being technical won't get you funded.
being commercial won't get you funded either.
the product is still early, you are still trying to verify the market, you’re probably pre-revenue or at early revenue with no predictable scaling model. how do investors know whether to invest in your startup? well, it’s not the product they evaluate, it’s you as a founder / a founding team:
1. the builder
usually engineers or product-first founders. they start the company because they discovered a pain worth solving - quite often from their personal experience. which is a great thing, btw.
strengths:
- ships quickly and regularly - that’s the most enjoyable part
- strong product intuition + believes that it’s faster to ship and validate than validate before shipping
- high technical credibility - can build before hiring
weaknesses:
- underestimates distribution - ‘ build it and they will come’ is a bit 2010
- delays customer conversations to avoid an uncomfortable ‘well, that’s not really what I use daily’
- assumes product wins by itself, allocates too little time and $$ budget for all things GTM
how to mitigate:
- find a co-founder or plan to hire commercial partner / talent early
- weekly / daily customer calls
- a lot of GTM experiments from day 1 → build GTM discipline before scaling
2. the seller
sales, GTM and/or commercial founder.
strengths:
- gets customers early, sometimes before the product is built
- finds and understands pain points
- raises money well and recruits effectively when the time comes
weaknesses:
- technical product debt as it’s not their sweet spot to work on
- overpromising to close the deal (leads to product debt afterwards)
- fast scaling before true product-market fit
how to mitigate:
- strong technical co-founder from day 1, no vibe-coding shenanigans
- ruthless product prioritization and time allocation
- metrics alongside storytelling - not vanity metrics like # of impressions, but real ones
3. the domain expert
“15+ years in healthcare” (climate, fintech, defense, manufacturing, and other specialized industries).
strengths:
- deep first-hand customer insight
- industry credibility and strong network
- knows hidden problems and probably had been trying to resolve them already
weaknesses:
- too attached to industry norms - ‘we’ve always done it this way’
- incremental thinking that leads to slow experimentation and therefore slow progress
how to mitigate:
- hire outsiders to move faster than incumbents
- validate assumptions early and actively try to disprove them
4. the repeat founder
with successful exits in a similar business model / markets.
strengths:
- strong pattern recognition = steeper learning curve
- fundraising credibility if exited
- knows what matters in different business domains = achieves the results faster and more effectively than the first-time founder
weaknesses:
- overconfidence without adjusting to market changes
- assuming every company scales similarly
how to mitigate:
- treat each market as completely new, each starting point as new as well (same market in 2020 and 2026 = different market)
- stay close to customers, stay humble when listening to them
- question previous assumptions, try to actively disprove them
5. the visionary
charismatic, futuristic, sells the idea of tomorrow and ‘this is what’s about to change’.
strengths:
- inspires the team and attracts investors with their vision
- sets ambitious direction even if it’s not on the map for most of people for now
- thinks in decades
weaknesses:
- weak operational execution, often weak structures (idea is there, but not the plan of how to get there)
- constant pivots, as every new idea is shinier than the previous one
how to mitigate:
- exceptional operators around them
- strong accountability, e.g. clear quarterly goals + aligned incentives to achieve them
6. the operator
meticulous, precise, and execution-focused. believes that anything can be achieved with a solid approach and effort. doesn’t rely on luck.
strengths:
- reliable and consistent, process-oriented
- excellent at scaling, spots the gaps instantly because of their precise attention
- financial, legal, compliance discipline
weaknesses:
- conservative = misses breakout opportunities
- optimizes too early, doesn’t leave room for accidental discovery
how to mitigate:
- protect time for exploration, don’t see it as a waste + separate scaling from discovery
- encourage calculated risk, allocate e.g. 5% of time and/or budget for it
7. the scientist / research founder
especially common in ai, healthtech, biotech, and deep tech.
strengths:
- novel technology = defensible ip
- a strong technical moat (not a lot left across the current markets)
weaknesses:
- technology looking for a market, in other words, ‘I’ll find a problem for my solution’ or ‘everything is a nail for a man with a hammer’
- academic pace = might be too slow to win over competition
- commercial side of building the startup is not their strongest part - has to learn to keep up
how to mitigate:
- customer discovery and alignment from day one
- commercial co-founder
- market milestones alongside technical ones, with real milestones
you read and it seems like a few categories are applicable to you? right you are. that’s because we people are quite complex creatures and you can’t put anyone into one of the 7 boxes - that’s a usual problem with any classifying attempt.
instead of trying to pick one category, pick a few that apply for your case, and use your strengths + mitigate the risks to get where you want to be.
and to give you a bit more food for thought, here’s a list of semi-serious patterns investors run from as if that were plague:
→ the know-it-all: never changes their mind despite evidence.
→ the storyteller without proof: excellent pitch, little execution, multiple pivots.
→ the lone wolf: refuses to delegate or hire people stronger than themselves.
→ the mercenary: chases whatever market is hot rather than solving a problem they deeply understand.
→ the victim: believes every failure is someone else's fault.
→ the ethical risk: misrepresents metrics, customers, technology, or financials.
many investors say they can work with almost any weakness except integrity issues, but then there are things that aren’t said out loud.