Pinned Tweet
Let me tell you a ghost story.
My Ghost first arrived in the year 2000 and would haunt me for the next sixteen years. It was a secret, known only to a handful of my closest loved ones.
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Andy Dunn retweeted
There's a small window in life when your parents are healthy, your children are little, and everyone is happy and together. It feels like it will last forever, it won’t. Cherish every moment of it.
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Andy Dunn retweeted
Wake me up when AI can write like John Steinbeck to Marilyn Monroe 😂
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John Mulaney says SNL paid him $27,000 for three primetime episodes in 2008 while his rent was $800
“I remember Steve Higgins, Shoemaker and Seth Meyers saying, ‘You’re all gonna get $9,000 an episode times three episodes’”
“I still remember walking home going, ‘I’m set. I’m set. I don’t have to do anything ever again. And my rent is $800. I’m good’”
“I went and bought new pants. There was a brand of pants called Bonobos that had just come out and they looked nice. That was their selling point. They go, ‘These pants don’t look like shit’”
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THIS TWEET MAKES 13 YEARS OF MY LIFE WORTH IT. @mulaney I love you. Yours truly, @Bonobos cofounder and former CEO, Andy @dunn
John Mulaney says SNL paid him $27,000 for three primetime episodes in 2008 while his rent was $800
“I remember Steve Higgins, Shoemaker and Seth Meyers saying, ‘You’re all gonna get $9,000 an episode times three episodes’”
“I still remember walking home going, ‘I’m set. I’m set. I don’t have to do anything ever again. And my rent is $800. I’m good’”
“I went and bought new pants. There was a brand of pants called Bonobos that had just come out and they looked nice. That was their selling point. They go, ‘These pants don’t look like shit’”
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I’m buying stand up comedians lunch tomorrow in Chicago. Space is limited. Pass it on. getpie.at/prWvpWQB
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Andy Dunn retweeted
Screw it, we're giving a free blood test to every American.
Today we're launching Death Clock. No one lives forever. The only question is: when?
We trained an AI to predict your date, then move it. One app. Years added to your life.
Real needle, real lab, $0.
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I am looking for someone who can beat @GothamChess over the board this Thursday in Chicago. Is it you?
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The woman in the photo grew up literally down the road, won 4 Utah state championships (1 in this exact stadium), Gatorade Player of the Year twice, National Player of the Year, scored the fastest first goal in USWNT history…
Could probably be worth a mention, but idk.
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can i get a hallelujah from the congregation🙌
pie has a new cofounder. welcome @nadyaokamoto
New from me in @wsjCMO: Pie, the new-ish app from by Bonobos founder Andy Dunn, named Nadya Okamoto as its CMO. It's an interesting hire as Nadya is now known predominantly as a TikTok celeb, but in the healthcare world made her name as the founder of period brand August...
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are you a founding CEO who has raised at least $3m from a top-tier venture fund? and want genuine advice from your peers? if so, this one's for you. will admit the first 30 people today. getpie.app/p/019f1e86-e6bc-7…
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I was featured in the @nytimes this week. They asked me what reasons I've seen VCs pass on founders for.
There's an unspoken language in startup land called "anti-signal" ... these are the subtle red flags that make an investor not want to invest.
I don't agree with all of them, but these are the ones I've seen after talking with hundreds of VCs:
1. You took part in a pitch competition (why are you on a stage competing for $10,000?)
2. Your deck is too polished (signals you are desperate for capital)
3. You're too available (the more available you are, the less valuable your time looks)
4. You reply too slowly (speed is an edge. Slow responses read as low competency.)
5. You have a bad eye for design (in consumer, taste is everything)
6. Your writing is full of AI tells (outsource your voice, and they wonder what else you've outsourced)
7. You don't know your numbers (TAM, CAC, retention, burn. Self-explanatory.)
8. You're "always fundraising" (always fundraising reads desperate, and never building)
9. You say you have no competitors (reads as naive and under-researched)
10. You're raising too late (two months of runway signals desperation and bad planning)
11. You have low energy (early on, the founder is the product. If you can't bring conviction, why should they?)
I don't agree with all of these, but this is what I've seen in the field.
Part of being a venture-backed founder is learning to play the fundraising game and knowing when to challenge the assumptions behind it.
What did I miss?
P.S. the good VCs will know how to look beyond these anti-signals ;)
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The late, great Joel Peterson. @JoelCPeterson May his memory be a blessing. He was a professional father to me. Here is what I learned from him: dunn.substack.com/p/say-yes-…
INSTEAD OF WATCHING AN HOUR OF NETFLIX TONIGHT.
This 1 hour Stanford lecture by Joel Peterson will teach you more about negotiation and getting what you want than most people learn in years.
Bookmark it and give it an hour, no matter what.
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