1. The experience imbalance. VCs do pitch meetings every day for years on end. Founders, not so much. No wonder the expectations mismatch.
2. Wildly unpredictable outcomes. Early stage fundraising is more like working a fuzzy strategic partnership than applying for a loan. The same inputs probably don't produce the same outputs.
We do "funding for bootstrappers" so most founders that work with us don't really plan on needing to raise more capital (it's not prohibited or anything, just not Plan A). So we and they don't really care about how "good" they are at playing the game of pitching.
Has this been much of a choice? I figure most tech founders either get on the VC track or don't get to have a company.
"Funding for bootstrappers" seems like a relatively new concept. Good to see another option!
VC is ostensibly generally accessible. Even accelerators like YC are VC-track.
On the other side, I see many many founders essentially twist their business plan into something VCs want to see because accelerators/VCs are the only source of capital for early stage tech companies.
Funds like Earnest trying to change that.