Cold Emails, Partner Meetings, and the Pitch Mistakes Founders Make | Charlie O’Donnell, VC Coach and Author of Founder Unfriendly

Charlie O’Donnell, 20-year VC turned VC coach and author of Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won’t Tell You About Getting Funded, joins Helena Fogarty on Inside the Fund to break down how venture capital decisions actually get made.

In this conversation, Charlie explains why most cold outreach fails, what makes an investor actually answer, and how founders should think about running a first pitch meeting like a sales conversation. We also get into what really happens when your company gets brought up in a partner meeting, why your idea has to survive the “game of telephone” inside a firm, and the deck mistake that causes founders to bury the most exciting part of their story.

One of Charlie’s clearest takeaways: “The narrative aspect of a pitch is something that most people miss. You are trying to convince somebody of something, not just present information objectively.”

Charlie O'Donnell

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceonyc/

https://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/

Helena Fogarty

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenafogarty/

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