Pejman Nozad’s Post

We’re fully deployed out of MKT1 Capital, fund 1! So what’s next? Over the course of the last 4 years, I’m so proud of what we’ve built at MKT1. We started advising early stage founders & marketers on how to build their marketing team and strategy. From there, we saw a huge gap in the market—most founders don’t know marketing and most investors don’t know marketing. To build a massive company, you have to be able to win on both product AND go-to-market. We built a fund on the thesis that the best product isn’t enough—you need marketing advantages, things innate within the business that will help you grow faster (think network effects, a wedge in, founder/market fit story, etc). We’ve invested in 34 companies who fit this mold and are excited to support them as they grow. A few months back, we started talking about the next chapter for MKT1. The past 4 years have shown us what we love to do—for me, that is investing in and working with the best founders. I’m excited to continue investing in early stage companies as a partner on the investment team at Pear VC. Why Pear? I’ve known Pejman and Mar for many years and have long admired what they’ve built. There are a lot of similarities in the ways Pear supports founders with an in-house talent team that helps founders make their first few hires and an in-house GTM team that helps founders go from zero to 1 on the GTM side. They have built a strong track record and team to support founders in the early stages of building a company and I’m excited to be part of this next chapter of the firm. Thank you! Finally, a huge thank you to the founders who took a bet on us as a new fund- we are so happy to be on this journey with you. And to our LPs who put their faith in us as first time fund managers to pick great companies (and make you money!). What does this mean for MKT1? We will continue supporting our portfolio founders. I will move to Pear to keep investing and Emily will continue writing the MKT1 Newsletter and will advise growth to late stage companies on marketing. 

“The biggest common element between all successful startups YC has funded over the years is 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺.“ Dalton Caldwell , Y Combinator Managing Director A team building software with a founder who has deep technical knowledge is a game-changer in the long road to finding product-market fit. Why? Among other things: Speed of execution/iteration Cost efficiency in the early days No non-technical team will have the speed of execution necessary to iterate and ship fast enough while burning the least amount of resources. 👉 At Hook, we only back teams with strong tech talent on the founding team. #founders #venturecapital #technicalfounder

Great sitting down with some sharp minds in the early stage startup space. We spoke about what the investment landscape looks for founders, how to stand out, and what founders can mentally do to prepare. Thanks to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (Benjamin Howe) and 9point8 Collective (Neal Ghosh) for putting it on! And thanks to the other panelists Christian Williams and Emily Leahy for their insights! Off to TechCrunch!

When Amy Roma, JD, MBA first introduced me to Amelia last summer for a fusion project we were supporting, little did I know what kind of role this nuclear newbie would be playing in the development and scaling of our business. Amelia has been behind the scenes on, well, a bit of everything. And this is just the beginning! Amelia DeSorrento one day you will figure out the difference between fusion and fission, and the world will once again make sense. Thank you for diving into this company and this industry with Solestiss with everything you have, and for leaving your insecurities at the door when you go to work everyday. The truth is, Amelia is already very much a part of the future of the nuclear industry. So what does this tell us? It means that we can and should be seeking workers with a broader array of skill sets than just nuclear power. So much of the future of commercial nuclear power in the U.S. will involve new financing and contracting models, new delivery models, and and will require us to integrate new stakeholders into this mission. Amelia, you are a force, a treat, and the glue. Thank you! #technology #femaleleader #sustainability #nuclear #innovation #management #Entrepreneurship #future

🚀 Exciting Announcement Coming Soon! 🚀 Get ready! In just 5 days, we're unveiling the 12 impact-led tech ventures of our first GoodTech Ventures Cohort! Stay tuned throughout the week as we spotlight each venture, sharing their incredible visions and missions. 🌍✨ We can't wait to embark on this journey with them! 🌱 #GoodTechVentures #ImpactTech #TechForGood #VentureJourney

Startup leaders – Take your culture to the next level by joining this upcoming webinar! 🎉

Founders alert! 🔈 First Round Capital (investors in Square, Notion, Together, Verkada and Looker) just released PMF Method, a free 14-week intensive experience designed to help exceptional B2B founders build epic companies. A really cool opportunity for anyone building a startup in a very early stage (preseed/seed). You can find the link in the comments 🚀

It's that time of the year again! The Sales Q4 Chaos is upon us, and offices worldwide are buzzing with activity as teams gear up for the ultimate game. From startups to enterprise giants, everyone is in on the action. As we enter the grand finale of the fiscal calendar, let the frenzied symphony of keystrokes and mouse clicks crescendo. Ready to share your Q4 saga? Please drop a comment, and let's toast to the warriors of the sales floor! 🥂 #SalesHumor #QuarterCloseChaos #BusinessAnalystHumor #EndOfQuarter #SalesStrategy #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork #CRMAdventures #SalesTargets #NetworkingFun

Day 2 of fundraising in public: Whilst I didn't get locked outside my office like yesterday, of course my demo failed during an investor pitch. Going from selling an enterprise solution to a startup MVP REALLY taught me how to roll with the punches. If only you knew how many times my co-founders were using rhetora on the backend simulating a functioning product... Nevertheless, we persevered and setup a second meeting 💪 5 investor meetings booked: - 4 VCs we never spoke to earlier. - 1 angel Results: - 1 'too early', but referring us to pre-seed investors - 2 VCs progressing to second meeting - 1 VC pitching us to investment committee - 1 angel introducing us to their syndicates This is a little abnormally positive in my experience, usually you get a bit more push back. However it could be because we are so much more prepared for our second round than we were for our first. To prepare for our round, our investors at Techstars suggested I write up a 70 page document outlining every aspect of our business: problem, solution, market, unique insight, competition, traction and team. I spent 1 month purely preparing to fundraise, writing out 10 pages per aspect of the business allowed us to rethink some of our strategies. Now, there are almost no questions which could catch me off guard. Yesterday I mentioned the need to improve on answering our GTM strategy and I spoke to my co-founder Mazen AlMalki who gave me the best advice. Mazen had reminded me that we are a very early stage startup and that the scalability of our GTM strategy isn't something we are going to be right about. I was reminded... Luka, we do rigorous GTM experiments on weekly bases for that very reason. So I'm confident in our team, we'll figure out the best repeatable GTM strategy. and I'll hone down on that answer. I know I promised I'll tell you more about how I was able to book 13 meetings in 2 days but this post is already long enough. Until tomorrow! ps. I'm not a blogger so I didn't take a photo from yesterday, so here is one from our Techstar Demo Day! #fundraiseinpublic