FOR PRE-RAISE FOUNDERS
Sell Before You Build
Most founders follow this sequence:
I believe most should reverse it:
- Find the customer.
- Earn the commitment.
- Then build from a position of strength and raise only if it makes sense.
THE COLD START PROBLEM
Nothing exists yet. Sell it anyway.
Founders sell the future.
Operators sell what already exists.
Founders go first.
They sell the pilot before the product, the rights before the release, the company before the proof, and the round before the outcome is certain.
That does not mean lying.
It means finding the cheapest, most honest way to earn commitment before making the largest investment you cannot undo.
A qualified waitlist.
A letter of intent.
A pilot.
A preorder.
A deposit.
A purchase agreement.
The form changes. The principle does not:
Commitment before unnecessary capital.
Every conversation, objection, rejection, referral, deposit, and sale teaches you something that building alone cannot.
That is the Cold Start Problem:
“How do you sell what isn’t there yet?”
That is what I will teach you to solve.
THREE DEALS I CLOSED
The buyer changed. The skill didn't.
A customer buys the product. An investor buys equity. Both exchange capital for a future you promise. In every case below, commitment came before the number.
$1M
Sold to a customer, before building
ATA bought the rights to use our products before I'd built anything around it. A signed check for something that didn't fully exist yet. This is where the method began. Not with a network. With a sale.
$48.8M
Sold to customers, before building
China's enterprising international school founders bought into our micro-school programs before the model was fully built. Same motion: earn commitment before investing in full delivery.
$175M
Sold to investor, before building
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 wrote the check while I was CEO of Riiid Labs. The buyer changed from customers to an investor. The underlying skill did not: Sell the future. Build conviction.
Customers & investors are different buyers.Earning commitment is the same skill.
Sell first. Build second. Raise if you choose.
THE POINT
Make fundraising optional.
Not gone.
Optional.
The goal isn't to make fundraising disappear. It's to make it a choice instead of a prerequisite.
When an investor joins after you have proven demand, both sides start from strength.
You bring proof.
They bring capital.
Together, you accelerate something customers have already shown they want.
Capital becomes an accelerant, not a lifeline.
That is the foundation of a real partnership, not a power play.
NO WARM INTROS
The first yes builds the network.
I'm the child of immigrants.
No one was waiting to take my call.
I didn't inherit a customer list or an investor network.
Sell Before You Build isn't a strategy for people who already have access. It's how you create it.
“Those sales only worked because you already knew the right people.”
My network didn't exist when I closed those early deals. The sales didn't come from some network; they created it.
“You can't sell before you build in my sector—biotech, hardware, deep tech.”
Fair. Sometimes the build has to come first. But validation doesn’t have to wait. A pilot, an LOI, a preorder, a design partnership, a deposit, or a distribution agreement can prove commitment before you overbuild. The rule is commitment before unnecessary build.
“Isn't this just fundraising by another name?”
Sometimes fundraising is the sale. Customers, investors, partners, and acquirers are just different pockets for your sales. In every case, you’re asking someone to commit before the outcome is certain.
THE WEEKEND BOOTCAMP
What we will cover
The Cold Start Problem — we start with the exact moment every founder gets stuck: how do you sell something that doesn't exist yet?
The framework — every buying decision comes down to two forces. We break down how to find both in your offer, and use them together.
The toolkit — You'll learn how to turn early interest into real commitment, matched to your buyer, business, and stage.
The case studies — we walk through my $1M, $48.8M, and $175M deals, broken down deal by deal
The live rundowns — founders in the room will bring their own pitches, products, or pre-sales. We'll work it live, in real time, against the framework.
The limits — capital-intensive sectors, hardware, biotech. You'll learn when this applies, when it doesn't, and what to do instead.
WHAT YOU WILL LEAVE WITH
A test you can run immediately.
By the end of the bootcamp, you will know:
What proof of demand looks like for your business
Who should make the first commitment
What you can honestly sell before building
The cheapest useful test you can run next
When to stop applying this framework and do something else
How to reduce your dependence on fundraising
The goal is not more theory.
The goal is something you can use right away on Monday morning.
A LITTLE SKIN IN THE GAME
The bootcamp costs $24.
Not because $24 reflects the value of what I am teaching.
Because free is easy to ignore.
Twenty years in education taught me that people treat a commitment differently when they have some skin in the game.
Free gets saved for later.
Free gets skimmed.
Free gets skipped.
Paid gets put on the calendar.
The price is not meant to be a barrier.
It is a commitment device.
A small reason to reserve the time, show up, do the work, and apply what you learn.
I want this to be accessible to the diligent founders already doing the hard work.
The ones who need a framework, not another major expense.
Each session is limited to 50 founders so we can work through real questions and live case studies.
Once a session is full, it is full.
SEPTEMBER 2026
Reserve your seat.
Let’s get you unstuck.
Four hours.
Real businesses.
Real constraints.
Real objections.
A framework you can use immediately.
$24, paid once. Pick your weekend on the next step.
No subscription. One time payment.