you know more than you think.
one of the biggest challenges with raising money for founders is that they need to switch from the product conversation to the business conversation. here’s what it means:
when you’re talking to your customer, you’re selling the product you’ve built: its features, pain points it closes, and why it’s such a great match for the customer. this is how you close the deal.
now, when you’re talking to a potential investor, your product is only a fraction of a broader thing they are interested in - your business. so that means that now it’s a chunk of your business that you’re selling for $$ of equity.
and to go from selling your product to customers to selling your business to investors is not as easy as it might seem.
here’s an exercise to help you do just that. I’ve gathered 7 most prominent product-building first principles and offered a mirroring option for every single one of them to help you think from investors’ perspective. let’s crack on:
1. time-to-value < 60 sec by Brian Balfour (Reforge)
how to apply for a customer:
a new user must see their first real draft/output within one minute of sign-up → ruthless step-count audits on every flow.
how to apply for an investor:
no one cares about your work more than you do. that’s for now. your job is to turn investors from strangers to someone who’s very bullish on your success. and you don’t have all the time in the world: investors skim through the decks and you only get about 2-3 minutes to drop an attention bomb to win their attention.
actionable: figure out what your leverage / unique POV / biggest flex is → introduce it early.
2. one dominant action per screen by Luke Wroblewski (Google)
how to apply for a customer:
each page surfaces a single primary CTA. secondary links move to overflow menus to eliminate cognitive stall.
how to apply for an investor:
one slide = one idea. one meeting = one main agenda point. one action = one targeted outcome.
actionable: let’s take a look at it with the funnel you lead investors through:
cold email → direct contact/response (not investment)
first response → intro call booked (not pitch)
intro call → full pitch meeting (not due diligence)
pitch meeting → due diligence (not term sheet)
due diligence → term sheet (not closed deal)
term sheet → signed deal (finally!)
3. familiar patterns, signature flourish by Brian Chesky (Airbnb)
how to apply for a customer:
core controls mimic OS + channel norms (sliders, badges) so users never relearn basics; layer a subtle gradient + tasteful motion for brand "wow."
how to apply for an investor:
one of the biggest no-go for the early stage is “we are building a new category”. the reason for it: it’s way too pricy and you probably won’t have the resources just yet. so, the job when you’re early, is to put yourself into a clear, easy to understand existing category and expand from there. same goes for a clear business model. same goes for a clear ICP. simple answers for fundamental questions.
4. progressive disclosure by Don Norman (The Design Lab)
how to apply for a customer:
beginner mode shows only objects the user can act on today. advanced settings unfold contextually as confidence grows.
how to apply for an investor:
there’s a huge gap between what you know as a founder (months and years of building your product) and what investors know about it. the job is to close that gap, building the context gradually. can you start with the “here’s our traction for the last three months with 40% MoM growth?” yes, absolutely. just make sure that you’ll provide the background and story of how you got there and why it’s a repeatable playbook.
5. activation over acquisition by Sean Ellis (Dropbox)
how to apply for a customer:
don't scale paid/organic acquisition until 40%+ of new users hit the "aha" event within session one. fixing leaky activation is cheaper than buying more leaky traffic.
how to apply for an investor:
don’t drop the ball when building investor pipeline and relations: vigorous follow-ups are your bread and butter. if you have a lot of first meetings and intro calls, but none of them move further, fix the conversion issue before you target more investors: it might be your positioning, narrative, numbers, projections, etc. find the issue → fix it → add people to the top of the funnel.
6. remove steps, don't add guidance by Julie Zhuo (Facebook)
how to apply for a customer:
when users get stuck, the fix is usually deleting a step or field, not adding a tooltip explaining it. tooltips are a tax on a design that should've been simpler.
how to apply for an investor:
appendix #16 won’t save your deck and pitch if the value wasn’t obvious by slide 4. same for the data room, same for the meeting. trim everything to 2-3 minutes and only add things back if they instantly sell your case.
7. narrow the wedge, then expand by Peter Thiel (PayPal)
how to apply for a customer:
ship for one specific use case or segment first (a "wedge"), dominate it, then widen. trying to serve everyone at launch dilutes the aha moment.
how to apply for an investor:
make sure you’re serving a huge market so the opportunity is massive. make sure you’re starting with the slimmest slice of that pie so you have a solid plan on how to win it. a small wedge inside a big market beats a big wedge inside a small one.
my point is simple: you’re already building - make it count. bringing ideas from other areas is helpful not only to move things forward, but also not to feel like a total newbie in everything you do. find something similar you’ve done before → adjust the learnings to the current task → move forward faster.
you’ve got it!