[cjoh]

Fundraising is hard, for sure. You know what's harder? Having investors want to meet with you, and taking your meeting, not because they see value in your business, but because they want to fuck you.

Can you imagine how infuriating that must be as an entrepreneur? Imagine that there's a 50/50 shot that, every time you have a meeting with someone, they're just stringing you along so that they have the opportunity to fuck you and have zero interest in actually investing. You'd be outraged not only on the creep-factor, but also just the complete waste of time. Moreover, these same people trying to fuck you are also investing in actively shittier companies than you run.

As people are trying to "focus on growth" every single one of these meeting invites for investors could be a huge waste of time, and that alone is cause for outrage. Take the sex out of it -- imagine that for every investor you pitched, 50% of the time the investor stood you up. That's the baseline of what's happening here: the investor isn't showing; in his place is also a dirtbag. That's a really hard fundraising environment.

The only thing I can critique this woman on is why she's not more upset, and why she's not publishing a list of names.

[dantillberg]

Yes, this. You wrote what I tried to write in another comment and you wrote it better. Thank you.

As for other replies suggesting that 50/50 is an outrageous estimate, I think it can easily be even worse than that -- the fraction of investors potentially interested in making a deal with your business is very small (5%? 1%?), so it doesn't take many folks pretending to be interested to swing the balance, and those folks will also have a tendency to gravitate toward you at fundraising events, since they can clearly identify their target by appearance alone (i.e. "oh there's a pretty young woman, I should go say hello").

And yes, each of those interactions is perfectly legal (we'd all be condemning in chorus if there were groping or assault involved), and perfectly fine in isolation, but en masse they create a lot of extra work for the entrepreneur. Put in other words, at the micro level, these interactions are fine -- one or two people inviting you for a date could be lovely, or at least tolerable; but at the macro level, the combination of a large number of these isolated interactions creates an onerous and hostile environment.

[minot]

> they're just stringing you along

How is it worse than people meeting you so they can steal technical details about your product? Of course, it is a difficult environment. The question is what can we do to make it better for everyone and not just for women?

Of course, there will always be people out there trying to waste your time. I just don't get what the product's plan is for a hockey stick growth. I need to understand that in about thirty seconds. I couldn't by looking at the website.

[cjoh]

> How is it worse than people meeting you so they can steal technical details about your product?

It's not. It's in addition to.

[facepalm]

Being attractive must be very hard. Men (especially the ones in IT) are so lucky that few of them will ever have to experience that affliction.

[GordonS]

I'm sorry, but to suggest that it's 50/50 whether potential investors are only meeting you to bone you is just ludicrous. I find that quite insulting.

You come across as sexist, and with a chip on your shoulder that big (and an ego to match), I certainly wouldn't want to invest in you.

[ryanx435]

I wouldn't want to invest in them eitger, mostly because of the massive victim complex they have.

[cjoh]

You're right, it is just ludicrous.

[woah]

What do you base your assessment on?

[GordonS]

I base this 'assessment' on the fact that not all men are unprofessional, drooling apes.

[DanBC]

But you are a man and so you don't get to see the vast amounts of sexist unprofessional behaviour that women have to put up with.

[GordonS]

Regardless of my gender, I also know that not every man is a sexist bastard hell-bent on shagging every woman he meets.

I really do find it ridiculous and offensive (slanderous, even) to suggest that all men (or 50% of men; it's not clear it the OP meant 50% of people or 50% of men) are like that.

[ryanx435]

just wanted to let you know that I agree. and I'm also sick of being blamed for a small minority of other men's actions.

cheers, mate