"Start with angels who like you as a person and want to help you as a person... that kind of gives you a baseline, and then go to lower-tier funds who can also kind of help give you a pat on the back... as you build up a base and have momentum on the fundraise, that's when you kind of go to the big funds you want to talk to."

"Don't lie about stuff, don't over-represent stuff. Something I've actually had, just like, I'm done, I'm not gonna talk to them again."

"You shouldn't over-represent another investor's interests. You shouldn't make false deadlines unless you have a way to enforce them. You shouldn't act arrogant. I see a lot of first-time founders try to act like, 'oh yeah, if you miss out on this, you're stupid.' People will just think you don't know what you're talking about. So yeah, don't do that. Just be kind."

"In this space, like the hard-tech space, I know very often with these investors and they talk about who they're talking to. If I bring somebody up and say this was a bad experience, like, yeah, I don't want to talk to them. We all know each other very well in the industry. We're sharing stuff together. Founders have to understand that."

"What we like to see is someone very young, very technical, deep in touch with a particular problem, and that drives them to want to create this solution. There's usually some deeper reason behind it, whether it's a family connection or a deep value that drives them to solve the problem they're focusing on."