I decided to turn my thread into a medium article I just published How Desperation Drove Me to Use Twitter to take 1,128 Meetings to Raise the First $3M of RareBreed… link.medium.com/mLN89B4Jgqb

I invest in startups, but I also spend a lot of time helping founders across the Africa tech ecosystem raise capital. That means sitting with them for hours, dissecting their businesses, understanding where things are working, and where they’re not. One thing I believe in most: customer satisfaction has to be a primary focus. At the earliest stages, it’s easy to get pulled in many directions (fundraising, sales, hiring, partnerships). But if customer satisfaction slips, retention weakens. And without retention, it becomes much harder to build a durable business. Keep your head down and phase growth carefully. Focus on onboarding customers at a pace you can support, until your earliest users can genuinely vouch for the value you’re delivering. That focus can change the trajectory of a company. With enough runway, it gives you the chance to iterate, strengthen the product, and build real proof points. In some cases, it can move you from depending on the next fundraise to building a profitable business. In others, it gives you the foundation to raise again from a much stronger position. At the earliest stage, the work is simple, even if it isn’t easy: listen closely, iterate based on feedback, and fix what matters most. And especially in fintech, don’t wait too long to think about compliance. Prioritize it early enough to avoid regulatory bottlenecks that can slow growth later. Many of us are working toward the same goal: building stronger companies that can strengthen Africa’s economic future. Let’s keep doing the work.

Investors can tell when a founder is winging their pitch. Not because the slides are wrong but because the founder hasn’t internalized the story behind the numbers. Practice until the KPIs and narrative are second nature. The real exercise is understanding why your company is uniquely positioned to win: what you know about the market, product, and customer that others don’t. When you truly understand that, the room can feel it.

I recently read another Medium article about you and I must say your personal story is so impressive! I imagine it's quite rare that such altruism aligns with VC work. You are a diamond in the rough! This was it, btw: medium.com/swlh/emerging-man…

Storytelling matters when raising capital. Investors want not only a good story... but also a coherent one. The strongest narratives are backed by facts, figures, and evidence that hold up under diligence. A good story gets attention. A durable story survives scrutiny. That’s the difference between interest and conviction.

I’ve read so many thoughtful critiques of the current state of venture written by GPs and many of them are so good and so well written. And almost none of them map in any way to the conversations I have with LPs or their concerns about how the VC industry works or doesn’t work from an LP perspective. It feels right but very disconnected from how allocators see things.

What if AI could make you more thoughtful? At Dex, we’re building the best-in-class AI assistant for your personal and professional relationships. Built for you to be more present, keep context, and show up consistently.

I miss when pitch emails were bad in a human way. Now so many are just prompts with a send button. At this point, just send me the prompt. It’d be more honest.

Venture capital involves the daily practice of envisioning the future And supporting the ideas that can bring it to life

Everyday is an opportunity to reset

There is so much untapped talent in Africa. I recently met an exceptional young man who chose not to go to college, leveraged @YouTube to learn viral digital marketing, grew several @tiktok_us pages to hundreds of thousands of followers, has nearly 1B views across his channels, and is monetizing. He’s achieved this despite the realities of building in Africa: - Patchy electricity and internet access - Limited resources to build tech skills from an early age - Few mentors and advisors to accelerate his trajectory He's self made. I’m watching talents like this closely. Diamonds in the rough who don’t get the same access simply because of their environment. What makes this man special is that he refuses to give up. He has all the makings of a great founder. We need more incubators fit to develop talents like him.

Nothing is impossible to the person who backs desire with enduring faith

Get to the KPIs that showcase your market advantage when pitching as quickly as possible That's what the investor cares about the most 30 minutes goes by fast Use it to win the sale

Diligence means combing through a business in detail: financial model, bank trails, contracts, and day-to-day operations. Early stage deal rooms aren't perfect, but should display rigor. Some red flags: Financial Model: Projections are not enough. Map driver-based unit economics for each revenue stream and the steps to profitability. Market Sizing: TAM/SAM/SOM must be sourced, defensible, and tied to how you actually sell. Domain Expertise: Leadership must have the domain depth to win the core market. If possible, avoid bloating the org with non-core, expensive roles at the early stage. Rigor is a competitive advantage. Show the work that makes the business durable.

ATTENTION FOUNDERS: An early-stage VC is spelling out what you need to provide in your startup's Financials. No Excuses After This!

Most progress in building doesn’t come from big wins. It comes from continuous systems iteration until things don't break. Every fix compounds. Every cleaner process adds capacity. If you keep reducing friction, growth becomes inevitable.

I wonder, in all sincerity, if a growth opportunity is jiu jitsu schools. here's why: I have to brain my daughter's hair for jj and it's bad. it's a legit problem in schools, and a loose ponytail is still more risky. tight braids, usually two interlocking ones, are ideal. idk if the robot is fine-tuned to a certain hair type but from a mechanics standpoint, assuming the intended market needs n braids per foot of hair, in martial arts schools, it would only be n/4 roughly braids, so the time would probably scale similarly. in any case, really cool!

Hair braiding robot is ambitious. I love it.

Another @RarebreedVC founder doing RareBreed things. Shootout to Yinka founder of @Halobraid. Proud to be one of her first investors back in 2023. Black women are amazing BTW youtu.be/kxF_z29R1IQ?si=L-JT…

1/15 Talking about decks yesterday I figured it was worth putting down what I look for in a deck -Intro -Problem -Solution -Market Size -Business Model -Traction -Pipeline -3-5 Year Projections -Go-to-Market Strategy -Competition -Team -Ask -Closing #vc #startup #funding #pitch

How do you go from raising $30K to $4.2M? On tomorrows @Velocityhq_ fireside chat, @tushgeek (Kelvin, CEO @getbumpa) will walk us through how he: → Landed his first investor → Closed a $4M round → Built from Nigeria to 60K merchants RSVP: luma.com/0w5c5oiy