u/Obridge_GmbH

I spent weeks on my pitch deck. I read about psychology, how people process information, what makes someone say yes. I worked on each page as if it was gold. The narrative, the flow, the data, everything had to be perfect. I even studied how VCs read decks so I could front load the most important stuff.

Then I sent it out. A few platforms connected me with investors. Some of them literally asked me to send it to them. So I did.

A few days later I checked Docsend. The average time spent on my deck was 19 to 25 seconds. Some of them opened it 10 seconds after asking me to send it. 19 seconds. For weeks of work. For something I poured everything into.

That was a huge disappointment. Not because I expected a yes from everyone but because I thought the work would at least be seen. It made me realize the format itself is broken. You cannot tell a founder's story in a PDF that someone skims in under half a minute.

Maybe that experience conflicted with what we are building now. Obridge is a platform where founders show who they are through short video pitches and live traction data instead of static decks nobody reads. Investors discover them through a feed built around their thesis.

The waitlist is open. I am not going to drop the link here because I am genuinely just sharing this and I do not want it to seem like self promotion. But if anyone is interested or wants early access just ask me for the link.

I spent weeks on my pitch deck. I read about psychology, how people process information, what makes someone say yes. I worked on each page as if it was gold. The narrative, the flow, the data, everything had to be perfect. I even studied how VCs read decks so I could front load the most important stuff.

Then I sent it out. A few platforms connected me with investors. Some of them literally asked me to send it to them. So I did.

A few days later I checked Docsend. The average time spent on my deck was 19 to 25 seconds. Some of them opened it 10 seconds after asking me to send it. 19 seconds. For weeks of work. For something I poured everything into.

That was a huge disappointment. Not because I expected a yes from everyone but because I thought the work would at least be seen. It made me realize the format itself is broken. You cannot tell a founder's story in a PDF that someone skims in under half a minute.

Maybe that experience conflicted with what we are building now. Obridge is a platform where founders show who they are through short video pitches and live traction data instead of static decks nobody reads. Investors discover them through a feed built around their thesis.

The waitlist is open. I am not going to drop the link here because I am genuinely just sharing this and I do not want it to seem like self promotion. But if anyone is interested or wants early access just ask me for the link.

I've spent the last 4 months reading every "fundraising thread" that crosses my feed. About 80% of it is recycled, and a lot of it is actively bad.

"Don't talk to investors until you have traction" — terrible advice for first-time founders. Without warm intros, the only way you get traction is to first build relationships with the people who'd help you build traction. That requires talking to them.

"Just ship and the rest will follow" — also wrong. Founders ship products into voids all the time. Distribution is harder than building.

"Your deck should be 10 slides" — meaningless. The number of slides isn't the variable. The narrative is.

"Investors invest in lines, not dots" — repeated by every operator-turned-VC. True for follow-on rounds. Useless at pre-seed where you have ONE dot.

The actual advice that helped me:

• Cold outreach works if you're specific and brief. Generic warm-intro maximalism is for people who already have warm intros.
• The deck is a downstream effect of your conviction. Fix the conviction, the deck follows.
• Ghosting is structural, not personal. Don't optimize for not getting ghosted.
• Most VCs aren't smart. They got there first. Internalize this and stop being intimidated.

What's the worst piece of pre-seed advice you've gotten? Honestly curious.

Most investor passes are useless feedback ("not the right fit," "interesting but too early"). But occasionally one of them gives you something real.

The most useful pass I got: an angel who said "your problem statement is right, but you're describing a feature, not a company. The feature might be true but the company isn't defensible yet. Come back when you can answer 'why is this a $1B business' in one sentence."

That sentence sat in my head for 6 weeks. I rewrote my entire thesis around it. The pass was more valuable than 2 soft commitments I got later.

What's the most useful thing an investor ever said to you, even when they passed? Drop it below. Trying to build a collective wisdom doc for first-time founders.

Sharing this because I couldn't find real benchmarks anywhere when I was starting.

90 days, first-time founder. Pre-seed. No prior network in venture.

• Cold emails sent: 187
• Replies: 23 (12.3%)
• Meetings booked from cold: 11 (5.9%)
• X DMs sent: 64
• Replies: 14 (21.9%)
• Meetings from X: 6
• Warm intros requested: 28
• Warm intros received: 5
• Meetings from warm intros: 2
• Total meetings: 18
• Soft commits: 2
• Closed: 0 (yet)

Things I learned that nobody told me:

1. X beats email at every stage of the funnel for me. Reply rate is 2x. Meeting rate is comparable. Most founders I know default to email and underuse LinkedIn or X.
2. Warm intros convert higher per meeting (~80% to a follow-up) but the volume is so low that cold actually generated more total meetings.
3. The bottleneck isn't outreach volume. It's getting from "had a great meeting" to "next step." That conversion is brutal — about 15% in my data.
4. Investor "ghosting" isn't personal. It's structural. They take 50 meetings to make 2 investments. Most of us are noise to them.

Anyone else tracking this stuff? Would love to compare notes.

Sharing this because I couldn't find real benchmarks anywhere when I was starting.

90 days, first-time founder. Pre-seed. No prior network in venture.

• Cold emails sent: 187
• Replies: 23 (12.3%)
• Meetings booked from cold: 11 (5.9%)
• X DMs sent: 64
• Replies: 14 (21.9%)
• Meetings from X: 6
• Warm intros requested: 28
• Warm intros received: 5
• Meetings from warm intros: 2
• Total meetings: 18
• Soft commits: 2
• Closed: 0 (yet)

Things I learned that nobody told me:

1. X beats email at every stage of the funnel for me. Reply rate is 2x. Meeting rate is comparable. Most founders I know default to email and underuse LinkedIn or X.
2. Warm intros convert higher per meeting (~80% to a follow-up) but the volume is so low that cold actually generated more total meetings.
3. The bottleneck isn't outreach volume. It's getting from "had a great meeting" to "next step." That conversion is brutal — about 15% in my data.
4. Investor "ghosting" isn't personal. It's structural. They take 50 meetings to make 2 investments. Most of us are noise to them.

Anyone else tracking this stuff? Would love to compare notes.

I'm a first-time founder and I've spent the last 4 months fundraising. 47 nos. Most of them silent, with investors who took the meeting, asked questions, said "we'll be in touch," then ghosted. Two of them gave actual reasons. The rest just disappeared.

I changed my deck three times during this. I had New slides, sharper financials and a better team page but one of it moved the needle.

The 48th meeting closed because of one thing I changed about me, not about the deck. I stopped opening with "here's what we're building" and started opening with "here's the moment I knew this had to exist." Investors don't actually buy products at pre-seed. They buy founders. And they decide if they're buying you in the first 90 seconds, before you've shown a single slide.

I think most pre-seed advice gets this wrong. Everyone tells you to optimize the deck. Nobody tells you that the deck is a downstream effect of your conviction in the room. If you can't make someone believe in the first 90 seconds, no slide will save you.

Curious, anyone else had a moment when the deck wasn't the problem? What was the actual fix?

Hey everyone! I'm Aurel, a founding moderator of r/PreseedFounders.

This is our new home for all things related to Pre-seed founders, fundraising, and investors. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post

Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about your founder journey: Wins and Losses, What you are working on, How you have raised funds. And do give advice to first-time founders if you are a very experienced founder.

Community Vibe

We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.

2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.

3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.

4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/PreseedFounders amazing.