’t internalize.
Investors aren’t sitting there trying to convince themselves to like your company. They’re looking for reasons to pass, and they don’t need many.
Elizabeth at Hustle Fund operates on a principle more founders should understand:
Investors are not obligated to force conviction.
And in today’s market (especially in AI) that principle is unforgiving.
1️⃣ Build something that looks impressive… but isn’t defensible
This is the fastest way to lose a VC right now.
On the surface, your product feels exciting. Clean UI. AI-powered. Maybe even some early traction.
But underneath?
❎ The tech is widely accessible
❎ The differentiation is thin
❎ The moat is unclear (or nonexistent)
Welcome to the current AI landscape.
A lot of founders are building in categories where the underlying capability is already commoditized. That means your edge disappears the moment someone else decides to care. Pair that with inflated valuations and real compute costs eating into margins…
…and now you’re asking a VC to pay a premium for a business with weak, long-term defensibility.
Hard pass.
2️⃣ Rely on hype instead of discipline
Hot market ≠ good investment.
Elizabeth’s stance is simple, and most people don’t like it: dry spells are fine. Passing is fine. Saying no is often the smartest move.
But founders often build as if capital needs to be deployed.
It doesn’t.
If your pitch leans on:
❎ “This space is exploding”
❎ “Everyone is investing in this”
❎ “We’re early in a massive wave”
You’re not building conviction, you’re outsourcing it. And disciplined investors don’t chase waves, they diligence for clarity.
3️⃣ Choose easy markets over hard ones
Here’s the contrarian edge most founders miss:
If it’s easy to enter, it’s easy to lose. The opportunities that still get investors’ attention?
They’re harder.
✅ Verticalized AI in specific industries
✅ Complex workflows
✅ Operational friction
✅ Even hardware constraints
Why? Because friction creates a filter. If your business requires real effort to break into (deep industry knowledge, difficult sales cycles, non-obvious distribution) you’re not just building a product, you’re building a strong moat.
And the best companies don’t just enter markets, they close the door behind them.
4️⃣ Ignore where the real leverage is forming
Not all opportunity is at the application layer. Some of the most compelling bets right now sit underneath:
AI infrastructure.
We’re still early in parts of the stack:
💡 Agent-native tooling
💡 Communication layers
💡 Payment rails
💡 Interfaces built specifically for AI systems
This is foundational territory, and while infrastructure can commoditize over time, we’re not fully there yet, which means there’s still room to capture real market share.
If your pitch ignores where the ecosystem is actually evolving, it signals shallow thinking, and that gets filtered out quickly.
5️⃣ Be smart… but slow
This one quietly kills deals, because intelligence is abundant and shipping velocity is rare.
Elizabeth doesn’t anchor on pedigree, she watches for teams that:
✅ Build quickly
✅ Iterate relentlessly
✅ Release consistently
In fast-moving markets, speed compounds. You don’t need to be first, but if you’re not fast, you’re irrelevant, especially in AI.
A team that ships can:
✅ Learn faster
✅ Adapt faster
✅ Outpace early leaders
Losing a VC isn’t dramatic. It doesn’t happen with a big “no” that founders sometimes make it out to be (as I spoke about in my last blog).
It happens in silence. In speed. In disinterest. Because good investors aren’t chasing excitement; they’re looking for clear defensibility, rational pricing, strong market entry and capture, and evidence of execution.
And if they don’t see it? They move on. Quickly.
Bing. Bang. Boom. Done.
If you’re scaling faster than your systems, I offer fractional Chief of Staff support to help founders and GPs/MDs regain execution momentum. Drop me a line 👩🏻💻🦸🏻♀️