I got through this whole thing and I still can't figure out what "the big lie" is. That it's hard to get funded as a first-time founder? No shit. In the post-YC era it seems pretty close to impossible to close a round with a professional VC firm without first having done some kind of syndicated, social-proof-collecting round of angel investors --- so if that's seriously what you were playing with doing, I automatical…
I think the “big lie” the article is talking about is that venture funding is largely meritocratic rather than largely class/pedigree based: > unless you come from money, attended a prestigious university in the States or sold your previous startups for a lot of money, you should assume that you’re never going to raise early-stage capital. Not sure where the author got the idea that it’s meritocratic, but that’s what…
But yeah, if you don't have some combination of traction and pitching skills, you better have something else going for you. If you don't, you're definitely better off focusing on traction (merit) than trying to play the decidedly not merit-based game of pitching VCs on vaporware.