If your pitch deck or investor emails are full of words like "tremendous latent potential," "highly efficacious," or "flywheels of growth" — this episode is for you. In this Backchannel episode, Jason breaks down why flowery language and SAT words are one of the biggest red flags for investors, and why stripping it all back to simple, clear language will almost always get you further. He reads a real (anonymized) founder blurb as an example, breaks down exactly what's wrong with it, and shares a simple fix you can apply to your own pitch today.

Most founders treat cold outreach like a numbers game — blast enough investors and something will stick. It doesn't work that way. In this episode of The Back Channel, Jason breaks down why cold outreach is inherently at a disadvantage, why it should only ever be 5% of your fundraising strategy, and the specific tactics that can actually make a cold email land. From the traveling founder trick to warming up relationships on social before you ever hit send, this is a practical guide to using cold outreach the right way — without wasting your most valuable resource: time.

On this episode of Funded, Alex Bazzell, co-founder of Unrivaled, shares how he went from training NBA players to building one of the most talked-about new sports leagues in the country — and convincing investors to bet on it before a single game was played. He talks about getting passed on by VCs who invested in women's sports, what it felt like to fundraise without a prior exit or operator background, and how being completely not in fundraising mode turned out to be his biggest advantage. Then, mid-season, Bessemer Venture Partners — backers of LinkedIn, Shopify, and Twilio — came knocking unsolicited and delivered a term sheet the very next morning. It's a real look at what happens when deep belief, hard work, and the right timing collide.